This week, we believe, all of us saw a mental breakout by India. We have argued for some time that, while India won a physical independence from Britain in 1947, India remains a mental servant of Britain & of the West. Our hope was that the election of Prime Minister Modi in 2014 would create a mental independence. But Indian society does not change, especially when BrIndians- the Brit-servile elite Indians, remain determined to hold on to their Brit-given power & status.
Nowhere has this mental servitude been so evident than in India’s cowardly aversion to to fighting back against NaPakistan’s continuous terror-based war against India.Witness the aftermath of the horrendous 26 November 2008 attack on Mumbai by Napak-trained & Napak-supported terrorists. The Indian Air Force wanted to respond by bombing terrorist camps inside NaPak. That Indian Government was gutless & sent the relevant Indian minister to Washington DC to beg for some action from America.
As India celebrates this week’s strike by the Indian Air Force & the poise of Wing Commander Abhinandan, we recall what Rajesh Khosla, a previous Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force, wrote to the newly elected Prime Minister Modi in 2014. In his Open Letter to Prime Minister Modi from a Veteran, Wing Commander Khosla made the following key points:
- “Warfare is an art and it requires of the practitioner a lifetime of servitude, much like a Shehnai maestro before the raga of strategy can be mastered. In the absence of military involvement in formulating strategy the game is taken over by charlatans from the Home Office, Foreign Office and even Policemen. India’s war Plans exist only on paper.”
- “The most powerful nations on earth today resolves these problems through infusion of the military into government at appropriate levels. Witness Dwight Eisenhower as President and Colin Powell as Secretary Of State.”
- “India’s success on the world stage depends on a strong economy backed by military power, Theodore Roosevelt said it long ago “ Speak softly and carry a big stick”.”
This week Prime Minister Modi showed that he not understands this but practices it at critical junctures. Reportedly only seven people were involved in the decision to strike the Napak terrorist camp at Balakot – Prime Minister Modi, National Security Adviser Doval, Chiefs of the Indian Air Force, Indian Army & Indian Navy, the heads of India’s Intelligence Branch & RAW. This small focused group approved the audacious plan by the Air Force to strike deep inside Napak territory, close to NaPak’s capital of Islamabad.
This was a very tough decision & a breakout decision. Even in the four declared wars by NaPakistan, India had never attacked deep inside Napak. India had always chosen to play defensive warfare. And never ever had India allowed its air force to strike Napak targets even near the Line of Control without a formal declaration of war by Napak.
Prime Minister Modi has served notice to Napak and the world that terrorism war against India will have severe consequences. Nuclear blackmail against India will not deter India from attacking deep inside Napak. And the Indian Air Force remains strong enough to strike deep and strike hard. It is said that Napak military fears the Indian Air Force more than any other unit of India. After all, it is the IAF that has been instrumental in winning the four previous wars against NaPak.
Below we lay out how the Indian Air Force planned and executed the brilliant attack against the terrorism-university at Balakot. What follows has been derived from reports & articles from people we have followed for some time.
1.Why Balakot Camp?
Look at the map below & notice the strategic location of Balakot from a terrorism manager’s point of view:
First, Balakot is located inside NaPakistan territory and not in the India-claimed Napak-occupied Kashmir. So an attack on Balakot by India could be construed as an act of war. Thus Balakot was deemed safe. Secondly, Balakot is close to both Afghanistan & Napak-occupied Kashmir enabling terrorists to move quickly into both Kashmir & Afghanistan.
Notice how close Balakot is to Abbottabad where Osama Bin Laden was living in peace & relative sanctuary before the raid by US Navy Seals. Recall that Abbottabad was described in the US media as the place where NaPaki equivalent of West Point is located. The point being the Balakot-Abbottabad area is in close proximity & in a relative sanctuary of Napaki military.
As Ananya Bharadwaj wrote in The Print,
- “Jaish-e-Mohammed follows the Deobandi school of thought, and is thus aligned with the Taliban. Before 2001, the training of its members took place in Afghanistan. However, after the Taliban were toppled, it had to be relocated,” the first intelligence source said.
- The centre was not only used as a training ground for over 10,000 recruits at a time, but also has several madrassas, masjids and control rooms, from where several operations were planned. JeM chief Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar are said to be supervising these camps. It was currently being run by Yusuf Azhar, Masood’s brother-in-law.
- “They have developed a complete system of education where students are given religious (extremist) as well as contemporary education. Students as young as 11 years old are recruited and trained in these centres,” another intelligence source said.
