How conflict with India has boosted Pakistani military domestic image | India and Pakistan tension news

Islamabad, Pakistan – On May 9, 2023, thousands of Pakistanis took them to the streets of major cities, targeting both public and private property, particularly those affiliated with the Pakistani military.

Among the targets was the army headquarters of Rawalpindi, the residence of the top military commander in Lahore.

Protesters, supporters of Pakistan Teherek-e-Insaf (PTI), were protesting the arrest of their leader and former prime minister Imran Khan, who was detained in Islamabad High Court on corruption charges.

Khan was released within 48 hours, but the protests marked an unprecedented challenge to military control. It has long been considered Pakistan’s most powerful and influential presence.

Almost two years later, on May 11, 2025, thousands took them back to the streets, this time praised for military celebrations and praise.

India and Pakistan each claimed victory in last week’s short but intense military conflict, during which they launched attacks on each other’s facilities on a scale not seen since the war in 1971.

What’s more clear is the domestic influence near the Pakistan war. A sharp surge in favor of the military. This is considered to have defended the country from Indian invasions.

A Gallup Pakistan survey conducted between May 11 and 15 showed that 96% of the 500 respondents believe Pakistan won the conflict.

Early data and research trends shared only with Al Jazeera showed that 82% rated military performance as “very good” and less than 1% expressed disapproval. Most importantly, 92% say military opinion has improved as a result of the conflict.

“Black Day” to “The Day of the Right Battle”

On May 11, the day after President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, Pakistani cities were full of people in cars and motorbikes, horns and playing patriotic songs. They were waving flags and posters in praise of the army, particularly its prime minister, General Said Asim Munier.

There was joy in the air and relief. For the previous four days, Pakistan was trapped in a tense military conflict with the Archbishop of India. This is the latest chapter in the conflict that analysts have long served as a major reason for the country’s military.

On May 7, more than two weeks after a gunman killed 26 civilians in Pahargam, India-controlled Kashmir, India-controlled Kashmir, and blamed Islamabad on the attack, he launched missiles at multiple sites in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan’s Punjab, killing at least 51 people.

Over the next three days, the two nuclear-armed countries fired missiles, drones and artillery at each other, bringing 1.6 billion people into the subcontinent on the brink of full-scale war.

After the ceasefire was announced, the Pakistani government declared May 10 as “Day of the Battle of Justice.” This was a stark contrast to May 9, 2023. This was described as “Black Day” because of the violence that the government had been unleashed by Khan’s supporters of public and private infrastructure.

Six days after the ceasefire, Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif welcomed the military’s actions as “the golden chapter of military history.”

“This is the victory of Pakistan’s army, the victory of an independent, proud, dignified Pakistani state. The whole country stands by its troops like a wall of lead,” Sharif said in a statement, referring to the name of the operation against India.

Former Premier Khan, who has been in prison since August 2023, also issued a statement through his lawyers, saying the military needs more public support than ever before.

“National morale becomes the strength of the military. That’s why we emphasize that we should not quarantine people and that we must bring life to the judicial system,” Khan said according to a message posted on social media platform X on May 13.

He was released shortly after his arrest in May 2023, but Khan was arrested again in August 2023 and remained in custody along with his wife, Bushra Bibi.

“Respect has turned into fear.”

Ever since Pakistan became independent from British colonial rule in August 1947, its military, particularly the country’s most dominant force.

Maria Rashid, a lecturer in politics and international relations at the Oriental African Studies School (SOAS), University of London, said that the military has long portrayed it as “a frontier of its ideology, not just the savior and advocate of Pakistan’s physical borders.”

This rule is cemented by four military coups and decades of direct and indirect rules. Before retiring after six years of tenure, former Pakistani Army Secretary Kamar Javed Bajwa admitted in 2022 that Pakistani military had been interfering with politics for decades. He also promised that in the future the Army would avoid interference in Pakistan’s democratic territory.

However, military strangulation against the goodwill of the masses has been tested in recent years.

When Imran Khan first became prime minister in 2018, the former cricket star-turned philanthropist spoke about how his government and the army were “one page.”

But like many of his predecessors, the relationship became sour. In April 2022, Khan was expelled by an unconfident parliamentary vote. However, unlike his previous leaders, Khan publicly fought back, accusing the military and the United States of directly engineering his removal. The military and the United States have vehemently denied these allegations repeatedly.

