Pakistani Youth Leader Threatens India, its Lawmaker Compares “Operation Sindoor” with Pak Army Action against Afghanistan

Rohit Kumar

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: A senior youth leader from Pakistan’s ruling party has issued a sharp warning to India invoking military retaliation if Bangladesh’s sovereignty is threatened while in contrast, a Pakistani lawmaker has called out the hypocrisy of his country’s leadership drawing a parallel between Islamabad’s military actions against Kabul and India’s ‘Operation Sindoor.’

Claiming his country’s solidarity with its one-time part, Kamran Saeed Usmani, who heads the youth wing of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, said in a video message that any move by New Delhi against Dhaka would provoke a response from Islamabad. “If India attacks Bangladesh’s autonomy, if anyone dares to cast an evil eye towards Bangladesh, then remember that the people of Pakistan, the Pakistani armed forces, and our missiles are not far away,” he said.

In contrast, condemning the Pakistan army led by Asim Munir for strikes on Afghanistan – which resulted in civilian casualties – Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman questioned the consistency of Islamabad’s logic. He argued that if Pakistan’s cross-border attacks are considered justified, then the country has little ground to object when India enters Pakistani territory to eliminate terrorists.

Rehman was addressing the ‘Majlis-e-Ittehad-e-Ummat’ conference in Karachi’s Lyari. The town recently gained international attention as the setting for the Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar, which depicted the intersection of informants and operatives within the Lyari underworld.

“If you say that we attacked our enemy in Afghanistan and justify this, then India can also say that it attacked Bahawalpur, Muridke, and the headquarters of groups responsible for the attack in Kashmir,” Rehman said, referring to India’s retaliatory strikes. “Then how can you raise objections? The same accusations are now being leveled against Pakistan by Afghanistan. How do you justify both positions?” The JUI-F chief’s remarks specifically referred to ‘Operation Sindoor.’

Usmani claimed that Muslim youth have become alert to what he described as India’s designs in the region. He alleged that these “conspiracies” take multiple forms, “Whether it is in the form of cutting off the waters of Bangladesh, whether it is in the form of sedition, whether it is in the form of making a Muslim fight against a Muslim.” He further asserted that Pakistan would resist any attempt to impose what he called India’s “Akhand Bharat ideology” on Bangladesh.

Moreover, since taking charge, Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus put the emphasis on strengthening ties with Pakistan to boost mutual cooperation and explore trade and business potentials. Yunus had said he always preferred closer ties and added that Bangladesh and Pakistan should exchange more youth and cultural programs between the two countries to increase the people-to-people bonding.

Hasnat Abdullah, a leader of the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP) at a rally in Dhaka last week threatened India and said, “I want to say clearly to India that if you shelter forces who do not respect Bangladesh’s sovereignty, potential, voting rights and human rights, Bangladesh will respond.”

“If Bangladesh is destabilised, the fire of resistance will spread beyond borders. Since you are housing those who destabilise us, we will give refuge to the separatists of seven sisters too,” he added. He accused “vultures” that he did not name, of trying to exert control over Bangladesh.

During the same week, India’s Ministry of External Affairs clarified that it, “Completely rejects the false narrative sought to be created by extremist elements regarding certain recent events in Bangladesh. It is unfortunate that the interim government has neither conducted a thorough investigation nor shared meaningful evidence with India regarding the incidents.”

The “Operation Sindoor” referred to by Fazlur Rehman was launched by India against Pakistan on May 7 when Indian armed forces carried out pre-dawn missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base in Muridke. The mission was named ‘Operation Sindoor’ – a codename to avenge the widows of the April 22 attack, wherein 26 civilians – all men – were killed in cold blood by terrorists linked to an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The precision terror strikes on terror launch pads were met with Pakistani aggression. The Pakistani military attempted to target several cities and towns in India using drones and other munitions, which were “repulsed” by the Indian forces.

Fazlur Rehman has been a consistent critic of the Pakistani government’s policy towards Afghanistan. In October, during a peak in bilateral tensions, he offered to mediate between the two nations. According to media reports, he stated, “In the past, I have played a role in reducing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can still do so.” Rehman is known to wield significant influence within the region and remains the only Pakistani lawmaker to have met with the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada.

Recently, India condemned Pakistan’s fresh strikes on Afghanistan. “We have seen reports of border clashes in which several Afghan civilians have been killed,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly media briefing. “We condemn such attacks on innocent Afghan people. India strongly supports the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Afghanistan,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Taliban regime claimed Pakistan initiated the attacks and that Kabul was “forced to respond.” The two countries have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021, with Islamabad accusing its neighbor of harboring terrorists – a charge that the Afghan government denies.