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Who is Asim Munir? All you need to know about the Pakistan Army chief
General Asim Munir was appointed as Pakistan’s Army chief three years back on November 24, 2022 by the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir, who has been quiet ever since India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, had reportedly said earlier that Pakistan would respond with “full military might” if its sovereignty or territorial integrity is threatened.
Under Operation Sindoor, Indian forces struck nine terror posts in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) during the early hours of Wednesday, in precision strikes that killed hundreds of terrorists, according to defence minister Rajnath Singh. Following that, Pakistan has been engaging in violating ceasefire along the Line of Control and also sent swarm drones across several Indian cities along the Indo-Pak border. Pakistan’s attempts to attack India were however thwarted by our armed forces.
Track live updates of India-Pakistan military conflict here.
Who is Asim Munir
General Asim Munir was appointed as Pakistan’s Army chief three years back on November 24, 2022 by the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He was a Lieutenant General back then and had replaced General Qamar Javed Bajwa to get the post.
Also read: Jammu: Seven JeM infiltrators killed by BSF in Samba sector
Before being appointed to Pakistan army’s top post, Munir headed the country’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) when tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pulwama suicide attack in February 2019 that resulted in the death of 40 CRPF personnel. He was among the people who shaped Pakistan’s response and security measures at the time, according to people familiar with the matter.
However, his brief ISI stint came to an end abruptly since he and then Pakistan PM Imran Khan did not see eye-to-eye. His appointment to the top army post also came at a time when the conflict between Pakistan’s military and ousted PM Imran Khan was escalating.
What he said just before Pahalgam attack
Just days before the devastating terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, in which 26 people died, Munir made a provocative speech. Addressing a conclave of Overseas Pakistanis in Islamabad on April 16, Munir said Pakistan would continue to stand by the Kashmiri people in the “struggle against the Indian occupation.”
"It was our jugular vein, it is our jugular vein, we will not forget it," he said.
International backlash
Right after India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ on the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday, United States Congressman Ro Khanna called upon Gen Asim Munir to not retaliate to India’s action against terror sites in Pakistan. “Both have nuclear weapons. Well, the most urgent thing is deescalation. I mean, there was the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, innocent people were killed. India took a response that helped take out some of the terrorist networks… The important thing now is for de-escalation. I do hope that President Trump has people who understand the region,” Ro Khanna had said in an interview to CNN.
