The 2019 Balakot Airstrikes and Abhinandan’s Captivity
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman of the Indian Air Force (IAF) became a household name in 2019, following the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 Indian paramilitary personnel were killed. In response, India launched the Balakot airstrikes, targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp inside Pakistan.
As tensions escalated, a retaliatory aerial combat took place on February 27, 2019. During this engagement, Abhinandan piloted a MiG-21 Bison and shot down a Pakistani F-16 before being shot down himself. He ejected and landed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, where he was captured by Pakistani forces. His calm demeanor in captivity and subsequent return to India after intense diplomatic pressure turned him into a national hero.
One of the Pakistani officers who claimed to have played a role in his capture was Major Moiz Abbas Shah, a member of the Pakistan Army’s elite Special Service Group (SSG).
Major Moiz Abbas Shah: From Captor to Combat Casualty
Fast forward to June 2025, Major Moiz Abbas Shah, aged 37 and a native of Chakwal, met a violent end while leading an anti-terror operation in South Waziristan, a restive region bordering Afghanistan. He was killed in a gunfight with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—an extremist group that once enjoyed tacit support from segments of the Pakistani state.
Along with Shah, Lance Naik Jibranullah also lost his life in the same encounter. The Pakistan Army confirmed both casualties, marking yet another blow to its ranks in a worsening domestic insurgency.
The TTP: A Monster Turned Foe
The TTP was born out of the fallout from the 2007 Lal Masjid siege in Islamabad. Initially tolerated and allegedly supported by Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the group drew recruits and ideologues from the same jihadist pool that had long been used for proxy operations in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
Prominent TTP figures, including current chief Noor Wali Mehsud, were trained by extremist groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. These connections once served Pakistan's strategic goals but have since backfired.
Now, the TTP has turned its guns inward, targeting Pakistani security forces and civilians. The group justifies its war on the Pakistani state as a retaliation for perceived betrayals and crackdowns. Alarmingly, in 2025 alone, 116 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in TTP attacks. This follows 2024, which witnessed over 1,200 deaths among Pakistan’s military and police personnel due to extremist violence.
Symbolism and Irony: A Shift in the Battlefield
Major Moiz Abbas Shah’s death is not just a casualty of war—it is symbolically loaded. A man once celebrated in Pakistan for capturing an Indian war hero has now been slain by an enemy within. His death underscores the ironic arc of Pakistan’s internal security crisis: groups once used as strategic assets have mutated into uncontrollable threats.
South Waziristan, where Shah was killed, is emblematic of Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas, which have long been used as sanctuaries for insurgents. Today, these areas have become the epicenter of Pakistan’s self-inflicted insurgency, costing lives, stability, and international credibility.
Strategic Blowback and the Cost of Ambiguity
The killing of Major Moiz Abbas Shah serves as a grim reminder of strategic miscalculations. Pakistan’s long-standing ambiguity toward extremist groups has spiraled into a full-scale internal war. While the officer was once linked to a defining moment in Indo-Pak rivalry, his death illustrates a far more complex and dangerous conflict within Pakistan's own borders.
In contrast to 2019, when he was part of a narrative of external confrontation, Shah’s end in 2025 reflects a country turning inward, battling a hydra it once helped grow. For India, his death may evoke historical memory, but for Pakistan, it demands urgent introspection—and a decisive break from its past.
(With agency inputs)