His conflict with the military escalated, including after General Munir took over as leadership in November 2022. Khan and PTI launched a campaign of rebellion, leading to dozens of criminal cases, including instigation against him and his colleagues.

The May 9, 2023 riots sparked a drastic crackdown on the PTI. Thousands of party members were arrested by police, and more than 100 were then tried in military courts, many serving sentences.

The military had previously faced allegations of domestic repression, but Rashid said the backlash after Khan’s expulsion was unprecedented.

“It was a fall from grace, it was a voice. It also coincided with the rise of social media, where the military found it difficult to control the story,” she said.

“Previously, if there was recent respect for the military, it was just horror,” she added.

“The Essential Army”

The centrality of the Pakistani army was also shaped by repeated wars with India in 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999.

For political analyst Muhammad Badar Alam, the sense of perpetual threat posed by India was “one of the fundamental factors,” giving the military a prominent position in society, politics and governance.

Since the last traditional war in 1999, India has denounced Pakistan as violence and “terrorism” in its soil, particularly in India-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan has denied the charges and said it only offers moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiris.

In the last quarter century, multiple attacks were seen within India. In particular, he said India was planned and executed by Pakistani armed groups in the 2008 attack on Mumbai, which killed more than 160 people.

Islamabad admitted that the attacker could have been Pakistanis, but rejected India’s claim that the government or military had any role in the attack on Mumbai.

India-Pakistan relations have been further strained following the rise in power in 2014 by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu majority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Since then, India has responded to armed attacks on its soil by attacking Pakistan and Pakistan’s controlled Kashmir in 2016, 2019 and 2025.

Lahore-based Aram told Al Jazeera that Modi’s firm stance helped Pakistani forces justify its strength.

“As long as there is a threat from the east, the military will remain essential,” he said.

“A war of perception?”

Both sides have made contradictory claims about the recent four days of conflict. Pakistan reported that it had shot down five Indian fighters, highlighting the importance of a US-led ceasefire. Trump has urged a resolution on the Kashmir conflict. This is an issue that India argues can only be resolved through bilateral negotiations between India and Pakistan, without the involvement of third parties.

India claimed a deep attack on Pakistan’s territory, targeting both armed group hideouts and military facilities.

Islamabad-based political commentator Alifa Noor said that conflict with the “neighbors” brings together the citizens around the state and its military, which is true in Pakistan as well as other countries.

Noor added that Pakistani troops are undoubtedly enjoying goodwill groundwells, but it may be too early to finally identify the impact this will have on domestic politics.

“Punjab has seen the most visible support across the border, but states like Kybar Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan may see it differently,” she said.

Both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have seen persistent violence. Critics there have been accusing the military of human rights abuses and enforced a loss-disappearance – allegations denied by the Pakistani military.

Reflecting Noor’s view, Alam said that in Punjab and other urban areas, public support appears to be primarily poured into.

Alam also said it is unclear how much the image of the military has changed in the eyes of the former prime minister’s core supporters when Imran Khan is still in prison.

Will the popularity surge continue?

Analysts warn that public support for leaders and institutions is usually short-lived despite the “assembly around the flag” effect, which is prominent in times of international tensions.

Nirufer Siddiki, an associate professor of political science at the University of Albany in New York, told Al Jazeera that it is unclear how long the military will receive a clash of approval from the current crisis. She said it could depend on “Indian rhetoric and whether it continues to be inflammation.”

Siddiqui also added that it will also depend on the type of rhetoric that PTI, previously a harsh critic of the military, has chosen to engage in the future.

London-based Rashid, who is also author of Dying To Serve: Militarism, Impact and Politics of Pakistan Army, said the big question for Pakistani people is whether they can distinguish between the role of the military at the border and their involvement in domestic politics.

“We need to be able to call for Pakistani military involvement in politics, but at the same time we acknowledge that their performance at the border is admirable at this moment,” she said.

Meanwhile, Aram said the military also has lessons to learn from the crisis with India.

“The military must recognize that success requires public support. We cannot remain in a lasting war with India,” he said. “We have to fix the economy, otherwise it becomes an existential problem. It should be a calm moment.”