US air defence system for India

As Pakistan acquires effective nuclear-based deterrence against India's war-posturing, the latter sets about enhancing its counter-force capabilities. The US and Israel appear to be cooperating with India. According to latest reports, the US State Department has cleared the sale of Integrated Air Defence Weapons System to India. Since Pakistan has already put in place needed wherewithal to counter India's so-called Cold Start/Limited War threat, the Indian defence planners now want to acquire capability aimed at neutralising Pakistan's warning to use field-specific tactical nuclear weapons and taking care of its second strike capability. Disturbingly, the US is ready to help India by supplying it the $ 1.8 billion air defence canopy. The sale of such sophisticated weapons system at this point in time, according to Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson, "is particularly disturbing as it would destabilise the already volatile region. The US decision would disturb the strategic balance in South Asia with serious security implications for Pakistan and the region."

However, Pakistan's strategic analysts argue that the "Chinese military technology will define Pak response to Indian threat". Addressing a seminar in Islamabad on Thursday, Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat (retd) pointed out that China has "considerable" military capabilities and can potentially be the major source for buying modern technology. Everyone is worried about the Indian "potential for mischief and it is obvious we would need more capable aircraft and weapons." He also underscored the need for developing electronic counter-measure capability to counter India's S400 system, that it has acquired from Russia. The world should know that despite being one-seventh of India in terms of population, Pakistan is ready, as ever, to meet any challenge from across the border. Should India be equipped with the latest weaponry at the battlefront it would find Pakistan ready for the ultimate - the finale of such a confrontation would, inescapably, be the nuclear holocaust.

But given Narendra Modi's internal political compulsions his mischief-making capacity cannot be ruled out. He desperately needs to divert world attention from the hell he has created for 8 million Kashmiris. And this he can do by staging what is now commonly called 'false flag' misadventure against Pakistan. He did it in the past, and may do it during the running fortnight as well. The FO spokesperson Aisha Farooqui says: "We are concerned about the possibility of India seeking to create some distraction during high-profile visits to the region, i.e., President Erdogan and UNSG to Pakistan and President Trump to India." Last February, India did carry out a false flag operation in Azad Kashmir and lost two aircraft and a pilot who was captured and then released as humanity gesture by the government. How ironic it is that the international community seems to have turned into a global society in which innocence and decency can prove fatal. India's civil society, however, is more critical of Narendra Modi's war-mongering rhetoric than the outside world.