Army Readjusts to Eliminate Foreign Backed Internal Enemies

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RAWALPINDI - The Pakistan Army now regards internal threats as the biggest danger to the country’s security and has brought a major shift in its operational priorities accordingly.The BBC reported on Wednesday that a new ‘Army Doctrine’ – shifting focus off the conventional enemy on the east to some organisations and individuals within the country and their associates across the western border – comes after some eleven years of war against terror.The new doctrine has been added to the Green Book under the chapter “Sub-conventional warfare”.

It describes the guerrilla activities on the country’s western borders and tribal areas, and the bombings carried out by various organisations on some institutions or citizens, as the biggest threat to the country’s security.The BBC quoted a senior Army official, who was participated in preparation of the Green Book, as saying that the purpose of adding the new chapter to the book was to prepare the mlitary to fight the new ‘internal’ threat and to get the required popular and political support.The 200 plus-page book is being distributed to commanders. People will also be apprised of the new doctrine and at some appropriate time it will also be uploaded on the army’s website.

The army prepares and publishes this guideline to analyse its capacity and preparedness for war and keep them in the right direction.The book says that some organisations and individuals are out to annihilate Pakistan and their terrorist activities in tribal and urban areas are aimed to achieve the same target. These attacks are planned very skilfully and can be countered through a matching expertise, it says.The chapter dealing with non-conventional war says that this element is also responsible for militancy in various areas of the country. However, no country involved in the alleged proxy war has been identified. The BBC quoted sources as saying that the concentration of defence forces on the Eastern border, in the absence of a threat from the western side, made it impossible for them to get a timely information about the US helicopters action against Osama bin Laden.

The then Chief of the Air Staff had said this even before the Abbottabad Commission. This statement, the official said, forced the defence policy makers to change their policy. The sources say that lack of powers and necessary equipment to avert a Nato attack on the Salala checkpost in November 2011 also led to the coining of new term ‘non-conventional war’. Defence analyst Lt-Gen (r) Talat Masood said that till the preparation and publication of the new doctrine, Pakistan has been treating its eastern neighbour as its enemy number one, and it has been accumulating and using all its weapons against it. And this is for the first time that the army has conceded that the real threat comes from within and which is concentrated on the western borders and the adjoining areas.According to Gen Talat, now the army is most likely to target the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and its allies across the border in Afghanistan.

Staff Reporter from Islamabad adds: The monthly corps commanders conference would be held at the General Headquarters on Friday (tomorrow). According to a military statement issued here Wednesday, professional matters would be discussed during the meeting.

(The Nation)

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