India’s intrusiveness in Pakistan’s internal affairs

By Asif Haroon Raja
India’s Invasive Acts after Partition
When Pakistan came into being on August 14, 1947 under the sagacious leadership of Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Indian leaders didn’t reconcile with moth eaten Pakistan that had been treacherously slashed by the conniving Mountbatten and Radcliffe. They considered it as vivisection of Mahabharata. Believing in Chanakyan tactics of telling lies, indulging in intrigues and deception, befriending enemies of the enemy, and the policy of cloak and dagger, they initiated multiple prongs to keep Pakistan politically unstable .and economically weak with the ultimate aim of undoing it or making it a vassal state of India.
Indian Congress leaders also supported Kabul when it raised the issues of Durand Line and Pashtunistan. They kept instigating Afghan rulers as well as National Awami Party led by Ghaffar Khan in Frontier Province to keep drumming up these issues. Rebellious Baloch leaders desiring independent Baluchistan and GM Sayed in Sindh having separatist tendencies were also kept in the loop of Indian intelligence agencies.
After cutting Pakistan into two in 1971 under an international conspiracy, and subjecting Pakistan armed forces to worst ignominy, India has been making use of same tools of military/economic/political/diplomatic coercion coupled with sabotage and subversion to further unravel Pakistan. To this end, RAW was again mandated in 1973 to subvert people of Sindh and Baluchistan as it had successfully subverted the minds of Bengalis in erstwhile East Pakistan with the help of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his cohorts to create Bangladesh.
In Sindh, GM Sayed and his ilk were extended full support in their Jeeay Sindh movement directed towards the creation of Sindhu Desh. Later on, new Sindhis (Mohajirs) were instigated to chant socio-economic grievances. When ZA Bhutto as the PM made Sindhi a compulsory subject and introduced quota system in Sindh, Indian psy operators further fueled the Mohajirs perceived grievances. With the emergence of MQM in 1984, by late 1980s the old and new Sindhis were locked in an everlasting ethnic war and led to rural-urban divide. Sindh became a wounded province of Pakistan. The MQM supremo Altaf Hussain wanted to gain complete control over port city of Karachi and Hyderabad as well as other urban centres of Sindh. He and his confidantes aspired to detach urban Sindh and make it into a separate State for the Mohajirs (Urdu speaking community). Others who opposed this concept formed MQM Haqiqi under Afaq Ahmad and Amer Khan in 1991. Two major operations had to be launched in 1990s to rein in the militancy of MQM. In Baluchistan, the rebellious Baloch Sardars grousing over socio-politico-economic grievances were given full support by RAW as well as KGB and KHAD, the three conniving partners, during the insurgency in 1970s.
Like the Bengalis who were brainwashed to hate the Biharis, the minds of Sindhis and Mohajirs were conditioned to hate each other. The Baloch were indoctrinated to hate the settlers in Baluchistan. Similar to the Bengalis, the minds of Sindhis, Mohajirs and the Baloch were poisoned against the State in general and Punjab and Army in particular. Their antagonism was further stoked in the wake of Baloch insurgency in which the army was used by ZA Bhutto to quell it, and in the aftermath of hanging of ZA Bhutto in April 1979 during Gen Ziaul Haq’s regime.
India increased its influence in Afghanistan during its occupation by Soviet forces from 1979 till the ouster of Karmal Babrak regime in 1991 and takeover by the Mujahedeen. Between 1991 and 2001, while ethnic fault lines in Afghanistan deepened, the influence of India in Afghanistan waned radically, but it got closer to enervated Afghan Northern Alliance holding a toe hold in Panjsher Valley and its patron Iran.
Pakistan’s influence in Afghanistan also expanded after 1979 when Gen Zia decided to support the Afghans resistance war against the Soviets. All the seven Mujahedeen groups leaned heavily upon Pakistan. Once the Taliban took over power in 1996, relations between the two neighbors warmed up further. This equation of friendship remained till the ouster of Taliban regime from power by the US led coalition forces in November 2001.
India’s Role after 9/11
After 9/11, the dynamics of Afghanistan-Pakistan region underwent a dramatic change. With the coming of pro-India Afghan Northern Alliance into power, Pakistan’s influence in Afghanistan began to decline rapidly and India’s presence increased substantially. The US, India, puppet government in Kabul installed by USA became strategic partners, while Pakistan was outwardly befriended by USA to fight war on terror, but in reality was a target of the trio.
Pakistan Specific Objectives. Destabilize, secularize, denuclearize and balkanize Pakistan.
