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Business Recorder
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Security forces kill 3 more Indian-sponsored terrorists in Zhob: ISPR
The security forces killed three more Indian-sponsored terrorists in Zhob district along Pakistan-Afghanistan Border, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Tuesday. The press release said that on night of August 10 and August 11, a deliberate sanitisation operation was conducted in surrounding areas of Sambaza, Zhob along Pakistan-Afghanistan Border. The military's media wing said weapons, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the khawarij. Since the anti infiltration operation, 50 terrorists have been killed. 'The security forces remain committed to secure the nation's frontiers and thwart attempts at sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Pakistan,' the ISPR said. In May, DG ISPR Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry accused the 'Afghan gentry' of giving refuge to terrorists in lieu of money received from the Indian government. Speaking to over 2,500 students from different universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), who held a special sitting with him, he urged Afghanistan not to play into the hands of India.
India Today
20 hours ago
- Politics
- India Today
Mullah Marshal Munir and his maniacal mad-dogging
The maniacal mad-dogging of Pak's self-appointed Field Marshal Asim Munir, threatening a nuclear holocaust that will destroy half the world, isn't the first time he has said something like this. Nor is it the first time he has indulged in nuclear blackmail standing on American soil. During his last visit to the US, when he was wined and dined by a man who craves a Nobel Peace Prize and is ready to go to any length to get one, even if he had to hold a gun to the Nobel Committee's head, Munir said pretty much the same things to pretty much the same audience - Pakistani minders in the Pakistan Army are probably aware of the kind of lunatic talk that their boss indulges in and are therefore careful to ensure that no one can record the ravings and ranting of the world's first openly jihadist general with a finger on the nuclear Americans, of course, closely monitor characters like Munir and are aware of his craziness. But invitees to these closed-door events also talk and disclose the rants of an unhinged mind who imagines he is in the league of legendary Muslim generals like Salahuddin and Khaled. Munir is cocksure that not only is Pakistan on the verge of receiving Allah's divine help to make it the centre of the world, but also that he has Allah's mandate to lead Pakistan to its manifest destiny. That Allah has for now given the Kashkol (begging bowl), which Munir and his sidekick, Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, take with him wherever they go, is a minor inconvenience to the larger narrative being peddled by the de facto generalissimo and the coterie of generals surrounding him. Munir's rants - amongst other things, threatening to bomb any dam built on the Indus River System, claiming that Pakistan had signaled it will target India's largest petroleum refinery owned by the Reliance group, warning that next time Pakistan will lob missiles targeting Eastern India and then move to the West (probably to demonstrate the strike capability of Pakistani missiles), - are actually a full-toss he has bowled for India to hit out of the park in the propaganda wars underway between the two the rest of the world, he comes out as a deranged character using Islamist/jihadist imagery to drive home his arguments to audiences who are either enamored of him or too diffident to question him and his worldview. But his trash talk is probably popular with Pakistanis, who have convinced themselves of a non-existent 'victory'. Even so, the propaganda wing of the Pakistan Army - Inter-Services Public Relations - has glossed over the threats of a nuclear armageddon as part of the damage control one in India should be surprised that a fanatic Islamist like Asim Munir is leading the Pakistan Army. For years, strategic analysts and Pakistan watchers have been anticipating precisely these kinds of unhinged characters in the Pakistan Army. He is the second army chief of what is called the 'Zia bharti' (officers recruited after the Islamisation of the Pakistan Army by the former dictator Ziaul Haque).advertisementThe first was Munir's predecessor, Qamar Javed Bajwa. But at the time Bajwa was commissioned in 1980, the ethos of the old British Indian Army had still not been completely erased in the Pakistan Army. Munir was commissioned in 1986 when the Zia-inspired Islamization of the armed forces had been firmly implanted in the training academies. Add to this Munir's own family background - refugee family from Jalandhar, father, a lowly school teacher who doubled as an imam in a masjid and almost certainly a family of converts that sought to enhance their social status by claiming to be Syeds. Clearly, people like him and others of his ilk are deeply steeped in Islamist/jihadist thinking, which is reflected in his constant reference to Quran and other Islamic texts to validate his stance. Just like Donald Trump is no longer an aberration in American politics, Munir too is the beginning of the jihadist generals in Pakistan army.A fact often forgotten about Munir is that he was the ISI chief when the 2019 suicide attack in Pulwama happened. An attack like that could not have been launched by a Pakistani terrorist group like Jaish-e-Mohammad