The Forum for Strategic AndSecurity Studies is deeply saddened to announce the sad passing away of Major General Afsir Karim on 12 February 2019, after a long and heroic fight against cancer.
General Karim was a commissioned in the Indian Army in June 1954 and had the unique distinction to fight for his country in the 1962 India-China war and in the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars. In the 1971 Liberation War, he commanded a Parachute battalion in the Eastern theatre. For distinguished service of an exceptional order, he was awarded the AtiVishishtSeva Medal while serving in the Army.Post retirement in May 1989, the General took to academic life and became a renowned scholar and thinker on strategic issues. As a soldier turned scholar, General Afsir Karim contribute greatly to the study of counter-terrorism and was one of the pre-eminent experts on the complexities that plagued the state of Jammu and Kashmir, having served a good part of his career in that part of India. He also served as a member of India's National Security Advisory Board (1999-2001).
Amongst the books authored by him, are Sri Lanka Crisis (co-author 1990); Counter-Terrorism: The Pakistan Factor (1991); Transnational Terrorism: Danger in the South (1995); Kashmir: The Troubled Frontiers (1994) and Story of the Airborne Forces (1995). Amongst his writings on Kashmir was Op Tupac, a semi-fictional account of Pakistan's game plan for Kashmir. He was a former editor of the Indian Defence Review and a life trustee on the Forum for Strategic & Security Studies. He was also founder-editor of AGNI and AAKROSH Magazines, India's first journals on trans-national terrorism and an India Foundation publication. An officer known for his uprightness and integrity, his passing away is a sad loss for the Armed Forces and the strategic community. We in Forum ForStrategic and Security Studies shall miss him as will countless others across the country.