(File Photo of Jaish Founder Masood Azhar – credit The Print)
Clearly Jaish-e-Mohammed’s brain trust & Napak terrorism runners expected Indian attacks on Jaish camps near the Line of Control (“LoC”) . So, reportedly, they moved over 300 terrorists & their senior field leadership from near the LoC to their central complex near Balakot. This central complex is situated on a hilltop in a forested area removed from civilian settlements & military camps.
These sensible precautions actually backfired because the leadership & the terrorists became sitting ducks for the IAF which did not have to worry about collateral damage. Not only was this camp obliterated by the IAF in the attack but, as Shishir Gupta wrote in the Hindustan Times,
- “the terror group has lost Maulana Yusuf Azhar Mufti Omar [(brother-in-law of the Jaish founder], Maulana Jawed, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Kashmiri, Maulana Aslam, Maulana Ajmal and Maulana Zubair in the missile strike. All these terrorists were trainers of the jihadists, suicide bombers and fidayeens.”
Not only does the IAF have evidence of the damage caused to the Balakot center from images during the strike, but now surviving members of Jaish are speaking up. Witness the screenshot sent by a friend dated Saturday, March 2:
2. The IAF raid on Balakot
Clearly the Napaki regime and its military were on alert for a response from India to their heinous attack on India’s border police. So, reportedly, the IAF used a variant of the old “boy who cried wolf” tactic the night of the actual strike. According to an article in the Economic Times of India,
- “Before the strike …. , the IAF tired down Pakistani air defences with a series of mock runs that kept its fighters and radars engaged. One of these took place near the Sri Ganganagar border in Rajasthan which was backed by early warning aircraft that were up in the air and long-range mid-air tankers. A Pak response was seen after its quick reaction jets scrambled for interception but the Indian jets turned back.”
- “Similarly, another run was made close to the Pathankot border, again putting the Pakistani air force under pressure and tiring out its air defences that were focused on the incoming planes.”
The Mirage-2000s used to bomb the Balakot training camp came from the airbase at Gwalior, located away from the Line of Control. And other aircraft flew from closer air bases as the excellent graphic in the picture below points out:
- ashish ChandorkarVerified account @c_aashish – Tuesday Feb 26 – #IndiaStrikesBack Pic: IANS
Presumably, the Napaki airforce focused in the aircraft which took off from closer air bases allowing the Mirage 2000s from Gwalior to fly a round about route north of the other feints.
The graphic from the Times of India shows the components of the strike force – 12 Mirage 2000, 4 Sukhoi-30 MKI air dominance fighters, 2 AWACS and 1 mid-air refuller.
As a detailed article by Sushant Singh in the Indian Express describes,
- “The Sukhois executed a “forward sweep,” which allows the escorting aircraft to test the adversary’s response before the strike aircraft move in to hit the target. The IAF, sources said, was able to beat Pak radars by employing the technique of “masking by hills” while flying, using two decoys to distract Pakistan Air Force and by flying low before pulling up to hit the target.”
The above shows that this was a complex strike with many components & moving parts against an alert Napaki air force deep inside Napaki held territory. So many things can go wrong and often do. But it seems the IAF had prepared for all eventualities & merged misdirection & surprise to lodge a short but extremely intense strike to obliterate a big target.
No wonder every one in India, regardless of their political affiliations, is proud of the Indian Military and, in particular, the Indian Air Force.
A very big notice has been served to the terror-directors in the Napaki ISI & Military by Prime Minister Modi. That no one can hope to hide inside Napak after conducting terrorism in India. And the scale of the Indian reprisals would match or even exceed the scale of terrorist attacks on India. And this was only the Indian Air Force. They should know the Indian Navy was also moving towards the Napaki coast to assist as necessary and the Indian Army is ever ready against Napak.
They should also learn from the behavior of China, the country Napak calls their all-weather friend. Well, China made it clear this week that their relationship with NaPakistan is mainly an economic one and they will not get between India & Napak hostilities.
The Indian Military has always been ready & willing to retaliate against terrorism mounted by NaPakistan against India. Now that physical power has been combined with mental determination & power of Prime Minister Modi. Such mental breakout was what we had expected since his election in May 2014.
No wonder the Indian people finally feel mentally liberated this week.
3. Will USA follow?
Above we used the term “Napaki territory” to describe the location of Balakot. That is actually not a true or valid description. Balakot is in a province named Khyber-Pakktunkhawa or what used to be termed as NorthWest Frontier province. This is really South Afghanistan or the portion of Afghanistan that was annexed by the British using the British-run Indian military in 1893. Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat, created today’s Line of Control between British-India & the then Afghani leadership.
But that British-India does not exist today. So the Afghan Government served notice in 1948 that the 1893 agreement is now ex-parte. Hence they claim the entire Khyber-PakhtunKhawa or North-West Frontier Province as a part of Afghanistan.
