Threat from India to pakistan is real

n Inam Khawaja
The military threat from India has always been a cornerstone of Pakistan’s defence planning and remains so today. Recently some journalists and politicians have expressed views to the contrary. One needs to examine if there are any cogent reasons to justify these views. Has the deployment of Indian forces changed on the ground and does the recent changes in Indian military doctrine favour these assertions?
The present physical deployment of Indian forces on our borders is undernoted:-
a) Corps comprising two infantry divisions, an infantry brigade and 16 Corps consisting of 3 infantry divisions, an armour brigade and an artillery brigade are deployed against us in Indian occupied Kashmir.
b) 11 Corps having 3 infantry divisions, an armour brigade and a mechanised brigade; and 10 Corps consisting of 1 infantry (regular) division and 3 Rapid Deployment infantry divisions are facing us in Punjab.
c) In Haryana there are 2 (Strike) Corps with 1 armoured division, 2 infantry divisions (1 Rapid & 1 regular), another armour brigade and 1 brigade of Engineers.
d) Rajasthan has 12 (Desert) Corps which has 2 infantry divisions, 1 armour brigade and 1 mechanised infantry brigade.
In addition to this deployment on our borders, the Indians have the following forces suitably placed to reinforce the forces deployed on our borders.
1) 21 Strike Corps supported by an armoured division, additional Rapid infantry division with an armour brigade, an Engineers brigade.
2) 1 Strike Corps with an infantry division, a mountain division and an armoured division.
This shows that 70 percent of the Indian forces are physically deployed against Pakistan. In fact, India has only their 33 Corps, 3 Corps and the 4 Corps deployed against China and Bangladesh.
The Cold Start Doctrine of the Indian army was conceived in 2004; it is a Pakistan specific offensive doctrine involving 8 Integrated Battle Groups. It is not just an academic concept but has the full backing and political approval of the Congress government and the opposition. The Indian army, air force and the navy have carried out 11 exercises involving 50,000 troops in the past seven years. Only recently the Indian military carried out a 6-day-long joint exercise “Vijay Bhava” in Bikaner-Suratgarh axis in the Rajasthan desert only 70 kms from the Pakistan border. This exercise involved the blitzkrieg type armoured penetration in Pakistan followed by mechanised infantry and rapid divisions and testing the Indian army’s night time operation capabilities.