Covert War
In accordance with an already well-prepared long term plan, RAW in collusion with other anti-Pakistan intelligence agencies based in Kabul converted Afghanistan into a training ground and a springboard for training, equipping, brainwashing saboteurs and then launching them into Pakistan for carrying out sabotage and subversion at a massive scale. Huge funds were allocated and even drug money was used to conduct a hybrid war against Pakistan. Proxies were cultivated in FATA, Baluchistan and urban Sindh to fight and pin down maximum numbers of security forces in the three conflict zones. Pakistan media which suddenly became the 4th pillar of the State during Gen Musharraf’s tenure, was taken on board.
RAW has been and is still making full use of Afghan and Iran soils to carryout covert operations in the selected combat zones of Pakistan that were peaceful till 9/11. Besides the propaganda/psychological war to defame Pakistan, India is leaving no stone unturned to scuttle CPEC, paint Pakistan as terrorism abetting State, isolate it diplomatically, and strategically encircle it so as to enable Indian armed forces to unleash Cold Start doctrine that was made operational by 2008.
India’s Strategic Encirclement Plan. The plan to encircle Pakistan was based on following parameters:-
Keep the eastern border and Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir heated up.
Retain Indian military’s presence in Siachen to not only have an additional route of invasion but also to subvert the minds of people of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
Make people of Afghanistan friendly to India and hostile to Pakistan, establish strategic partnership with Kabul and pose a twin threat to the security of Pakistan.
Sow seeds of distrust in Pakistan-Iran relations and possibly heat up the southwestern border, become a strategic partner of Iran by helping it develop Chahbahar seaport and undermine Gwadar seaport.
Connect Chahbahar with Afghanistan through Zaranj-Delaram Highway and rail network thereby giving access to India and Iran to Central Asian Republics (CARs).
Reduce dependence of landlocked Afghanistan on Pakistan and bring Kabul and Tehran in its loop to form an alliance.
Develop economic ties with CARs and make them wary of Pakistan by projecting it as an unstable and insecure State.
Exploit the opportunity in the wake of Yemen crisis to fuel mistrust between Pakistan and Saudi led Gulf States and get closer to them.
Keep widening the gulf between the US led west and Pakistan with the help of Israel.
Demean Pakistan among SAARC States with the help of Bangladesh.
While enhancing its trade ties with China, continue poisoning the mind of China against Pakistan.
At the same time, launch a vitriolic campaign against CPEC with the help of its pawns in Pakistan and build an impression that CPEC is Punjab specific and that it will wholly benefit China only and lead to erosion of Islamic culture of Pakistan.
India’s Successes. In the last 15 years, India has been able to make successes against Pakistan:-
It succeeded in maligning the image of Pakistan among the international community to quite an extent owing to its diplomatic clout and economic strength.
India’s psychological operators have successfully stimulated antagonism between the two brotherly Muslim neighbors. Like Karzai regime, Ashraf Ghani – Dr. Abdullah regime also sit in the lap of India and is pursuing pro-India and anti-Pakistan policies.
The two successive Afghan regimes have been actively conniving with the ones engaged in undoing Pakistan from Afghan soil. Whatever little doubts lurking in the minds of Pakistan about RAW-NDS collaboration and their support to terrorist groups TTP and Jamaat e Ahrar, based in Kunar and Nangarhar, have been dispelled after the revelations made by Ehsanullah Ehsan, a key leader of TTP, who voluntarily surrendered himself.
Iran is much more close to India and has been tacitly allowing RAW to use its soil for conducting terrorism in Baluchistan and Karachi as was disclosed by serving naval officer, Commander RAW agent Kalbushan Yadav. After his confessions, he has been awarded death sentence by a military court.
Success of Indian diplomacy can be judged from the fact that the US has all along been on the side of India and has treated Pakistan unfairly despite its huge sacrifices in the US imposed war on terror. All its acts favored India and disfavored Pakistan. As if the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and giving India access to Nuclear Suppliers Group was not enough, the US has now audaciously signed three military oriented agreements (Logistics, Maritime and Communication). Easy availability of US, Israeli, western and Russian weapon systems and technology, particularly Israeli made anti-missile system, have heavily tilted the tenuous strategic military balance in South Asia in favor of India.
Besides buying the loyalties of proxies and using them against Pakistan, India has been successful in taming some political and nationalist parties and in using them to serve its agenda. It has economically charmed one political party to an extent that it chooses to ignore India’s unrestricted anti-Pakistan activities and maintains a soft stance irrespective of internal remonstrations made by civil and military circles.
India has also succeeded in buying the loyalties of Pak media and segment of liberals and seculars who dance to the tunes of India and USA and are helping the duo in the accomplishment of their sinister agenda.
India has succeeded in creating a water specter for Pakistan by building over 60 small, medium and large dams over the three Pakistan specific rivers flowing down from Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) in violation of 1960 Indus Basin Treaty and is in a position to flood Pakistan’s rivers/canals in flood season and to close the water flow during crops sowing season.
India has succeeded in keeping IOK in its illegal occupation for the last 70 years and in stymieing all efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Resolutions.