So the United States, as the protector of Afghanistan, has legal rights to bomb any Anti-Afghan targets inside any land claimed by Afghanistan. This means the US air force has more legal rights than the Indian Air Force to bomb Balakot & the entire Khyber-PakhtunKhawa province to eliminate terrorist threats against the Government of Afghanistan.
Think for a minute. Terrorists coming from the Khyber-PakhtunKhawa province into Afghanistan have been responsible for severe injuries & deaths of thousands of US soldiers in Afghanistan. Still the USA has never attacked these terrorist havens in the disputed territory claimed by Afghanistan.
We hear Afghanistan described as the “longest war” ever fought by America. That’s baloney because America has never actually “fought” the Afghan war. Imagine what would have happened if America had “fought” Hitler’s Germany without EVER sending US Army into Germany or even without bombing Germany. What US has done in Afghanistan is like fighting the war with Hitler’s Germany by keeping the US army bottled up in France.
And now the Trump Administration is planning to leave Afghanistan without eliminating the terrorist threat coming from NaPak-occupied South Afghanistan!! Why can’t the Trump Administration follow the example of India and destroy all terrorist havens used to attack Afghanistan from Napak-held territory? The US air force can do this very easily and that can bring the Taleban & their owner-trainers in the Napaki military to their knees.
What is this deep affection, the deep relationship between the US establishment and their old friend Pakistan that prevents America acting in its own interests? We don’t get it.
4. Will the Indian People follow?
The action taken so far has been the action of the Indian Government and the Indian Military. The Indian people are celebrating the success but they have not had to make any sacrifices for it.
One military action, however meaningful & successful, will not make much progress towards ending the terrorist threat against India. That can only happen if the Indian people force the rest of the world to stop dealing with Napakistan. There is a simple way to begin.
The world cricket scene is now dominated by India. It is estimated that over 60% of the global cricket revenue is generated in India. In fact, no cricket tournament can be financially successful without a large viewership from India. And every top cricket player in the world wants to play in the Indian Premier League.
So the Indian Cricket Authorities should announce that,
- The Indian Cricket Team will NOT participate in any Cricket Tournament that includes NaPakistan. In fact, any country, any player that plays a game with the Napak cricket team will permanently be banned from playing against the Indian Cricket team, either in India or anywhere else in the world.
- And any TV network, like ESPN, Fox Sports & others, will be permanently banned from India and from broadcasting Indian cricket if they ever broadcast any tournament, any match that includes the Napak cricket team.
This will be a bit difficult for Indian cricket fans. They will miss games they love to watch. But it will be lot easier than the sacrifices Indian soldiers, pilots & seamen face. And it would be disastrous for Napak cricket team and fans. It would be the biggest blow for the image of that regime & its people. It will be as if the world has rejected them.
If the Indian people do this, then the rest of the world will take notice. After all, every major industry in the world wants to enter & expand in India. Faced with an angry Indian customer base, they would likely abandon Napak than get rejected from India.
The Indian Government does NOT have the power to get Napak banned from the rest of the world. The Indian people do. But that would require the Indian people to love their country more than their personal entertainment.
Are they ready for that?
Note: The second part of this story is the shooting down of a Napaki F-16 by an Indian MIG-21 flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan. The best description of this dogfight comes from Vishnu Som of NDTV in the clip below. Our sincere thanks to a friend who sent it to us.
Below is a video that shows intense admiration the Indian people have for Wing Commander Abhinandan – his valor, his skill, his poise while in Napak custody. The video shows the respect & love shown to his parents by passengers in a flight in India.
For a more detailed discussion about Lockheed, MIG-21 vs. F-16, see Section 4 of our adjacent article – Interesting TACs of the Week (February 23 – March 1, 2019).
Editor’s PS: Regular readers know that we abhor the utterly heinous concept of Pak-i-Stan and refuse to use it. No one today uses or dares to use to less heinous term “Master Race” but they use Pak-i-Stan without care. The term “Pak” means religiously pure. So the Pak-i-Stan term defines that land as the land of the Religiously Pure. This term forces religious cleansing of all people who are “religiously pure” themselves or belong to another religion. No wonder the regime that uses the Pak-i-Stan term has cleansed out Buddhists, Hindus & Sikhs from its land and is now attacking Shia Muslims too. Yet the world does not care. Probably because,unlike the victims of the German Master race, the victims of Pak-i-Stan are NOT white but mainly Asians. We don’t understand why Indians still use that heinous term. But then today’s Indians love to ape Western terms. We don’t have to and we won’t.
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