Almost as an afterthought, India grabbed several key peaks along the northern stretches of the Line of Control in 1971. Those stretches have long been used to launch punitive raids across the LoC, notably in 2016, and many Indian planners are wondering if seizing some heights would send a strong strategic message to Pakistan. 

#cuttheclutter

Pakistan has put forward its political faces to present its case after India’s punitive measures in wake of Pahalgam attack. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif was the first, then came PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. In Episode 1653 of #CutTheClutter Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta explains the reasons behind this approach and looks at the storied Bhutto-Zardari clan.

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Produced By: Mahira Khan

Pakistan, a National Security State, that suspects all, most of all its own | Writings on the Wall

#cuttheclutter Pakistan has a new National Security Adviser (NSA). In Episode 1652 of #CutTheClutter @ShekharGupta contrasts this with India’s reconstitution of its National Security Advisory Board, involving balanced representation from the armed forces, police, and diplomacy; he also contextualises these developments within broader civil-military relations, offering insights into two sharply divergent security architectures in South Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Link to 'Evolution of national security structures in Pakistan' by Nasir Hafeez https://www.jstor.org/stable/48529365 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Link to 'The Evolution of India’s National Security Architecture' by P.S. Raghavan: https://idsa.in/system/files/jds/13-3-2019-evolution-of-india-national-security.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Produced By: Mahira Khan