Allegiance India Role Author Service/branch Indian Army | Other work Author Rank Major general Name Afsir Karim | |
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Commands held Eastern Sector
Northern Sector
Southern Command Battles/wars Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Education Defence Services Staff College Battles and wars Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Books Counter Terrorism, the Pakistan Factor, Transnational Terrorism: The Danger in the South | ||
Years of service 1954 – 31 May 1989 | ||
Security Scan-Nagrota Attack
Major General Afsir Karim, is a retired Indian Army general and military scholar who has authored several books on strategic affairs & military studies. He is a graduate of the Defense Services Staff College, Wellington and the National Defence College.
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Army career
General Karim was commissioned in the Indian Army in June 1954. He is a veteran of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars; he commanded a Para Battalion during the 1971 India-Pakistan War in the Eastern theatre. In 1978, he assumed command of an infantry brigade in Kashmir on the Line of Control. In May 1984, he took over command of an infantry division under India's Southern Army Command.
A specialist of issues related to terrorism, he has authored a number of books - Sri Lanka Crisis (co-author 1990); Counter-Terrorism: The Pakistan Factor (1991); Transnational Terrorism: Danger in the South (1995); Story of the Airborne Forces (1995) and Kashmir: The Troubled Frontiers (1994). He was a former editor of the premier Indian defense publication The Indian Defense Review and a life trustee on the Forum for Strategic & Security Studies.
He is considered to be a pre-eminent expert in the complex topic of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir having served a good part of his career in that part of India. His views and opinions regarding the various aspects of the Kashmir dispute from a strategic, military and historical viewpoint are regularly sought by leading Indian and international publications.
Karim has written extensively on Kashmir and he authored Op-Topac, the semi-fictional account of Pakistan's game plan for Kashmir. In 1996 he wrote The J&K Problem: An Interpretative Study. Occasional Paper 2. Forum For Strategic and Security Studies, New Delhi.
His work is particularly significant because of the nuclear weapons dimension introduced in the subcontinent with both India and Pakistan being proven nuclear powers. Kashmir is considered to be a potential flashpoint for a nuclear dispute between the two often belligerent neighbors by much of the western and international community.
He was a member of India's National Security Advisory Board (1999–2001), and was awarded the AVSM for distinguished service of an exceptional order by the Indian government for his military service.
He retired from the Indian Army on 31 May 1989.