This past Sunday morning, I received a curious message on WhatsApp from an old friend. An article posted on an Indian web publication by Maj Gen. (Retd.) Yash Mor, an Indian Army officer who was my course mate at the Command and Staff College in Dhaka, where I represented Pakistan as a Major. The title image of the article further piqued my interest as it was a photograph of me, Yash and Maj Mustafa Kara from Turkey aboard a Bangladeshi naval vessel. Seeing it brought back fond memories of my time in Dhaka.
I and my fellow Pakistani officers had always maintained cordial relationships with our Indian counterparts and so the content of this article was quite perplexing. Gen. Mor writes that as a result of his performance at a two mile run, I and the other officers from Pakistan were rebuked by our Defense Attache. He further alleges that I then asked to “touch his feet” and requested him to abstain from displaying his physical prowess as this reflected badly on us Pakistani officers.
It seems to me that in this article Gen. Mor has decided to make his contribution to the Indian culture of disinformation, albeit a poorly written one. Mor’s account is a complete fabrication. In it, he casts himself as the leading man, reminiscent of the Bollywood hero archetype, and us as his envious rivals. The Mor I remember used to approach us before basketball games and quietly request that we not tackle him as he was prone to injury. Even fantasy has its limits.
The two mile run he is referring to here was not a sporting event or competition of any sort. It was a basic physical fitness test for Bangladeshi officers which was conducted periodically. The fact that he took it as an opportunity to display his own abilities speaks for itself. The Bangladeshi officers whom he refers to, Major Faiz Ahmed, was without a doubt the fittest of all of the officers taking the course. Yash would likely have not had such an easy time of it if it really were a competitive event.
Since the good General has taken to reminiscing on our time together, I’d like to take him back down memory lane. The purpose of the staff course is to display and hone one’s skill in the art of military strategy. At Defence Services Command and Staff College Dhaka, the conclusive test and the culmination of our efforts was Exercise Bhabishyat. Would Maj Gen. (Retd) Mor please recall who was chosen to lead the overseas officers in it?
But I digress. As officers of the Pakistan Armed Forces we hold by the strict military code of chivalry and professionalism. Indeed, this code pervades the armed forces of India, Bangladesh, and all other nations. Gen. Mor’s piece in the web publication Raksha-Anirveda stands in contradiction to this code. Concocting tales in order to blow one’s own trumpet in the manner Gen. Mor has is unbecoming of an officer and in stark contrast to the standards of behavior expected from a gentleman. It is my prayer that he abstains from such behavior in the future.