Pak aimed to incite India into retaliation with Pahalgam attack: Ex-military attaché

The Pahalgam attack was carried out by Pakistan with the sole purpose of inciting India to carry out a surgical strike, said Major General S P Vishwasrao, former Defence and Military attache in Islamabad based High Commission of India, here on Tuesday.

Gen Vishwasrao, the Additional Director General Recruiting (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, and Union territories of Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu), was addressing a session on Indian Army’s Weaponizing the Narrative: Technological Catalysts in Modern Information Warfare’ during the ongoing ‘Ran Samwad-2025’ being organized at Army War College.

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Commenting on the manner the Pahalgam attack was carried out by Pakistan sponsored terrorists which left 26 dead, the General said that killings based on religion were aimed at creating political schisms.

“The aim was to invite India or to incite India to react and do a surgical strike for which probably Pakistan may have been ready,” he said.

Responding to a query on whether India had walked into a trap set by Pakistan, Maj Gen Vishwarao clarified, “I was not posted in South Block during Op Sindoor, but I am a Pakistan observer and I can relate between Pulwama and Pahalgam.”

Speaking about the weaponised narratives that were implemented by Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, the officer said, “There has been ‘weaponized’ narrative used through story-based communication to foment political and social schisms for supporting institutions, culture and entities. Mobilizing people against the government is what is a weaponized narrative all about. It happened in Bangladesh, it happened across India.”

Further elaborating on the information warfare tactics to create weaponised narratives, Rao said that they can be tackled with catalysts.

“I’ve clubbed them into four broad heads I.e. observe, orient, decide and act. Because the OODA loop is critical to the war. By weaponized narratives we have subjects in tech, software, social media and the tactics. Finally, all this is available in the market today and is being used by various marketing agencies,” he elaborated.

Speaking about the role of the National Cadet Corps in the Viksit Bharat 2047 mission, the Major General said that an NCC cadet who passed out after 3 years would be working towards this vision.

“So therefore we gave them a hashtag. Once a cadet, always a cadet. And all cadets here would know the meaning of this,” he added.