Aritra Banerjee
On April 16, General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, stood at the Overseas Pakistanis Convention in Islamabad and did what few modern generals dare so openly— he summoned the ghosts of the past, clothed them in religious and ideological absolutism, and paraded them into the present.
“It was our jugular vein, it is our jugular vein, we will not forget it,” he said, referring to Kashmir.
The phrase “jugular vein” in reference to Kashmir has a long and deliberate history in Pakistani strategic rhetoric. Liaquat Ali Khan, in the early 1950s, described Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein”, asserting that without Kashmir, Pakistan’s geographical and strategic viability would be incomplete.
Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf often reiterated this line to justify military posturing and proxy war in Kashmir. ISI chiefs did, too. By invoking this, Pakistan’s leadership has historically implied that Kashmir is essential for Pakistan’s survival, and that India’s control over it is a form of strategic strangulation.
This was a coded declaration of war from Gen Munir, rooted in a doctrine of grievance and supremacy.
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