With its domestic security challenges multiplying, the army is continuously over-extending itself. There are Chinese concerns to mind too. Surely something has got to give

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd)

On March 11, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked the Jaffar Express, holding over 450 passengers hostage and demanding the release of some Baloch political prisoners. The hijackers set a 48-hour ultimatum, to which the Pakistan Army responded kinetically. After an intense firefight, all militants were killed; but 21 hostages and security officials also died. Or so we were made to believe.

It was one of those militant incidents where information and disinformation compete with each other for eyeballs. I was less concerned about the details of the execution of the hijacking and the counter-action, because that will take time to emerge. Till today, no one can say with any degree of certainty what the final outcome and sequence of events were. A strong disinformation campaign was waged from the portals of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations in an attempt to ensure that the truth remained grey and the Pakistan Army did not lose face.

However, the incident has only succeeded in drawing international attention towards the Balochistan issue where a struggle for justice has been going on for long, but relatively less noticed by the international community.  The Baloch issue has been festering since 1948. It is centred on the grievances of the ethnic Baloch people over their political marginalisation, lack of autonomy, and the exploitation of natural resources in the province by Punjabi-dominated central government. These tensions have fuelled a decades-long separatist insurgency, with groups like the BLA demanding independence or greater self-rule, often clashing with the Pak Army. The region’s strategic importance, especially due to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Gwadar Port, has helped intensify this conflict.

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Pakistan is in the throes of a ‘near existential’ crisis. Its current economic situation is dire with high inflation, massive debt, low forex reserves, currency devaluation, and sluggish economic growth (estimated at 3 percent). An IMF bailout has kept default at bay, but structural issues—like a narrow tax base, energy crisis and political instability—persist. The persistent economic gloom is matched by the internal and border security situations.

The western flank through which Pakistan assumed its strategic depth, is now aflame. The alignment of the Durand Line is being questioned by Afghanistan through various attempts at enforcing its will, leading to border clashes. The Tehreek–e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has returned with vengeance without any pretensions of being sponsored as a proxy of the Afghan Taliban. There is no respite from the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba and Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK), all anti-Shia groups.

In 2014, after the TTP terror attack on a Pakistan Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, in which 132 children were killed, the army undertook a murderous kinetic counter-terrorist campaign under Operation Zarb-e-Azb for almost four years. This was in conjunction with Operation Radd-ul-Fassad, a nationwide intelligence-based operation with a focus on hunting residual terrorists, sleeper cells and urban militancy across all provinces. The combined effect of the pandemic and the mixture of high-density operations, involving almost a third of Pakistan’s active infantry formations, did somewhat stabilise the situation. However, post the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan’s breakdown of ties with Afghan Taliban and the activation of the ISK forced the ISI’s attention in different directions. The simultaneous attempt to reinvigorate terror in India’s Jammu added to the weight of responsibility on the ISI and the earmarked counter-terror forces, allowing windows of opportunity to appear for various elements. The BLA has revelled in that let-up while the TTP continues its activities with impunity.

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One would have expected a strong kinetic response in the aftermath of train hijacking, but General Asim Munir has desisted from that. Undoubtedly, that would have risked further alienation of the Baloch people, enhancing the insurgency’s appeal. Yet, the other option, the untried hearts-and-minds approach, is not something that can work in the army’s favour without a political callout. Pakistan’s security-based response has invariably been kinetic, all guns blazing with no remorse for the populace. The principle of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism involving the isolation of the perpetrators has rarely been followed. During Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, a model of neutralising networks was attempted with some success, but the enormity of sub-conventional violence in Pakistan is simply overwhelming.

There are Chinese concerns too. The BLA attack highlights vulnerabilities along the key CPEC routes and railway infrastructure. China may perceive these threats as risking investment returns and project viability, especially in Gwadar and surrounding areas. It will likely pressure Pakistan to expand the protection of CPEC assets, possibly even pushing for private Chinese security contractors or a larger role for the Chinese military under the guise of economic security—a highly sensitive issue for Pakistan. China is not going to abandon the CPEC for want of security. It will do all it takes to make it secure, and that includes a strong advisory to Pakistan to alter the approach. Is this one of the reasons that we have not had an immediate knee-jerk response from the Pakistan Army? 

In response to this incident, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a National Security Committee meeting, emphasising the need for national unity and a strategic approach to combat militancy. Army Chief General Asim Munir echoed this sentiment, underscoring the military’s determination to dismantle terrorist networks. The fallout of the Jaffar Express attack could spark internal friction within the Pakistan Army, putting General  Munir in a tight spot between delivering security, maintaining military cohesion, and appeasing China.

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There may be rising concerns in the Pakistan Army itself on the manner in which national security is being addressed. Between attempting to nurture ‘friendly terrorists’ to fight a sponsored proxy war in J&K, and countering the nasty ones who target even army families, the force has a challenge on its hands.

In trying to prevent secession by clamping down on civil unrest in Balochistan, while keeping an eye on internal dissension and preventing dilution of its stranglehold over national governance and politics, the Pakistan Army is continuously over-extending itself. Perhaps I am doing it an uncalled-for favour; showing it a mirror unto itself. Armies which extend themselves so thin invariably end in the hara-kiri posture.

