Not only in Kargil, Musharraf always showed only losing attitude in his career. General Musharraf has never seen a military victory in his life. (Read Sandeep Unnithan’s article here)
Pakistan’s former military dictator and President General Pervez Musharraf died on February 5 in Dubai after a prolonged illness. He was the last of a quartet of military dictators who believed that in the midst of chaos the country had put them at the helm to set everything right. This may explain how each of these generals overthrew popularly elected governments in coups without bloodshed and ruled directly for more than half of Pakistan’s 75 years. Still, none of the dictators of Pakistan has retired happily.
Instead, three out of four dictators spent their last years in disgrace. Those whom he used to rule, they gave him tribute. But it all happened for the good. While being ousted from power, these generals left the country in a worse condition than when they assumed power.
Sentenced to death in treason case
Field Marshal Ayub was removed in 1968 due to economic ruin and political instability following the defeat in the 1965 war with India. Ayub’s protégé General Yahya Khan lost half his country in 1971. He was stripped of his military honors and nine years later he died in a sort of house arrest. General Zia, who died a painful death in an unsolved plane crash in 1988, is the only one to escape this infamy. Even General Musharraf could not handle the country. He was removed from the presidency in 2008 after ruling his country for eight years. He returned from his London exile in 2013 to contest the general elections but was disqualified from contesting the elections.
He was convicted of the murders of Nawab Bugti and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The courts also convicted him for keeping the constitution in suspension. In 2016, the judiciary allowed him to go to Dubai for treatment. In 2019, he was sentenced to death in absentia on charges of treason, which was later revoked.
Musharraf was the architect of the Kargil war
He was considered the main rogue mind behind the 1999 Kargil conflict. Known by the Pakistan Army as Operation Koh Paima (Call of the Mountains), it was an audacious plan in which the Pakistani Army infiltrated across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and captured posts that the Indian Army had occupied during the winter months. was vacated. Musharraf hoped that with this move he would cut off India’s only road link to the Siachen Glacier. Operation KP was tactically brilliant but strategically flawed.
One of General Musharraf’s deputies, Lieutenant General Mahmood Ahmed, was heard speaking like a Bollywood villain at a pre-operation briefing: “Come October and we will meet in Siachen, throwing out bodies of Indians starving in the cold.
General Musharraf underestimated India’s response. The Indian Army gave a befitting reply to Pakistan using infantry, artillery and air force in two months. The soldiers who died of starvation in the cold belonged to the Northern Light Infantry of Pakistan, whose burial was left to the Indian Army.
Musharraf wept bitterly in 1971
Not only in Kargil, Musharraf always showed only losing attitude in his career. General Musharraf has never seen a military victory in his life. In the 1965 war, he was part of a division in the Khemkaran sector defeated by the Indian Army. When the Pakistani army surrendered in 1971, he wept bitterly. As a Brigadier in the early 1980s, he had failed to drive the Indian Army out of the Siachen Glacier.
He was appointed in the Artillery Regiment. He later joined the Special Services Group (SSG) which is India’s equivalent of Para/SF commandos in Pakistan. These commandos are prepared to embody tactical strategy, they carry out daring raids and ambushes. But, unfortunately the strategists do not win the war. Then Musharraf could never show better courage in his military career. During the Kargil War, the then Indian Army Chief General VP Malik described him as a captain who could never act above his rank. “As a captain or a major I would give him 8 or 9 out of 10, but only 3 out of 10 as a general.” Strategic analyst K Subrahmanyam quipped to me after reading the general’s 2006 Walter Mitty-esque autobiography ‘In the Line of Fire’: “Goebbels was also much weaker than Musharraf.”
The commando general was always looking for victory. In late 1999, Musharraf ousted the then weak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to become the martial law administrator. During Musharraf’s reign, Pakistan accelerated its action in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of suicide terrorists. In 2001, terrorists in Kashmir caused significant damage and killed more than 1,600 civilians and security forces. Musharraf’s peacemaker face came to the fore that year when he offered a four-point plan at the Agra summit to resolve the Kashmir issue.
India rejected this plan. He was not a person who could be trusted. Thereafter, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 made Pakistan once again one of the foremost allies of the US in the ‘War on Terror’. Musharraf assured the then US President George Bush that he would prove to be America’s most important ally in the war against Islamic fundamentalism. In December, exactly three months after 9/11, Pakistani terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament. He could not succeed but this incident brought both the countries to the brink of war. Pakistan continued to play a double game under Musharraf. It was also an ally in the fight against terror and also remained a terror spreading country. By 2021, 12 globally banned terrorist groups were present in Pakistan.
In 2021, a Research Service report of the US Parliament mentioned five types of terrorists: global level terrorists from Pakistan, terrorists prepared for Afghanistan, terrorists for jihad against India, communal groups and groups prepared for Pakistan.
‘Why does the Indian media give so much respect to this man’
I met General Musharraf once in 2009 at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi. This meeting took place a year after his expulsion. The former dictator again came into limelight and he was sure that he would return to power once again in Pakistan. His determination was evident when he was talking. He spoke with straight eyes and an infectious laugh with a tinge of humour. It clearly shows why and how they influenced the western countries. Yet he was deeply unpopular in his home country of Pakistan. A Pakistani journalist friend asked me why the Indian media gives so much respect to such an infamous person.
Despite all his failures, Musharraf did a great favor to Pakistan. As a highly unpopular dictator, he ran the risk of seizing power outright. Otherwise, what is the need for the army to remove the civil governments in Pakistan, when the Pakistani army runs in the civilian governments as well.
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Source: www.tv9hindi.com”