General Padmanabhan, Operation Parakram and Plan to Destroy the Pakistan Army
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- Read an excellent post yesterday on General Padmanabhan.
- Those of use who're old enough, remember him thundering in a press conference that if Pakistan uses nuclear weapons against India, it will be wiped off from the face of the Earth.
- Let me tell you another story when General Padmanabhan did something unprecedented, something which had never been done before, and something so bold that it shook the very foundations of Pakistan and the Pakistan Army.
- We all know that Op Parakram was initiated a complete mobilization of the Indian Armed Forces post December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.
- When the Indian Army mobilized, its three main Strike Corps (1, 2 and 21 Strike Corps) mobilized towards their traditional/expected hunting grounds.
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- Early 2002 (Pathankot - Sambha-Jammu Sector)
- If you remember your military history and geography and especially 1965 War, you'll know that India is very vulnerable in the stretch between Pathankot in south and Jammu towards north.
- This is because the Jammu-Pathankot Road very close to the international border and we don't have much depth here.
- If Pakistan makes a dash in this sector and interdicts this road, then we'll lose access to Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh through this axis.
- Ergo, to ensure safety of this corridor and to give it depth, India would go on offensive towards Sialkot to put Pakistan on back foot.
- This is what we did in 1965 war.
- MAP_01 shows the geography of this sector, the roads, their depth from IB and possible Pakistani lines of attack here.
- In early 2002, Army's 1 Strike Corps was positioned in this sector to take the war into Pakistan from here.
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Early - 2002 (Southern Punjab and Rajasthan Sector)
- In the Southern Punjab and Rajasthan sector of India, we've 4 x Corps.
- Two of these are Pivot Corps (this term came later after Op Parakram and after changes made from learnings of Op Parakram) and the other two are Strike Corps.
- These are Bhatinda based 10 Corps and Jodhpur based 12 Corps (Pivot Corps).
- Strike Corps are Ambala based 2 Strike Corps and Bhopal based 21 Strike Corps.
- 21 Strike Corps and 12 Corps came under Southern Command while 10 Corps and 2 Strike Corps came under Western Command.
- In the north (southern Punjab and northern Rajasthan), you had 10 Corps and 2 Strike Corps together while in the south (central and southern Rajasthan) you had 12 Corps and 21 Strike Corps.
- See Map_02 to understand the above.
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Mid-2002
- Well, things changed very dramatically in by mid-2002.
- The Indian Army moved about 2.5 divisions from North-East/Eastern Command to western theater.
- Even 3 Corps HQ moved towards west and it was made responsible for the Pathankot-Jammu corridor.
- What happened to 1 Strike Corps and the 33rd Armored Division under its command?
- Well, this is where it got very interesting and very bold.
- After reinforcing Pathankot-Sambha-Jammu sector with division(s) from the East along with a dedicated Corps, General Padmanabhan moved 1 Strike Corps and its 33rd Armored Division to Central Rajasthan Sector.
- See Map-03 to understand the deployment.
- Now, you need to understand that between 10 Corps, 2 Strike Corps, 33rd Armored Division (under 1 Strike Corps), 21 Strike Corps and 12 Corps resides the bulk of the Indian Army's tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
- General Padmanabhan had assembled the biggest ever concentration of mechanized units in the plains and desert sector against Pakistan.
- On the Pakistani side, there were 4 x Corps which included their Multan based 2 Strike Corps (Army Reserve South) with armored and mechanized divisions.
- While these Pakistani Corps also had substantial armor and APCs amongst them, the concentration on the Indian side was so large, that it created very skewed ratios in India's favor.
- Going by the deployment pattern, General Padmanabhan was not only going to strike deep into Pakistan, but he wanted to engage the Pakistan's premier Strike Corps (2 Corps) which held Pakistan Army's substantial fighting potential.
- He wanted to engage with the Pakistan Army and attrition and destroy its fighting potential.
- This was such an unprecedented and bold deployment that the Pakistanis were completely unnerved.
- There was no way in hell that the Pakistan Army could've stopped this massive Indian Army juggernaut of tanks, IFVs and artillery.
- General Padmanabhan did what had never even been war-gamed earlier, forget doing it on ground.
- He was fully prepared to take the battle deep into the enemy's territory and in the process, destroy the enemy' fighting potential for a long time to come.
- This was the genius of General Padmanabhan.
- The political leadership decided not to exercise the military option. General Padmanabhan had given them options and a very bold action plan to sort out Pakistan for good for a long time.
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[PS: Maps show very broad level deployment pattern for indicative purpose only]
[PS2: There is a lot of uninformed commentary on Op Parakram, mainly by foreign defense analysts but most of it suffers from lack of depth about military aspect of the mobilization and focuses only on the political aspect]
[PS3: Noone says this, but my reading is that we were a hair's breadth away from an all-out war]