without a nod from the ISI. Similarly, the Pahalgam massacre - Hindu tourists targeted deliberately - had to have the go-ahead from the top brass of the Pakistan Army and other words, Munir's antics have brought India and Pakistan close to war twice already, and from his public utterances it is almost a certainty that there will be a third round, sooner rather than later. That he is doubling down on support for jihadist terrorists in Kashmir and the civilian regime has neither the legitimacy nor the credibility and certainly no political standing to block him running amok means that India needs to be ready to pre-empt any adventurism of Munir and his military/militant the only time that Munir hovered close to reality was when he metaphorically compared India to a shiny new Mercedes and Pakistan to a dump truck filled with gravel. In his jihadist brain, when such a truck collides with the Mercedes, the loss is that of the Mercedes because the dump truck is, well, a dump anyway. This is quite in line with the general thinking among Pakistani generals who have enriched themselves and settled their children in fancy Western countries while impoverishing their own generals, analysts, and journalists never tire of boasting that Pakistan has nothing and therefore has nothing to lose, unlike India, which has made great strides and has a lot more to lose in a conflict. This kind of thinking is pervasive in a culture that yearns to bring the house of the enemy down, even if it means coming instead of listening to Pakistan's apologists and advocates in India who latch on to meaningless anecdotes to present the Pakistanis as normal people, those charged with framing India's defence and security policies will understand the nature of the beast India is dealing with in like Asim Munir and his cohort might have the trappings and spit and polish of the old British Indian Army, but fundamentally, they are part of an army that is jihadist in its mindset and believes itself to be a successor of the marauding and murderous armies that invaded India from Central Asia, Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan and Turkey. These people are informing us of their plans. Indian defence planners can either live in denial or work double time to visit ruination on India's implacable enemy.(Sushant Sareen is a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation)- Ends(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Tune InMust Watch
The Star
a day ago
- Politics
- The Star
India decries 'sabre rattling' after Pakistan army chief's reported nuclear remarks
Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Asim Munir holds a microphone during his visit at the Tilla Field Firing Ranges (TFFR) in Mangla, Pakistan May 1, 2025. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India on Monday accused its neighbour Pakistan of "sabre rattling" and "irresponsibility" after media reports on remarks about nuclear threats in South Asia made by Pakistan's army chief while on a visit to the U.S. Indian media reports, citing sources, quoted Pakistan's Field Marshal Asim Munir as saying: "We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us". Pakistan's military and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Munir's comments. An excerpt of his speech shared by Pakistani security officials did not include the "nuclear nation" remarks. Munir reportedly made the remarks at a black-tie dinner hosted by a Pakistani-origin businessman in Florida on Saturday, where he spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people. Reuters could not independently verify the remarks. India and Pakistan both possess nuclear weapons and fought their deadliest battle in decades in May, sparked by an attack on tourists the previous month in Indian Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of India's foreign ministry, said: "Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade," adding: "The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks." He said it was also regrettable that the reported remarks should have been made while in a friendly third country. In a version of the speech shared by Pakistani security officials, Munir said: "The (Indian) aggression has brought the region to the brink of a dangerously escalating war, where a bilateral conflict due to any miscalculation will be a grave mistake." Munir was on a visit to the U.S. to attend a farewell event for General Michael Kurilla, the 15th commander of the United States Central Command. India previously lodged a private diplomatic protest with Washington when President Donald Trump hosted Munir for a lunch at the White House in June. Analysts have said that India's disagreement with Washington over the May 10 ceasefire with Pakistan, and Trump's renewed engagement with Islamabad, have contributed to a recent setback in ties between India and the U.S. under the Trump administration. (Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
‘Won't give in to nuclear blackmail': India on Pak army chief Asim Munir's threats
