Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir promoted to Field Marshal: Report

Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir to the rank of Field Marshal

Pakistan has promoted its Army chief General Asim Munir to the rank of Field Marshal on Tuesday, as per a report by Pak news website Geo News.

"The federal government on Tuesday promoted Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir to the rank of field marshal," the report said.

As per the report, Munir is the first to attain the Field Marshal rank after Ayub Khan.

As per PTV, the Pakistani cabinet took the decision to “promote General Asim Munir as Field Marshal” of the country for his "exemplary role" in the conflict with India.

Also read - Who is General Asim Munir? Pakistan’s ‘Hafiz-e-Quran’ army chief, son of a mujahir

After graduating from Pakistan's Officers Training School in Mangla, Munir was commissioned into the 23rd Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment. He served as the head of Military Intelligence between 2016 to 2018.

He served as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for just 8 months in 2018 — thereby becoming the shortest-serving chief of the agency. He was removed from the post by the then Prime Minister Imran Khan after a public fallout.

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Munir's April 16 speech is considered by India as the trigger for April 22 Pahalgam attack where 26 innocent people were killed Pak terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF). Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had remarked: "Pakistan Army Chief’s speech from April was a communal rhetoric. There could be links between his speech and the Pahalgam terror attack."

Munir had rekindled Pakistan’s hardline stance on Kashmir by calling it the country’s “jugular vein”. He had also urged Pakistanis to instill in their children the belief that they are “different from Hindus” — a statement that drew sharp criticism for stoking sectarian sentiment.

In retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack, India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of 7 May with the Indian armed forces carrying out precision missile strikes on terror targets like Bahawalpur, a stronghold of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group, and Muridke — the headquarter of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Pak attempted to retaliate to the strikes on terror bases on its land, but these were successfully thwarted by the Indian Armed Forces. India then hit back hard, carrying out strikes at military installations in Pakistan until the early morning of May 10. Then in the evening of the same day, Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMOs) reached out to his Indian counterpart requesting no further escalation. Thereafter, an understanding was reached between the two countries to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect.