Sir: I am writing in reference to Mr Shahzad Chaudhry’s article, ‘States and conflict’ (Daily Times, March 14, 2011). The analysis is mind-boggling in the scope of obfuscation. Mr Chaudhry starts with the thesis that Pakistan faces a challenge from non-state players and proceeds to explain why intra-state conflict matters remain unattended. And then he deals the whammy. Apparently, Pakistan is not attending to intra-state conflict because India has not evolved ‘smaller force structures’, which can adequately support its ‘cold start doctrine’. So now we know that Pakistan is unable to take on the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) et al on account of the fact that the Indian army is inefficient. VIKAS RANJAN India