• ‘No change seen in Pakistan’s view of India threat’
• Pakistan Army seen unlikely to review its stance on India
• Capability against Bharat remains

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army is unlikely to change its assessment of the threat from India despite heavy demands to provide flood relief, while also fighting terrorists, a senior security official said.

The Wall Street Journal said this month the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had decided — for the first time in the country’s history — that terrorists had overtaken India as the greatest threat to national security.

But the security official suggested this was a misinterpretation of the stance of the army, which views the threat from terrorists and India in very different ways, rather than comparing them against each other.

“These are two mutually exclusive threats. The magnitude, the type, is quite different. One is an internal threat which is insidious, difficult to quantify. It is a clear and present danger. This is a very serious threat,” he said. “The other is a conventional threat. What has India done, politically and militarily, for this threat to have been reduced?” he asked.

Another official said the threat from India had, if anything, increased into both a conventional and unconventional threat, as it used its presence in Afghanistan to support those fighting against the government in Balochistan.

But the security official said that Pakistan’s military deployment was based on its assessment of India’s potential offensive strength. “The configuration of any defence force is based on the enemy’s capabilities and not intentions,” he said.

Yet for Pakistan to drop its guard against India would require progress on political disputes, including over Kashmir, officials say. “This enforced attention to the western border has made the Pakistan Army reassess its priorities,” said Western military analyst Brian Cloughley.

“But it still does not wish to drop its guard to the east, especially as there is still the threat of a swift and dramatic attack if a terrorist outrage in India is determined by India to have been planned in Pakistan,” he said. reuters