Karachi didn’t happen, Kashmir does: Army Chief

Jammu, Nov 3: Indian Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi spoke of certain home truths in his town, Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, when he recalled how the armed forces were wonderstruck when they heard that Pakistan’s port city Karachi had been attacked.

“We were wondering who attacked and from where it had emanated,” he said.

It is very rare for such narratives to be exposed.

Those who aired these exaggerated versions of the four-day May 7-10 Indo-Pak War did not realise that they were causing a huge embarrassment to the very forces they were trying to give credit for what had not happened.

Had that not been so, the Army Chief would not have touched this subject.

Gen Dwivedi made these remarks while outlining the challenge of meeting the unpredictability of challenges coming their way.

He meant to say that while they were engaged in strategising to deal with old challenges, the newer visit in a rapid speed.

This creates a sort of uncertainty.

The Army Chief was candid and prescient.

The whole speech was centred on the astounding success of ‘Operation Sindoor’, which is now a byword for all-time high-class anti-terrorism operation across the border from where the plot of killing tourists in Pahalgam was thought of and executed.

The “Karachi episode” on the news channels and a few other fabrications raised serious questions about the war of narratives.

Certain things are exaggerated to demoralise the enemy, but all these things cannot be anticipated in imagination.

It is clear that when the Army Chief spoke of the old challenges being superseded by the new and unpredictable ones, about which even US President Donald Trump doesn’t know, he was talking not about the emerging threats and conflicts at the global level, but there are plenty of them within the country.

India is faced with a two-front situation – one with Pakistan and the other with China.

Kashmir sits among the major challenges with external and internal dimensions.

This is an old challenge that is also figured in the new ones.

This is due to the changing dynamics of the situation.

The Pahalgam attack of April 22 was the trigger for ‘Operation Sindoor’.

The military action, under this operation, has set new standards in counter-terrorism.

The world has come to acknowledge it as the best counter-terrorism operation against cross-border terrorism.

It is time for Gen Dwivedi to place Pahalgam, ‘Operation Sindoor’, and new challenges with extraordinary focus on the security situation of Kashmir, where multiple factors are playing out.

Kashmir and the Army cannot be separated from each other.

The Indian Army’s tryst with Kashmir that began in 1947 continues to this day.

Its role has changed with the changing times and newer challenges.

The benchmarks of Kashmir security challenges have transformed after Pahalgam and ‘Operation Sindoor’ from April 22 to May 10, 2025.

These are not the same as before the tragic incident of Baisaran, Pahalgam.

Since 1990, reckoned as the zero-calendar year of militancy in the Valley, Pahalgam was unpredictable and a big shock and surprise.

The terror attack that shook the entire nation and halted Kashmir’s dreams of being a safe tourist destination was unprecedented.

The Army will be doing a great service to its own skills and image by undertaking a serious and result-oriented study of the terror attack, why it happened, and how it played out.

True, in the common belief, Pakistan has been taught a lesson, but is that an end in itself as far as the old and the new challenges converge on the canvas?

In the early 1990s, when terror attacks were a daily routine, the people whose area would come under Cordon and Search Operations (CASO), also known as “crackdown”, would prefer the Army to search their homes.

There was a high-class discipline and professional approach, leaving the residents happy – there was no ransacking, no rude language, and deep respect for women.

That was the time when the Army and paramilitary forces were empowered with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in July 1990.

Gen Dwivedi knows Jammu and Kashmir like the back of his hand.

He can guide the new course in security strategies, in which the people’s concerns are addressed.

Hard approach against men with guns and their backers has always been supported by the people.

It necessitates that “Karachi-type narratives” are neither aired nor believed.

Calling out “Karachi narrators” should lay the foundation for realistic narration on Kashmir.

Such utterances tend to block both rear views as well as the road ahead.