Recently launched book by Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal covers almost all the aspects of the current India-Pakistan tension from the day when Indian Forces claimed carrying out so-called surgical strikes on Pakistani soil till the first week of April 2019. After failing at military chessboard, Modi government once again opted Hybrid warfare tactics to obstruct developmental projects and destabilize internal security. The RAW and its allies sponsored terrorist strikes in Balochistan.
The book includes the comprehensive discussion on the philosophical constructs of the Indian strategic thinking and the evolution of India’s military doctrine; deliberation on Phantom Surgical Strike on September 29, 2016, and its political use in Indian polity including Pakistan response; the factors which encourage the Modi government to celebrate surgical strike day during the last week of September 2018 and detailed discussion the determinants of surgical strike stratagem; French Rafale scandal; Pulwama incident on February 28, Indian airforce ingress at Balokat on February 26, and dogfight between IAF and PAF on April 27.
It also deliberates on the subsequent developments after PAF shooting down of two fighter jets, India’s deployment of nuclear-capable delivery vehicles. It also contains analysis on the shift in nuclear postures of India and Pakistan. It also investigates the legality of surgical strike use with the scope of United Nations Charter and International Law. The book is an attempt to answer following questions: did India conduct ‘surgical strike’ in September 2016? Why had it reemerged in September 2018 and why has it formally integrated into the JDIAF-2017?
What were the origins of ‘surgical strike stratagem,’ and to what aspects of it had referred to in the past and how it would influence India and Pakistan strategic competition? How the ‘Surgical Strike Stratagem’ affects the peace process between Islamabad and New Delhi? How long can New Delhi use this phantom ‘surgical strike’ as a viable tactical option and how it affects deterrence stability between the nuclear-armed belligerent neighbors? What implications it holds for Pakistan and lastly, how Islamabad has dealt with this issue? Is Pakistan’s armed force responses exposed the Indian ruling elite’s tall, unsubstantiated, and bombastic claims about superiority?
Dr. Jaspal conceived this idea after the first sham surgical strike of India in 2016. India’s mantra of surgical strikes is very perilous since a surgical strike between two unclear armed states is an unprecedented rather never occurred situation. It bears catastrophic impinging for the region. He draws on the neutral literature and his own insight on the said matter to offer a fresh perspective which is not based on rhetoric but legal and international underpinnings. He terms India’s farcical surgical strikes as phantom. He further reiterates that Modi government amidst domestic imperatives and growing turmoil on Kashmir is trying to distract the attention of the international community.
The plot, diction and etymology of the book reflects author’s untiring efforts as well as an objective research account of an issue which has been much propagated by Indian government and researchers alike. The book is a symbol of evolving strategic thought on the matters of regional security and ramification of standoff between two nuclear arch rivals. Actually India continues to plan the facade of fake strikes to divert the attention of the world community from Kashmir issue and atrocities being committed by its troops on innocent Kashmiris. The importance of research and education is must for a vibrant and progressive society.
According to Chairperson SASSI Dr. Maria Sultan various facets of regional security and Indian hegemonic postures and Indian reliance on fake terrorists attack to divert the attention of the world away from Kashmir issue and also for vested political interests have been exposed in the book.
According to former defence minister retired Lt-Gen Naeem Khalid Lodhi the book critically scrutinises the operability of Surgical Strike Stratagem particularly in the context of Pulwama incident and examines the legal status of India’s so-called surgical strike operation under international law. He suspects that the intensity of hybrid war imposed on Pakistan could be increased and that there could be more actions like the so-called ‘surgical strikes’, if Modi was to get another term.
Author Dr Jaspal fears that the anti-Pakistan rhetoric was not just about elections. He is worried as to where Modi’s increasingly irrational behaviour would lead the two countries to and the region at large. The most troublesome part of the post-Pulwama military stand-off was that India mobilised its nuclear delivery vehicles and Modi turned up the nuclear rhetoric, but not only Western media and intellectuals remained silent on it, the local media too did not pick up this nuclear dimension of the conflict.