Khairpur, April 20: Pakistan army troops backed by fighter planes conducted a mock battle with India in the largest military exercise in
21 years, signalling that the old rival remained its biggest security threat.
In a dusty yet impressive display of conventional firepower, Pakistan’s army and air force put on a show on the edge of the Cholistan Desert, less than 100 km (60 miles) from the Indian border on the weekend.
In clouds of exhaust and fine grit sand, Cobra attack helicopters made short work of enemy positions in a simulated exercise while Al Khalid tank brigades flanked to the left, pummeling an incursion coming from the direction of India.
“More punishment!” the announcer exclaimed as ordinance from tanks, artillery and fighter jets pounded simulated enemy positions. The crowd of parliamentarians, generals and visiting military attaches clapped politely in approval.
Later, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in an address to the visitors, praised the military and said the integrity and security of Pakistan “are in safe hands”.
Pakistan is engaged in “Azm-e-Nau 3” (New Resolve 3), its largest wargames in 21 years. More than 50,000 troops are involved in the two-month long exercise that started in the deserts of southern Pakistan and move now to the river plains of Punjab. It is both a warning and a show of confidence to India and the rest of the world.
The demonstration of tank brigades and anti-aircraft missiles is not only a signal of military might, but also one that Pakistan won’t be told what to do by outside powers, analysts said.
“I think to the world this is the signal,” Moeed Yusuf, South Asia advisor for the Washington-based US Institute of Peace, told Reuters. “That, ‘Our threat perception comes from us. Once we decide that threat perception, we’re willing to work with you, but within that framework if you try to push us out of that, and say forget about India, too bad. It’s not going to happen’.”
“NO LONGER CAPABLE OF THREATENING INDIA”
Pakistan has a half-million strong army, with the bulk of its forces on its eastern border with India. It has about 150,000 troops engaged in the fight with the Taliban on the western border, said army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.
Its official military budget is about $4 billion, although much military spending isn’t reported. India’s military budget, however, is close to $32 billion and is one of the world’s major arms buyers. Most analysts, however, say India is in a race with China — with which it fought a war in 1962 and still has outstanding territorial disputes — to modernise.
“India is now focusing increasingly on the northern front with China as the long-term military threat,” said Gurmeet Kanwal, a retired Indian brigadier general who now runs the Centre for Land War Studies in Delhi. “Pakistan is down and almost out and no longer capable of threatening India militarily. It is only capable of continuing to wage a proxy war through mercenary jihadis.”
—-Agencies