Pakistan in a dilemma over naming its missiles after Afghan invaders !

• Pakistan–Afghanistan conflict has an unexpected consequence

• Defence Minister hints at renaming the missiles

Islamabad (Pakistan) – Pakistan, which has long harboured hostility towards India, has no independent historical legacy of its own. As a result, it named its missiles after Afghan and Turkic invaders associated with Islamic history, such as Ghauri, Abdali and Ghaznavi. However, with relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan now severely strained, criticism has begun emerging openly within Pakistan over naming its missiles after Afghan invaders. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has also acknowledged the issue and indicated that the missiles may be renamed.

What did Defence Minister Khawaja Asif say ?

1. In an interview, Asif expressed regret that Pakistan had named its missiles after Afghan historical figures. He said these names should now be changed because most of those figures were invaders and plunderers who brought nothing but destruction to the land that is now Pakistan. (Did Pakistan not know this history when it chose those names ? – Editorial Perspective)

2. “I do not consider Mahmud of Ghazni a hero. He was a thief and a robber. He used to come from Afghanistan, plunder India and return. We turned him into a hero, but I do not regard him as one.”

3. Asif also said that during Mahmud of Ghazni’s attack on the Somnath Temple, he massacred thousands of Ismaili Muslims living in Multan. The time has now come to rename missiles bearing the names of people such as Ghazni and Abdali.

Editorial Perspective

Pakistan, which harbours hostility towards India and Hindu Dharma, will never look back to its pre-Islamic past or its original history. Its historical outlook remains confined to the past 1,400 years. Therefore, unlike Indonesia—the world's largest Islamic nation, which has sought to revive its Hindu heritage—Pakistan is unlikely even to consider reviving its pre-Islamic Hindu history.