India in ‘wait & watch’ mode over new Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa

NEW DELHI: The Indian establishment is in a ‘wait and watch’ mode over the new Pakistani Army Chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa. The government advisors maintain too much cannot be read into his repeated tenures in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the officer is expected to continue the policies of his predecessors. The low-key General was previously in charge of training and evaluation of the Pakistani Army.

While the officer is considered to be a thorough professional, the vicious attacks on General Bajwa by hardliners in Pakistan — who accuse his relatives of being from the Ahmadiyya community that they despise as heretics — are being watched closely by observers in New Delhi.

The caution comes from the background of similar attacks on General Pervez Musharraf who as Army Chief perpetuated the last major conflict with India, the Kargil war of 1999. While Musharraf had no Ahmadiyya connection, he was a muhajir (a person who moved to Pakistan after the division of India) and his Kargil misadventure has been read by some as an attempt to shrug off the label and prove his ‘nationalism’.

While there is no reference in his public profile on where he was posted during the Kargil war, Gen Bajwa has been described as an experienced PoK hand, having commanded the Pakistani X Corps in 2014-15, when a fresh round of hostilities started on the Line of Control. “Just because he is well versed with J&K, we cannot assume that things will go worse or get better. The reading is that he will pursue the same policies. As an Army chief, he cannot be very different,” a senior government advisor told ET.

The Pak officer will be well versed in the latest doctrines of warfare as well as the training and fitness levels of the Army given his last appointment as the Inspector General Training and Evaluation at Rawalpindi. “A person changes when he becomes a chief, the responsibilities and other organisational factors ensure that. He may want to do many things but the institution curtails that,” the official said.

Former Indian Army Chief General Bikram Singh, who was Bajwa’s superior during a UN posting in Congo, describes the new Pak Army Chief as a professional soldier, but has cautioned that things are different under the UN mandate. Gen Singh, too, does not see any major shift in the Pak policy but has said India should watch the space with caution. He has expressed hope that Bajwa will continue the focus of the Pak Army on fighting homegrown extremism.