Pahalgam Terror Attack Exposes Pakistan’s Deadly Mosque-Military Nexus

The recent Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 Indian tourists, has once again exposed Pakistan’s long-standing and dangerous strategy of using Islamist terrorism as a tool of statecraft. Multiple videos and survivor accounts confirm that heavily armed terrorists—affiliated with Pakistan-based jihadist groups—executed the assault, with clear logistical support from Pakistan’s deep state.

This attack is not an isolated incident; it is yet another chapter in a decades-old pattern, where Pakistan’s military-intelligence complex fosters extremist proxies to destabilize India, particularly in Kashmir. This playbook of denial, diversion, and deadly intent is thoroughly analyzed in Husain Haqqani’s seminal work, Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military. In light of recent developments, such as Army Chief General Asim Munir's hateful rhetoric against India and Hindus just days before the attack, Haqqani's book becomes even more essential. It sheds light on how Pakistan’s military establishment has systematically empowered Islamist radicals to further its regional and ideological ambitions.

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The Strategic Alliance Between Mosque and Military

In Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military, former Pakistani diplomat and scholar Husain Haqqani offers a disturbing and deeply researched thesis: Pakistan’s political dysfunction, religious radicalism, and chronic instability are not historical accidents—they are the result of a deliberate alliance between the military establishment and Islamist ideologues.

Haqqani combines historical narrative with political analysis to reveal how Pakistan’s Army has used Islam not merely as a faith, but as a strategic tool. He presents a rare insider’s perspective on how generals, seeking control and legitimacy, found willing partners in religious hardliners who provided ideological cover for military dominance.

The Ideological Engineering of a Nation

Haqqani argues that Pakistan was born with an identity crisis. Unlike India, which embraced secular democracy, Pakistan’s founders struggled to define the new nation beyond its rejection of Hindu-majority India. In their search for identity, they turned to Islam—not as a moral compass, but as a weaponized ideology.

Like his predecessors, Pakistan’s current Army Chief, General Asim Munir, has reverted to the familiar tactic of invoking Hindu hatred to rally public support and shore up backing from mullahs and mosques. This comes at a time when the Pakistan Army is rapidly losing credibility—particularly after the arrest of the country’s most popular leader, Imran Khan, and the crackdown on his supporters within the military, including former ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed.

In a recent address to overseas Pakistanis, General Munir declared: “We are different from Hindus in every aspect of life. Don’t forget the story of the creation of Pakistan—it must be told and retold to our children.” This wasn’t an isolated outburst but part of a long-standing ideological playbook, where anti-India and anti-Hindu rhetoric is deployed to justify military dominance and suppress dissent.

This process of Islamization peaked under General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, but its roots run much deeper. Successive military regimes—under Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia, and Pervez Musharraf—strengthened ties with Islamist parties and militant groups to serve both internal control and external aggression. In return, the mullahs provided religious legitimacy to military rulers who often lacked democratic mandates.

Militarizing Foreign Policy Through Jihad

One of Haqqani’s most important contributions is his detailed account of how Pakistan’s Army deliberately fostered jihadist groups to pursue its foreign policy goals. From Kashmir to Afghanistan, the military employed Islamist proxies to offset India’s conventional military advantage and to establish “strategic depth” in Afghanistan.

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s premier spy agency, plays a central role in this narrative—both as a manipulator and a captive of the forces it unleashed. Haqqani meticulously documents how the ISI nurtured groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and the Taliban, while simultaneously denying any connection. These groups, once assets, have now created a parallel universe of militancy that even the state struggles to control.

Perhaps the most damning aspect of Haqqani’s analysis is his exposure of Pakistan’s longstanding duplicity in its dealings with the West—particularly the United States. Time and again, Pakistan’s military rulers have presented themselves as indispensable allies, whether during the Cold War or the War on Terror, even as they secretly harbored and supported the very jihadist groups they vowed to eliminate.

General Zia-ul-Haq, for example, secured billions in American aid to combat Soviet forces in Afghanistan, even as he embedded hardline Islamic values into Pakistan’s education system, judiciary, and civil society. After 9/11, General Pervez Musharraf played a similar game—cracking down selectively on certain militants while protecting those deemed “strategic assets.”

This deception wasn’t incidental—it was policy. As Musharraf chillingly admitted years later: “We trained terrorists—they were our heroes.” The confession starkly illustrates how deeply rooted the cultivation of extremism is within Pakistan’s military establishment.

This cynical double game may have kept Western aid flowing, but it also radicalized generations of Pakistanis and left behind a toxic legacy that outlived the immediate tactical gains. It blurred the lines between national strategy and militant ideology—creating a Frankenstein’s monster the state can no longer fully control.

"We trained terrorists — they were our heroes." – Musharraf's confession

The Myth of the “Stabilizing” Army

Haqqani challenges the widely held belief that Pakistan’s army is a force of stability. In reality, he argues, the military has actively undermined democratic institutions, civil society, and elected governments to maintain its supremacy.

From Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, civilian leaders have been co-opted, weakened, or ousted whenever they challenged military dominance. Even during civilian rule, real power over foreign policy, national security, and nuclear assets remains with the military headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Why the World Must Care

Haqqani’s book goes beyond critique—it is a warning to the international community. He urges world powers to reconsider their short-term strategic partnerships with Pakistan’s military, which have enabled the growth of ideological extremism.

He makes a compelling case that until Pakistan dismantles the unholy alliance between its military and religious extremists, it will remain a nuclear-armed state plagued by instability, terrorism, and authoritarianism.

The Road Not Taken

Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military is a courageous and sobering work. It cuts through state-sponsored propaganda to reveal the deep structural contradictions that keep Pakistan in a loop of democratic breakdown and extremist resurgence.

For anyone seeking to understand why Pakistan remains a troubled state, why its democratic hopes repeatedly falter, and why it poses a persistent challenge to regional peace, Haqqani’s book is essential reading.

Husain Haqqani Podcast - Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military