A General and His God

General Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, Pakistan’s Army Chief, is a very religious person who memorised the entire Quran as a student and earned the title of ‘Hafizi-Quran.’ He quotes the holy book while navigating the ungodly terrains of geopolitics. A year back he declared that Pakistan, under his leadership, is “waging jihad in the path of Allah and success will be ours. The Pakistani army’s objective and principle is to be shahid (martyr) or ghazi (god’s warrior).”

Munir had just overthrown Imran Khan as Prime Minister in a ‘parliamentary coup’ orchestrated by him and then set up himself as the army chief as well as the Messiah of Pakistan. Being a very religious person, he took upon himself the noble mission of pointing out to the PM that his wife, Bushra Bibi, had shady economic dealings. Imran Khan, being not so religious, chose to act not against his corrupt spouse but against the whistle-blower. Munir lost his post as the Head of ISI, Pakistan’s notorious Intelligence agency. Little did Khan know that he was dealing with a strategist who could give Machiavelli a run for his money. Soon Khan found himself in jail with a 14-year sentence and Munir sat on his throne.

Munir thinks he is Allah’s warrior. He carries the Quran in his memory as well as his veins.

His counterpart in India is also a man who claims to be God’s warrior. The gods are different, of course. And they can’t see eye to eye.

Munir thinks that Allah is the only true God and Allah’s people should have their own territories without the impure interference of kafirs. He wants to liberate Kashmir from India and make it part of the holy land, Pakistan (which literally means the Land of the Pure). On the other hand, India’s Modi thinks that Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh (possibly Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives too) were part of India originally and he has already erased all Muslim history from India’s textbooks and his life’s mission is to unify all these countries into one Akhanda Bharat, possibly with no Musalmania.

Both the divine warriors are moving their respective troops to the national borders. Both are threatening each other with devastating action. I suppose Allah and Rama are also getting into belligerent moods sitting in their respective heavens.  

Does Allah know that Munir is a man who will not hesitate to fire a missile at Allah’s own people too if need be. As he did recently in Iran. He fired a missile into its territory when Teheran fired a drone strike on an Iranian resistance group operating out of Pakistan. He was also ruthless in dealing with the Baluchistan rebels who are also Allah’s people. Now, we’re not sure whether Munir places himself above Allah sometimes. Great leaders are sometimes above their gods, as I understand.

PS. This post was inspired by the cover story of the latest issue of India Today.