'Strategic Sovereignty Vs Dependency': Amrullah Saleh Decodes Op Sindoor Against Pak Offensive

Last Updated:May 15, 2025, 00:00 IST

Saleh, who had backed India's Operation Sindoor strikes last week, said India was thankful for strategic sovereignty, while Pakistan was indebted to strategic dependency.

Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan. (File pic/Reuters)

Afghanistan’s Acting President-in-Exile Amrullah Saleh offered his insights into the recent military conflict between India and Pakistan, calling it a battle between strategic sovereignty and strategic dependency.

Saleh, who had extended support to India’s Operation Sindoor strikes last week, said, “India is thanking its forces, its system, its economy, its people, and its leaders for engendering a new deterrence and elevating the challenge too costly for Pakistan to dare another adventure."

“Pakistan, on the other hand, is thanking ever country and organisation except India for “defusing the tension" and ending the blackout in Pakistan. One is thankful for strategic sovereignty, and the other is indebted to strategic dependency," he added.

Saleh had earlier lauded India’s airstrikes targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, in which 26 tourists were killed. He called the step “bold, unprecedented, and true to its promise, tightening the rope by nine knots."

He also criticised Pakistan’s Army and its proxies for having supported the Taliban for decades, saying that they were emboldened by their success in Afghanistan and decided to carry out the brutal terror attack in Pahalgam last month.

“India shredded the notion that terrorists are separate from terrorist backers and thus targeted both. The notion that certain powerful rogue officers of Pakistani State authorize terrorist attacks was also shredded. This is a new paradigm. Another type of deniability must be invented," he said in another post.

He further said Pakistan’s ‘Operation Bunyan Ul Marsoos’ had failed to take off the way it was propagated and the May 10 ceasefire had actually saved Pakistan’s skin. For the first time, said Saleh, India shredded the notion that terrorists are separate from terrorist backers and thus targeted both.

Operation Sindoor

On May 7, 2025, India launched Operation Sindoor, a military operation targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The operation was a response to a deadly attack on April 22, 2025, in Pahalgam in which 26 civilians, including one Nepali national, were killed.

Following the successful targeting of terror hideouts under Operation Sindoor, the Pakistani Army sent drones, missiles, UAVs and engaged in cross-border shelling and firing, targeting the military and civilians alike, as they intervened to save the terrorists India targeted to avenge the Pahalgam carnage.

After four days of hostilities, India and Pakistan announced reaching an understanding on May 10 to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with effect from 5 pm that day. However, the Indian government made it clear that any future attack would see a strong response on India’s own terms.

News world 'Strategic Sovereignty Vs Dependency': Amrullah Saleh Decodes Op Sindoor Against Pak Offensive