Zubair Qureshi
The Indian atrocities in the occupied Kashmir amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity because they are being conducted in an international armed conflict in an internationally-recognized disputed territory.
This was said by Air Cdre (R) Khalid Banuri who is also ex-Director General (DG) of the Arms Control and Disarmament Branch of Strategic Plans Division while speaking at a roundtable organized by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) on Thursday.
Air Cdre (R) Khalid Banuri said Kashmir would prove to be the Achilles’s heel for India because it won’t be long before its authoritarian tendencies in the valley would run their course with longstanding consequences for India.
Banuri was of the view that introduction of destabilizing technologies, increasing Indian aggressiveness, and weakening constituencies of peace in India present major challenges to strategic stability in South Asia.
He felt that Pakistan must continue to maintain an aggressive diplomatic push at the international level to highlight Indian atrocities in Kashmir and elsewhere, enhance the military capability of its armed forces, and stabilize the economy to meet the challenges. “A synergetic effort involving government and the private sector is the key to sustainable progress,” he said.
Banuri observed that Indian obsession with Pakistan had actually limited it to the region and had hampered its own global ambitions. He further stated that the current BJP-led Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had obvious fascist tendencies that had sacrificed India’s own long-term interests with undue favour to the interests of its ruling political party. Banuri stressed that every Pakistani needed to play his or her role in countering the hybrid war India had unleashed on Pakistan. Borrowing a navy maxim, Banuri said, “We need all hands on the deck against hybrid warfare.” Emphasizing further, he stated that Pakistanis needed to be aware of the unseen enemy phenomenon, regarding who the enemy was and to decide who to defend against, and how?
Commenting on the changing global power dynamics, Banuri said that the world was in transition with major powers endeavouring to sustain their control or seek lost glory.
The Western powers, especially the US, were unwilling to accept the new reality of an ascendant China, which was creating friction globally, he argued.
At the end of the session, President IRS Amb Nadeem Riyaz gave his concluding remarks and thanked Khalid Banuri for his candid discussion and thoughtful reflections.
