Damning evidence makes clear India’s role in Pakistan’s increasing terrorist attacks
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Pakistan revealed on Saturday what it described as "irrefutable evidence” of India’s sponsorship of terrorism in the country as tensions between the two nuclear armed South Asian nations heighten. This was not the first time Islamabad has blamed India for waging a proxy war against it, but the charges are much more serious this time.
Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has called on the international community to take notice of India’s support for militant groups operating in the country. He said India has prepared a plan to de-stabilize Pakistan.
The allegations come as Pakistan faces an escalation in militant attacks in Waziristan and the southwestern province of Balochistan which has killed dozens of Pakistani soldiers in the last few months. The attacks have reportedly been carried out by outlawed groups such as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch separatist outfits allegedly operating from across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials contend that militants are being trained and financed by Indian intelligence. The allegations are backed by undeniable proof of contacts of militant leaders and Indian security personnel. It leaves little doubt about India’s role in fanning the flames of insurgency in Balochistan.
There has been a marked increase in terrorist attacks targeting Pakistani security forces in the troubled province, which has been in the grips of a low intensity insurgency for the past several years.
Pakistani officials have also presented intercepted conversations between Indian officials with Allah Nazar, the leader of Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the largest and most lethal of all armed separatist groups fighting Pakistan in the southwestern province.
The group also features on a US list of terrorist entities and has remained involved in several attacks targeting civilians and Pakistani security forces in recent years
Besides Pakistani security personnel, the group has also targeted Chinese nationals associated with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in the province. The latest attacks have shown that the Baloch separatists are much more organized and trained-- which gives credence to Pakistan’s allegations of them being sponsored by external forces. India has publicly opposed CEPC and sees the growing relations between Islamabad and Beijing as a threat to its national security.
India's assistance to the secessionist movement in Balochistan has increased after Narendra Modi’s ultra-nationalist government assumed political power in the neighboring country. As part of its policy of what is described as “offensive defense,” the Modi administration offered asylum to Baloch separatist leaders. The strategy now is to capitalize on Pakistan’s internal fault lines.
Earlier this year, the BLA carried out a spectacular attack on the Karachi Stock Exchange, sending a grim reminder that India will do its best to take advantage of Pakistan’s vulnerabilities in the strategically located Balochistan province.
The latest attacks have shown that the Baloch separatists are much more organized and trained-- which gives credence to Pakistan’s allegations of them being sponsored by external forces. India has publicly opposed CEPC and sees the growing relations between Islamabad and Beijing as a threat to its national security.
Zahid Hussain
Another serious concern of Pakistan is the revival of TTP as a united group. The militant outfit that had splintered into several factions has recently agreed to work together to fight Pakistani forces. Pakistani officials see India’s role in getting the fractious groups together and providing them with financial support.
There has also been a major escalation in IED attacks in North Waziristan in recent months. The biggest of the seven former tribal regions also known as FATA was recently cleared of Pakistani Taliban. Most of the militant leaders had fled to Afghanistan and have been operating from their bases across the border. There are reports of them returning to the area.
Pakistani security officials believe that the rise in militant attacks in the borderland was part of India’s plan to subvert ongoing intra Afghan peace talks.
India’s covert war has intensified with a worsening situation in the occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir. Delhi last year unilaterally annexed the disputed territory stripping the Muslim majority area of its autonomy. The territory has been under virtual lockdown since August 2019.
There has also been marked escalation in clashes between Indian and Pakistani forces along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the two sides of the disputed area. Pakistan says the Indian escalation is meant to divert the attention of the international community from its atrocities in Kashmir.
Pakistani authorities point out that there has been a marked increase in militant attacks in the country with rising tensions between the two countries. India also blames Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism on its soil. These tit-for-tat actions have generated an extremely dangerous situation that may get out of control-- and carry the very real danger of turning into a wider conflagration.
– Zahid Hussain is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a former scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholar, USA, and a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and at the Stimson Center in Washington DC. He is author of Frontline Pakistan: The struggle with militant Islam (Columbia university press) and The Scorpion’s tail: The relentless rise of Islamic militants in Pakistan (Simon and Schuster, NY). Frontline Pakistan was the book of the year (2007) by the WSJ.
Twitter: @hidhussain
