Asim Munir 'hid in bunker, made himself Field Marshal to dodge scrutiny,' says retired Army official

Pakistani army chief Munir was elevated to the rank of a field Marshal on May 20, 13 days after India struck terror bases in Pakistan and 10 days after an agreement on cessation of hostilities was reached. Munir is the second person to be elevated to this rank, with former president Ayub Khan, and first Army chief of independent Pakistan.

Retired Indian Army officer Lieutenant General KJS Dhillon took a jibe at Pakistan’s Army chief Asim Munir, accusing him of hiding in a bunker during Operation Sindoor and elevating himself to the position of field marshal to avoid public scrutiny.

“The only Army chief who went into a bunker during the operations and the only Army chief who elevated himself to a field marshal just to avoid the public scrutiny. Also the only army chief to be accompanying the head of state to the SCO meeting,” Lt Gen Dhillon said in an exclusive interview with ANI on Saturday.

He further remarked, “Only army chief to be called by American president for lunch. So much for democracy, so much for sporting the democratic structure. Pakistan Army is the only Army in the world which has never won a war, only war in the world after WWII had 93,000 surrenders.”

Lt Gen Dhillon, who served as the Director General of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DG DIA) and Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Intelligence) under the Chief of Defence Staff from March 2020 to January 2022, is currently the chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi.

Pakistani Army chief Munir was elevated to the rank of field marshal on May 20, just days after India struck terror bases in Pakistan and shortly after an agreement on cessation of hostilities was reached. He is only the second person in Pakistan’s history to hold this rank, after former president Ayub Khan, the first Army chief of independent Pakistan.

Lieutenant General KJS Dhillon said that “new India” was no longer questioned on its actions. “Now, when we go and hit nine terror targets as a response to Pahalgam, no one questions us. Because now we are a new India. So, it is important to tell your point but the other person understands your point better if you have a gun in hand,” he told ANI.

He added that India’s growing global stature made its actions more decisive. “Response was required every time and response was apt this time, but more importantly, this time we are the fourth largest economy, going to be third. We are a military might, when we do something now people won’t question. People didn’t question America when they came into Abbottabad and picked Osama bin Laden because America was America,” he said.

Lt Gen (Retd) Dhillon has recently authored a book titled Operation Sindoor: The Untold Story of India’s Deep Strikes Inside Pakistan, detailing how India responded to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which at least 26 people were killed. Following the attack, India launched Operation Sindoor, conducting precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), while also repelling Pakistani aggression and targeting its airbases.

Earlier, on August 10, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh had revealed that during Operation Sindoor, India downed at least five Pakistani fighter jets and destroyed one large aircraft about 300 kilometres away, calling it “the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about.”

*With Agency Inputs