Asim Munir: The son of an Imam, a ‘muhajir’, and Pakistan Army chief who ‘triggered’ Pahalgam terror attack

Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir’s recent speech on Kashmir is being widely seen as the precursor to the Pahalgam attack, where 26 people died at the hands of terrorists.

Munir made the provocative speech on April 17, just five days before four terrorists opened fire at Pahalgam’s Baisaran meadow, killing tourists on vacation.

Who is Munir, and how did his statement on Kashmir trigger the terror attack in Pahalgam?

What did he say?

Munir floated the two-nation theory and stressed that India and Pakistan are two different countries, as he delivered a provocative speech at the  Overseas Pakistanis Convention in Islamabad.

Addressing the public last week, Munir said that the people of Pakistan are different from Hindus in terms of their culture, ambition, ideologies, etc.

“You have to narrate Pakistan’s story to your children so that they don’t forget it when our forefathers thought we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religion is different, our customs are different, our traditions are different, our thoughts are different, our ambitions are different; that’s where the foundation of the two-nation theory was laid. We are two nations, we are not one nation," the army general said.

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He reiterated that Pakistanis should not forget the “story of Pakistan”, how it was formed, and the sacrifices made by its forefathers, “so that their bond with Pakistan never weakens, whether it is the third generation, or the fourth generation, or the fifth generation, they know what Pakistan is for them.”

Son of an Imam

General Munir was born to a father who was a school teacher and an imam, suggesting that the army chief was raised in a religiously devout environment. This assertion is fastened by the instances where Munir has employed Islamic verses in his speeches.

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The army chief, a Hafiz-e-Quran or someone who has memorised the Islamic Holy Book in its entirety, has time and again delivered speeches promoting Islamic ideologies, and his earlier speeches on Kashmir have similarly been provocative in nature.

A spy chief who wasn’t

Munir held the top post of Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), in 2018. But he did not get to hold the post for long, as eight months later, Munir was replaced by Lt.Gen Faiz Hamid on the orders of the then Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan.

But after Khan’s dismissal from the government following a no-confidence motion, Munir came back to the scene and was made the country’s army chief.

His career in the military began in 1986 under the Zia-ul-Haq administration. After graduating from the Officers Training School (OTS) in Mangla and earning the prestigious Sword of Honour, Munir was commissioned into the 23rd Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment.