China using strategy of “killing with a borrowed knife,” gave Pakistan real-time inputs during Operation Sindoor to harm India without soiling its own hands: Deputy Chief of Army Staff
Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, Deputy Chief of Army Staff, has said a few things concerning the contributions of China and Turkey towards Pakistan during the Operation Sindoor, India’s four-day military operation against Pakistan in May. Speaking at an event hosted by FICCI in Delhi, General Singh said that China provided Pakistan with real-time information about India’s military movements during the operation, which began after the Pahalgam terror attack on 22nd April that left 26 people dead, mostly tourists.
As per General Singh, Pakistan was in the forefront, but it wasn’t alone. He described how China was backing Pakistan behind the scenes, providing crucial intelligence throughout the conflict. Pakistan received live feeds on India’s “important vectors”. While speaking at a military level, Pakistan informed India that they knew of a particular vector being “primed” and “ready for action,” patently displaying that they were receiving live feeds, quite possibly from China.
General Singh indicated this was not surprising. He noted that 81% of all Pakistan’s hardware over the last five years has been from China, and, as a result, it is not surprising that China can play with a kind of “live testing ground” in Pakistan. He likened it to being like a laboratory, where China gets to observe how its equipment functions when put into real war-like situations without actually joining the battlefield.
Taking a swipe at Beijing, General Singh mentioned one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, an influential Chinese essay on tactics employed in war and politics. He pointed to the strategy of “killing with a borrowed knife,” citing that China was employing Pakistan to harm India, rather than getting directly involved. “China, the old victim nice, would prefer to have the neighbour harm and not soil its own hands,” he said.
The general also mentioned Turkey’s role, which, he said, supported Pakistan diplomatically and perhaps in other ways during the operation. Post-conflict, Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif visited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who pledged complete support for Pakistan. Erdogan also demanded greater cooperation in counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing.
Operation Sindoor was initiated by India on 7th May, in response to the ghastly terror strike in Pahalgam. India held Pakistan-based terrorists responsible for the murder of 26 individuals, most of them were tourists, and a local who tried to help them. India responded by carrying out pinpoint strikes against nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK). More than 100 terrorists were said to have been killed in the operation.
Pakistan retaliated by carrying out drone strikes across India’s border states, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri and Poonch districts. At least ten Indian civilians were killed, and various areas were damaged as a result of the strikes.
A ceasefire was agreed on 10th May, but Indian authorities later asserted that Pakistan had contacted them for de-escalation only 48 hours into the operation, demonstrating the pressure they felt.
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