Indo-US-Afghan failures. Following are the failures of the trio assisted by other allies against Pakistan:
Despite spending billions of dollars, the trio has utterly failed to trigger chaos and a civil war and to ultimately breakup Pakistan.
The proxies that were and still are being heavily funded and equipped have been thoroughly battered by Pak security forces, all their bases and hideouts eliminated and the terrorists flushed out.
FATA is almost free of foreign sponsored terrorists and is being reformed and brought into mainstream by integrating it into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Wind has been taken out of the sails of sponsored separatist movement in Baluchistan and Baloch rebels are surrendering arms in droves, and the province is being developed at a fast pace.
Karachi that had been darkened and bloodied is now stable and normalcy has returned to the city of lights. India’s pawn MQM is split into 4 factions and its militancy perforated.
India or USA have not been able to penetrate and exploit the trunk of armed forces and the ISI. But for their strategic defiance and heroic fight back against all odds, Pakistan by now might have met the fate of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Lebanon.
Much hyped Cold Start doctrine for all practical purposes has died its death.
Pakistan Army is now rated among the best, if not the best in the world and is the most battle inoculated Army after successfully fighting and pushing the foreign backed terrorists of all hues on the back foot and without resorting to proxy war in Afghanistan or India.
While India tried hard to make Pakistan irrelevant, Pakistan has improved its stature at the international level and has become relevant and is seen with admiration and respect.
Pakistan has safeguarded its nuclear and missile programs and has made its nuclear deterrence more credible by notching up the level from minimum deterrence to full spectrum deterrence.
CPEC as well as Gwadar seaport have been made operational and Pakistan has become the hub of this corridor, which is attracting large numbers of countries to draw benefits from it.
CPEC has demolished the encirclement plan of India.
India failed to move its goods by road to Afghanistan and CARs through Wagah border.
India’s massive covert war, media war, false flag operations, heavy firing across the LoC from August 2014 till to date, water terrorism and threats were aimed at maximizing pressure on Pakistan and forcing it to withdraw its support to the Kashmiris in distress. All its offensive moves have backfired.
Liberation movement in IOK has reached a critical point and has flabbergasted India. It is slipping out of India’s hands.
Pakistan is intact, it has not been branded as a terror abetting state, and it is not isolated and is on its way to economic recovery and become an Asian Tiger.
Pakistan has improved its democratic credential, retains its Islamic identity and has not been secularized as desired by the enemies.
The other front which the enemies of Pakistan have failed to breach is that of the people of Pakistan, particularly the Islam loving conservatives that are in majority. They refused to fall in the trap of conspirators and have full trust in their armed forces. They hate India as well as USA and Israel and in their view the trio is partners in crime and solely responsible for the chaos and bloodshed of the Muslim world. They are the ones who genuinely feel the pain of the oppressed Kashmiris and openly express their support for them. They condemn the Government for not doing enough to mitigate their sufferings and in exposing the ugly face of India.
Despite spending $ 1.3 trillion, Afghanistan is slipping out of the hands of USA, India and unity government in Kabul. Pakistan and Afghan Taliban hold the key to durable peace in Afghanistan and none else.
Reservations of people of Pakistan
The people have little confidence in sham democracy, in Westminster democracy, Anglo Saxon laws and the British tailored criminal justice system, all being pro-rich and anti-poor.
They feel that the ruling elites are string puppets of the US, West and India and have purposely not reformed the defective systems so as to retain their monopoly over power and to keep the downtrodden suppressed.
They strongly feel that Pakistan was pushed into the inferno of war on terror to please their patrons and are still not prepared to get out of the magic spell of USA even after suffering massive human casualties and economic losses and having learnt about the dangerous agenda against Pakistan.
They see Islamic system as the panacea for their predicaments. They wonder as to why the successive regimes having tried out all possible systems, have not experimented the Islamic system based on Quran and Sunnah as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan.
They resent the self-destructive policy of appeasement pursued by the rulers well knowing that the enemies of Pakistan that are being appeased are hell bent to destroy Pakistan.
Conclusion. The sooner our civilian leaders realized that India is Pakistan’s arch enemy and will never reciprocate our appeasement policy, better it is for Pakistan. Peace in Afghanistan will remain elusive as long as the villains of peace, India and USA continue playing the spoilers game. Contemplated troop surge by USA in Afghanistan will further compound Afghan imbroglio, particularly if Russia decides to intrude as in the case of Syria. Peace in the region is not possible until and unless the Kashmir dispute is amicably resolved. India and not Pakistan is the problem.
The writer is retired Brig, war veteran, defense analyst, columnist, author of five books, Vice Chairman Thinkers Forum Pakistan, Director Measac Reseach Centre. Takes part in TV talk shows, takes part in seminars and delivers talks. asifharoonraja@gmail.com