Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, army chief General Asim Munir with PMA cadets
The
Pakistan Prime Minister's Office
released a photograph Sunday showing Army Chief
General Asim Munir
alongside Prime Minister
Shehbaz Sharif
and cadet officers at the
Pakistan Military Academy
(PMA), amid speculation about the general's whereabouts and escalating tensions with India.
The image, taken at PMA Kakul in Abbottabad, shows General Munir seated to Prime Minister Sharif's right during the graduation ceremony of the 151st Long Course. This public appearance comes as rumours circulated about the army chief allegedly "missing" or "hiding" in a bunker in Rawalpindi, where the Pakistan Army headquarters is located.
Asim Munir's provocative speech
Days before the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Munir delivered an "inflammatory" speech at a convention of overseas Pakistanis in Islamabad. The military general highlighted the "two-nation theory" and asserted that Muslims and Hindus are "different."
Munir said, "You have to tell Pakistan's story to your children so that they don't forget that our forefathers thought we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religions are different, our customs are different, our traditions are different, our thoughts are different, our ambitions are different. That was the foundation of the two-nation theory that was laid there. We are two nations, we are not one nation."
In his address, Munir also described Kashmir as Pakistan's "jugular vein."