New Delhi: Analysing the factors that has brought the Indo-Pak ties to a new low, General Deepak Kapoor (retd), 23rd Chief of Army Staff, on Thursday said the first and foremost which comes to one’s mind is the lack of trust, adding that Pakistan has proved time and again that it cannot be trusted.
“Starting with 1948, 1965, 1971, the Kargil War, the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, inciting of communal trouble in different parts of the country at different points and times since independence. Broken promises, especially in regard to the investigations, which had been promised by the Pakistan into both Mumbai and Pathankot attacks. Going back on understandings at Bangkok, Offa, Lahore, the list is endless, and that is why that lack of trust is going to persist,” he elaborated.
Delivering the inaugural lecture on the theme ‘Pakistan-Deep State: Fountainhead of Terror and Conflict’ organised by Centre for Land Warfare Studies at Manekshaw Centre here, Gen. Kapoor said, “Second very important aspect is the role of the army, the Pakistani Army, as we all are aware and we all don’t need to go in details, has been directly or indirectly ruling Pakistan. But, what is of our interest is that, it has been dictating the foreign policy of Pakistan, especially when it concerns to India in all its aspects. So, whether it has been on driving seat or in the back seat, it has always been the Pakistan.”
“There is no denying that Indo-Pak relations is one of the evergreen topics in all think tanks and it is going to remain so because it affects both our internal and external environment; and the effect it has, therefore, dictates to us the internal and external security policies of the country,” he added.
“Indo-Pak relations have followed a meandering curve”, he observed, “numbers of highs and a much larger numbers of lows, like the current low that we are going through, and it’s called historic load for the simple reason that the reference to Balochistan by the Prime Minister on the 15th of August, in addition to what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir has brought it to a level where even we don’t know who to talk to in Pakistan.”
“You just cannot help, but indulge in Pakistan Bashing,” he added.
The seminar was organised to focus on the important aspects that require discussion, analysis and understanding such as Pakistan’s power structure, it’s anti-India mindset, its selective approach and actions against terror organisations, Pakistan military’s role, support and direction of terror against India and Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military modernisation and development of its nuclear and conventional deterrence to support the proxy terror war in Jammu and Kashmir.
The importance of the Pak-China and the Pak-US dynamics within the regional security calculus was also discussed by eminent personalities. (ANI)