Was Pathankot strike plotted by Pakistan army's general headquarters?

NEW DELHI: The Pathankot attack may have been masterminded by the Pakistan army's general headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, as per an assessment by senior officials of the Indian security establishment.

According to a senior intelligence official, the GHQ is reportedly peeved at the positive reaction of the global community and media to PM Narendra Modi's Lahore diplomacy and Nawaz Sharif 's hospitality and feels bypassed after the "fait accompli".

Though there were suggestions that the Pakistan army had backed the recent peace outreach, this narrative disagrees and feels ISI too is of the view that Modi's surprise visit created a favourable civil society sentiment in Pakistan towards the civilian 'pro-peace' regime.


The Pakistan army and ISI, this time around, kept aside their preferred agent Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the 2008-26-11 strikes on Mumbai, and chose Jaish-e-Mohammed, an ISI asset less in the news, to hit Pathankot. This, they felt, would ensure more deniability . Headed by Maulana Masood Azhar, one of three terrorists swapped to end the IC-814 hostage crisis of 1999, Jaish is being resurrected over the past few years.

Sources said the objective of the attack was to damage air force base assets and technical assets and kill as many personnel as possible. This, some senior intelligence officials feel, was meant to provoke the Indian defence establishment and political opposition to retaliate -undo the peace dialogue and thus scuttle the foreign secretary level talks less than a fortnight away . This would also help bring back focus on Pakistani military propaganda painting their country a victim of terror, facing an aggressive eastern neighbour (India) and an India-influenced Afghanistan.