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Former Commander, Srinagar-based 15 Corps; Chancellor, Central University of Kashmir

(Views are personal)

(atahasnain@gmail.com)

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Opinions

The force that can bind us

During a gathering of Sanskrit pandits on the banks of the Kaveri to discuss the nature and attributes of Brahman, a Hindu sage invited a Muslim man in the audience to share his perception of God. The man stood and spoke, his words stirring deep emotion in the crowd and reminding all that God is eternal love that transcends petty human conflicts and quarrels

Kaveri river Wikimedia Commons

Renuka Narayanan

Updated on: 

05 May 2025, 12:00 am

4 min read

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This week I would like to recall instances I have observed or heard of about how love and peace can be expressed through cultural gestures—love for God, for Nature, for each other as Earth’s children. One April, I got to witness the Brahmotsavam or 10-day annual festival of the grand temple in Mylapore, an ancient inland pocket of Chennai, in a heritage walk led by Carnatic historian Sriram V Mylapore is an anglicised form of Mayurapuram, meaning ‘the place of peacocks’.

Mylapore is built around the temple to Shiva-Parvati where they are worshipped as Kapalishwarar and Karpagambal. I’m told that Karpagambal refers to the celestial tree karpagam. Parvati is also known as ‘Goddess of the wish-yielding tree’ that grants everything sincerely asked for. There was a Kartikeya temple, it seems, on the present site.

The original Shiva-Parvati temple was by the ocean, but was destroyed in the early colonial period. It shifted to its present location thereafter, which, joked Sriram V, amounts to the parents moving into the son’s house. The link with the old site is maintained even now, through an annual ritual by the sea.

An old Nawab of Arcot donated land to the present Kapalishwarar temple to build its temple tank. The sthala vriksham or sacred tree of the Kapalishwarar temple is the punnai, also known as nagchampa in Sanskrit, and ‘Alexandrian laurel’. It is believed to be one of the oldest trees in Chennai. Legend says that Karpagambal worshipped Shiva under a punnai tree. In history, the punnai was used by ancient Chola ship-builders to make ships for their blue-water navy and is still used for boat-building.

I was greatly struck by reading in a book on sacred trees that in India, “trees are considered like human beings, as if blessed with a soul and a heart that weeps with grief and laughs with joy. It is believed they have feelings and aspirations like mankind.” Just so, Parvati, the mother goddess, embodies unconditional love in Indian tradition, and I recalled a story about one of her famous devotees, the Kanchi Mahaswami, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati (1894–1994).

He often toured the country meeting people from all walks of life. On one such occasion, sometime in the 1960s, he was camped by the river Kaveri. An old, blind Muslim gentleman of the region sent word that he wished to meet the sage, who sent word back inviting him to the evening sadas or gathering. When the old gentleman arrived, devotees on duty escorted him to the sage and seated him close by.

A debate was going on between invited Sanskrit pandits on the nature and attributes of Brahman, the Supersoul or God. The discussion was highly learned and intense, since each participant was a tarka simham or ‘lion of debate’.

The sage and the old gentleman listened with great interest to fascinating theories and beautiful quotations. The Muslim gentleman appeared to follow everything as though he too was well-versed in Sanskrit. This attracted many curious glances from the gathering. But the sage appeared impervious to their glances and whispers.

When the scholars were done, the sage invited the old gentleman to speak about God according to the view of his religion. The old gentleman demurred. “I’m afraid to speak, I’m not usually asked to give my views,” he said. But the sage insisted. “I know that you know Sanskrit and followed every point made. Now do tell them about God as you were taught,” he invited cordially.

The old gentleman could not say no to the sage. He stood up and said, “My religion does not ascribe a form to God. But it speaks of God’s love. Today I have sensed that love, anbey swarupam (the embodiment of love),” and pointed to the sage. The pandits and onlookers found themselves in tears. Such mutual love and respect are also ‘us’ if we choose to co-exist pleasantly.

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As to which, Sriram V also told us of an unusual foreign contribution to the Mylapore Brahmotsavam. We had gathered at 6 am at Kapalishwarar’s door to see the day’s magnificent, orderly Adhikara Nandi procession. I cannot properly describe the joy of witnessing that beautiful living tradition, or the mannerly, gentle crowd, or the good energy of local residents who drew kolams and did harati in welcome along the route, or the melodious singing of Thevaram, the ancient Shaiva litanies, inside the temple. A family that lived by the temple tank was known to have performed annadanam or ‘food seva’ for pilgrims during Brahmotsavam since the mid-19th century.

But why were temple ropes and pandal poles along the procession’s route wrapped in red and white cloth, the colours of the Union Jack? Sriram V told us that for centuries, the temple chariot used to be pulled by ‘left’ and ‘right’ groups during Brahmotsavam. The left group wrapped its ropes in white cloth and the right group used cloth of many colours. However, they quarrelled so violently in the 19th century that the East India Company, which ruled the land then, had to intervene. Colours from the Union Jack were accepted for good, and Kapalishwarar’s chariot did the rounds under British rule with the flag of St George and the dragon flying above in protection. The choice of red and white cloths remains.

Surely the moral, if any, of this extraordinary story is that every so-called spiritual conflict has a practical solution. After all, the enigmatic smiles of the deities are meant to be a reminder that eternal God transcends petty human conflicts and quarrels.

Renuka Narayanan

Senior journalist

(Views are personal)