NEW DELHI: Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir's fresh nuclear threats against India reinforce doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a country where the 'military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups', the external affairs ministry said on Monday while reiterating that New Delhi won't give in to nuclear blackmail. In this picture taken on May 21, 2025 and released by Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir (AFP) External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said it was 'regrettable' that Munir made the remarks while in a friendly country such as the US, and contended that 'nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade.' Munir, elevated to the rank of field marshal after four days of hostilities with India in May, reportedly said at a meeting with the Pakistani diaspora in Florida that Pakistan could use its nuclear weapons to take down India and 'half the world' in the event of an existential threat in any future conflict with India. He reportedly said Pakistan can use its missiles to destroy any dams built by India on cross-border rivers after the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. 'The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforce the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,' Jaiswal said in a statement. 'It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country,' Jaiswal said, 'India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail. We will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard our national security.' People familiar with the matter said Munir's remarks demonstrated once again Pakistan's irresponsible approach towards its nuclear arsenal and its role as a driver of nuclear instability in South Asia. Munir's remarks were in line with the nuclear blackmail resorted to by Pakistan for several decades, and this is one of the reasons why the country is widely considered an irresponsible nuclear-armed state, they said on condition of anonymity. The risk of Pakistan's nuclear materials or expertise falling into the hands of non-state actors such as terror groups is a reason why the international community 'does not trust nuclear weapons in the hands of an institution like the Pakistani military, which is accountable to no one', one of the people cited above said. Noting that Munir had made the remarks at an event held on American oil, the people questioned whether the US administration and the international community, with its repeated emphasis on containing nuclear conflict, will hold Pakistan to account for such provocative statements. Munir's remarks, reportedly made at a dinner hosted at Tampa in Florida by a Pakistani businessman, were reported by ThePrint. Munir visited the US for the second time since June, when he was hosted at the White House by President Donald Trump, to attend a ceremony marking the change in leadership of the US Central Command, based in Florida. The Pakistani military's media arm acknowledged Munir's participation in an interactive session with the Pakistani diaspora in Florida but provided few details. Experts said Munir's reported remarks were in line with his stance on India and his religious conservatism. The people said Munir's remarks were also in line with Pakistan's history of rhetorical nuclear brinkmanship while simultaneously claiming the mantle of a 'responsible' nuclear actor. The central driver of nuclear instability in South Asia is Pakistan's military establishment holding the nuclear button, the people said. 'Pakistan's military-controlled democracy is a sham and is clearly a facade, with the military controlling key levers of power. The favourable international reception may embolden the Pakistani military brass, and the world community overlooking Pakistan's hand in cross-border terrorism raises concerns about a silent coup and potential direct rule by the army chief,' the person cited above said. The people also noted that periods of US support for Pakistan's military are followed by overtly aggressive postures by the generals in Rawalpindi. The Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, during which attackers identified and shot dead 25 men on the basis of their faith, was carried out less than a week after Munir, during a speech to the Pakistani diaspora in Islamabad, described Jammu and Kashmir as Pakistan's 'jugular vein' and noted that Hindus and Muslims cannot live together, the people pointed out. They also questioned whether Munir's latest remarks signalled another impending attack. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 to target terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan to retaliate for the Pahalgam terror attack. This triggered four days of hostilities, during which the two sides used drones, missiles and other long-range weapons. The conflict ended when the two countries reached an understanding on May 10 to end military actions. However, the Indian government has maintained that Operation Sindoor has not ended.
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Paracha releases patriotic song 'Ae Mere Watan'
The song narrates the glorious tale of the nation's bravery and the sacrifices of its martyrs. photo: file Singer Hussnain Ali Paracha has released a new patriotic song 'Ae Mere Watan' in connection with Independence Day. The song highlights the timeless tale of the nation's bravery and the sacrifices of the martyrs. According to a Radio Pakistan report, the song vividly reflects the greatness of Pakistan and the unity of its people. In May, Paracha wrote and performed in 'Yalghar Hai' — a victory anthem released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), to pay tribute to the bravery, unity, and resilience of the country's armed forces as they stand tall to protect the motherland. The anthem carried a strong message of patriotism, following the four-day military clashes between Pakistan and India. One can experience the powerful spirit and unwavering courage of Pakistan through this stirring anthem by the ISPR.
