Lahore: Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir has raked up new controversies with India by referring to terrorism in Kashmir as a “legitimate struggle” and promising to extend further support for the same on June 28, 2025.
Speaking at a passing-out parade at Pakistan Naval Academy in Karachi, Munir alleged that India had been aggressing unnecessarily and posed threats contrary to the action of Pakistan, which, as a net regional stabiliser, is treating and acting with restraint and maturity in the region. He repeated Pakistan’s claims to give political, diplomatic, and moral support to what he referred to as the struggle of Kashmiris against illegal occupation by India, invoking long-forgotten UN resolutions. As far as India is concerned, what they consider terrorism is a genuine freedom struggle, said Munir, who earlier asserted that Kashmir represents the jugular vein to Pakistan.
India has always denied such narratives, stating Jammu and Kashmir is one of its own parts of the territory, and made this position stronger following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Pakistan has been accused by the Indian officials of sponsoring the terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and the Resistance Front, before the global bodies, such as the UN and FATF. Tensions between the two countries were compounded by the April 22, 2025, terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, that claimed the lives of 26 people, which was traced to proxies based in Pakistan.
Munir Pakistan’s internal strife, economic hardships, inflationary pressures, and unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to analysts, he has a tendency to distract people with the problem of Kashmir to conceal domestic failures. According to a South Asia scholar who spoke to News18, Pakistan’s leadership exploits the Kashmir issue in a bid to stir up nationalism despite its domestic crises. X posts showed Indian outrage, where it is being mentioned by users who condemn the venomous rhetoric of Munir and plead to the world to act against Pakistan, which supports terrorism.
By the invocation of the UN resolutions in 1948, Pakistan overlooked its non-compliance with the ultimate requirement of withdrawing all fighters in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Rather, PoK continues to be the haven of terror camps that have been reported in the UN and US reports. A majority of the countries today recognise Kashmir to be the internal issue of India, and the objections of Pakistan have been alienated at an international level, considering the fact that Pakistan has historical records of cross-border terrorism.
The controversial utterings by Munir after the Indian operation Sindoor strikes on May 7, 2025, that hit terror installations in PoK, could lead to a further escalation. With India ready to challenge the narrative advanced by Pakistan at international forums, the international community is again under pressure to respond to Islamabad, which has backed terrorism in the name of a freedom struggle.