Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited an Army cantonment in Sialkot of Punjab province on Wednesday evening, to meet and express solidarity with the soldiers. However, what could have been a morale-boosting exercise for Pakistani Defence forces turned out to be an ‘embarrassing and ignominious’ one because of the location, ambience and the backdrop in which the Pakistani PM interacted with them.
Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with Pakistani soldiers is seen as a clear attempt to copy that of his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in sending a message to the world.While India’s military prowess was reinforced during PM Modi’s visit to the Punjab airbase, the Pakistani establishment utterly failed not just in optics but also went to expose its flaws, its canards and the extent of devastation that it endured during India's ‘Operation Sindoor’.
As India pummeled and pounced its multiple airbases on May 10 morning, in response to its escalation, Pakistan resorted to a barrage of lies, claiming that it downed Indian jets, destroyed its airbases and also captured an air force personnel.
All those claims were outrightly rejected by India.Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s visit to the airbase in Punjab, yesterday, shredded its web of lies and demolished all its claims. PM Modi visited Adampur airbase, one of the forward areas, which Pakistan claimed to have destroyed in its airstrikes, and met the soldiers in the backdrop of India’s famed air defence system and also fighter jets, but Pakistan PM’s interaction with their soldiers took place in a deserted location, lined with some tanks and aircrafts parked at a distant location.
The pictures shared by PMOs of both the nations clearly show the stark contrast in which the Prime Ministers met their respective soldiers.This clearly shows that Pakistan suffered large-scale decimation and also how its airbases and airfields suffered extensive damage in Indian bombing.
The Pakistani PM’s interaction with soldiers in a deserted ground only confirms this. The Pakistan PMO shared pictures of Shehbaz Sharif with soldiers but not of any airstrip or runaway, thereby ascertaining that its airfields suffered severe damage in Indian strikes.
The only prominent picture was of Shehbaz Sharif standing on an Army tank and addressing the soldiers. Sharif’s meet with Pakistani jawans has also been mocked and taunted by many social media users, who called it a copycat meet and the one aping the Indian style of lauding its braves but utterly failing in doing so.In stark contrast to this, PM Modi’s visit to Adampur airbase was high on symbolism as well as messaging, about how the nation and the Indian Air Force command stand firm and resolute, in wake of the barrage of drone and missile attacks.
PM Modi’s pictures with the soldiers, with S-400 defence systems and MiG29 in the backdrop, right next to the airfield, said it all. Also, he landed at the airstrip in a Hercules aircraft, thus proving that there was no damage to the Adampur airbase.
All this goes to expose Pakistan’s theatrics and bombastic rhetoric despite being cut to size by the Indian military in the May 10 strikes. This was well reflected in PM Modi’s rousing speech at the airbase, where he said that when our soldiers chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, the enemy trembles with fear.
He also saluted the braves for teaching Pakistan a lesson and also thundered, ‘ghar mein ghus ke maarenge’. Notably, Indian forces inflicting severe damages on Pakistani airfields has also been reportedly globally, with two US dailies – The New York Times and The Washington Post, claiming that India took clear edge over Pakistan during 'Operation Sindoor'.