The Kargil admission

PAKISTAN army chief Gen Syed Asim Munir has uttered the K-word. K stands for Kargil, not what the Rawalpindi Generals are perennially obsessed with — Kashmir. Addressing the Defence and Martyrs’ Day event on Friday, Gen Munir mentioned the 1948, 1965, 1971 and Kargil wars — all in the same breath. This public acknowledgement of the 1999 conflict by none other than Pakistan’s top military officer debunked the improbable theory that ‘private freedom fighters’ were solely involved in the intrusions. Even former PM Nawaz Sharif had stopped short of naming Kargil when he admitted earlier this year that Islamabad had violated an agreement with Delhi, signed by him and then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in February 1999.

It is common knowledge that the Kargil misadventure was orchestrated by then army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf. Smarting from the 1971 defeat, Pakistan tried to turn the tables on India but came a cropper. Why would Gen Munir mention it now, weeks after India celebrated 25 years of the Kargil triumph? After all, the Pakistani military is firmly in the saddle, with the Sharif brothers under its control and the ‘uncooperative’ ex-PM Imran Khan behind bars. This could be an attempt to give the impression that Pakistan is finally coming to terms with its unpleasant past and is keen to learn from its historical blunders. Notably, PM Shehbaz Sharif said at the same event that his country desired peace with all neighbours.

Despite these statements, coupled with overtures such as Pakistan’s invitation to PM Narendra Modi to attend the SCO meeting in Islamabad next month, India has no reason to let its guard down. The trust deficit persists, with the Jammu region reeling under a spate of attacks linked to Pakistan-trained terrorists. Ironically, Pakistan is itself battling a surge in terrorism in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Gen Munir would be well advised to clear the air about his military’s role in terror attacks across the LoC.