DefinePK

Abstract

India’s Surgical Strike Stratagem: Brinksmanship and Response is the first book that attempts to provide a detailed account of Indian false claims of a surgical strike across the Line of Control (LOC). The author, Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, is a Professor of Politics and International Relations at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. On 18 September 2016, 18 Indian soldiers were killed in an attack in Uri that India swiftly blamed on Pakistan without any evidence. Eleven days after Uri attack, on the intervening night of 28 and 29 September 2016, India claimed to have carried out a surgical strike in Azad Kashmir. Pakistan rightly rejected these claims calling them an ‘illusion’.
 The book discusses the Indian phantom strike on September 29, 2016, as well as the recent Balakot adventure on February 26, 2019 and Pakistan’s well-calibrated response. The crisis that ensued the Pulwama episode brought to light some important takeaways. Firstly, although a full-fledged war may not be imminent between the two nuclear South Asian neighbours, yet crisis instability entails dangers of escalation; secondly, the international community’s blind eye towards India’s claims of surgical strikes and recent Balakot strike depict an elboldened a risk prone attitude.