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“In 1965, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared a thousand-year war against India when he addressed the United Nations Security Council,” said the CDS while addressing a gathering at Pune University.
Observing that terrorism has no defined logic and hence cannot be a rational act of warfare, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said Pakistan’s policy of not having
good relations with India is based on its decision to “bleed India by a thousand cuts”.
“In 1965, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared a thousand-year war against India when he addressed the United Nations Security Council,” said the CDS while addressing a gathering at Pune University.
“Is terrorism a rational act of warfare? I don’t think that’s because terrorism has no defined logic. As far as our adversary is concerned, it has taken the decision to bleed India by a
thousand cuts,” he said.
Holding Pakistan General Asim Munir responsible for initiating the recent conflict, the CDS pointed towards Munir’s speech wherein he spoke against Hindus and India.
“Venom was spewed by General Asim Munir against India and Hindus in a speech weeks before what happened in Pahalgam,” General Chauhan said, reiterating India’s stance on terror that water
and blood cannot flow together.
“We have raised the bar as we have connected terror to war,” he observed while mentioning India’s resolve that any terror attack would now onwards be considered as an act of war.
Operation Sindoor, the Indian official said, created history as far as air warfare is concerned.
“Successful operations were carried out against an adversary. If you are able to carry out relentless operations deep inside with precision and offensive intent. It was a big achievement and
we were able to penetrate those air defence networks,” he observed.
The CDA also reiterated India’s stance concerning Operation Sindoor, saying it is not over as yet.
“It continues. It’s a temporary cessation of hostilities,” he said, underlining the “need to keep our guard up”.
“From our side, we didn’t want to get into a long-drawn conflict. We’ve seen our experience in Operation Prakaram. We were there for almost nine months. It involves a lot of expenditure,
disrupts everything. We had seen this to some extent after Balakot, there was a deployment which we had mobilized.
In this particular case, what happened was that before this mobilization could be completed, the operations were halted, the officer said.
“…As far as the Pakistani side is concerned, I can make two guesses. One, that they were losing things faster at a very long distance, and they thought that if this continued for some more
time, they were likely to lose more, and hence they picked up the telephone,” General Chauhan said.
“This was the kind of first no contact warfare which we fought, except for what was happening on the Line of Control. It was a mix of kinetic and non-kinetic operations,” he explained
India’s military operation further.
The CDS also said Pakistan was informed after India hit terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir it would strike back with more force in case it retaliated.
“We had informed Pakistan on the day we launched the surgical strikes on the 7th of May. When there was rhetoric from the Pakistani side, we also said that in case Pakistan hits us, hits the
military establishments, we are going to hit them back, hit them harder,” he said.
“On the 10th of May, at about 1 am, their (Pakistan) aim was to get India to its knees in 48 hours. Multiple attacks were launched,” he said, adding that they escalated the conflict.
“Operations which they thought would continue for 48 hours, folded up in about 8 hours and then they picked up the telephone and said they wanted to talk,” the CDS said.
India carried out precision strikes on nine terror camps in Pakistan and on May 7 under the codename Operation Sindoor.
It was in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Escalating it, Pakistan launched drones and missiles on Indian border cities.