India Destabilises the Region for Selfish Designs

By Sajjad Shaukat

It is most regrettable that by ignoring the modern global trends like renunciation of war, peaceful settlement of disputes and economic development, India is following the diplomacy of Machiavelli who in his book “The Prince” advises the rulers to have a lion-like image outwardly, and act upon the traits of goat inwardly. He also suggests them, the use of terror to obtain their goals. In his sense, a good ruler should be a good opportunist and hypocrite.

Pursuing Machiavellian diplomacy of the past, India is destablising the entire region and its peace for obtaining its selfish designs.

Through its military and intelligence agency RAW, India has continued intervention as part of hegemonic policies vis-à-vis her neighbouring countries, including those ones with whom India does not share border.

Besides supporting separatism in East Pakistan which resulted in dismemberment of Pakistan, New Delhi occupied Sikkim, subdued Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh—also sponsored terrorism in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh

During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule, New Delhi has intensified meddling in the internal affairs of these countries. And Indian military and RAW has been given free hand to target these states through manipulation of political dissent, ethnic divisions and economic backwardness.

India which is desiring to become permanent member of the UNO’s Security Council and to counterbalance China with the support of the US—tagging itself as a regional leader sponsors state terrorism in her neighbouring countries. In order to fulfill her selfish designs, India is also supporting terrorist outfits.

It is notable that the Afghan Taliban skirmished with Pakistani security forces at the Pakistani territory from across the Chaman border on December 10, this year and fired mortars at civilian areas martyring at least seven people and injuring 17 persons.

But, despite Kabul’s apology, through unprovoked heavy shelling, the Afghan Border Force killed at least one person and injured at least 16 people on December 15, 2022 at the same border area.

The clashes erupted after the Afghan Border Force tried to prevent the Pakistani authorities from repairing part of the fence along the border. Pakistan in order to prevent the movement of militants and ensure better border management has fenced a nearly 2,600km-long frontier.

The previous Afghan governments opposed the fencing of the border and the Taliban regime shared a similar view.

Islamabad was hoping for improvement in bilateral ties after the return of the Taliban to Kabul. But, despite promises, Afghanistan failed to tackle the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and frequent border incidents highlight the challenges faced by both sides in improving ties.

All these developments such as border skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, fencing of the border etc. cannot be seen in isolation, as various other moves show that India is supporting the terror groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular and other regional countries in general to obtain its secret designs.

In this respect, the head of the Pakistan diplomatic mission Nizamani in Kabul narrowly survived an assassination attempt on December 2, 2022. Notably, calling the attack “highly unfortunate”, the Afghan Chargé d’Affaires in Islamabad remarked that the attack was perpetrated by the common enemies of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hours after the embassy assault, the official Twitter account of the Pakistani consulate in the Afghan city of Kandahar was “hacked”, though was immediately recovered.

The attack occurred at a time of heightened security concerns in areas bordering Afghanistan after the TTP on November 28, this year ended the ceasefire agreed with the Pakistan government in June and ordered its militants to stage attacks across the country.

Taliban rulers took a prominent role in brokering peace talks which reached a deadlock as the terror outfit refused to budge from its demand for the reversal of the merger of erstwhile FATA (Tribal areas) with the Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, allowing the TTP group to keep their arms etc.

Report suggests that in a goodwill gesture, Pakistan’s present federal government released and pardoned some convicted high-profile militants.

Meanwhile, at least three attackers had been killed by Afghanistan’s security forces on December 12, 2022 after they opened fire at a Kabul Longan Hotel popular with Chinese nationals. Islamic State group (Also known as Daesh, ISIL and ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack on the hotel.

The TTP, also known as Pakistani Taliban, is a separate unit from the Afghan Taliban, but both share a similar hardline ideology.

However, as per secret directions of India, the TTP’s announcement to conduct terror attacks at this time adds challenges for the unstable Pakistani state on many fronts.

Besides some low-grade terrorism related attacks occurred in December 2022. Police in KP province came under militant attack in Lakki Marwat Bannu Cantt on December 18, leading to fierce exchange of fire which resulted in the martyrdom of at least four policemen and injuries to as many. Local police officials said that militants attacked the Bargai police station early in the morning with rockets and grenades.

TTP claimed taking Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) in Bannu hostage—holding several security personnel hostage.

On December 20, the security forces took action against the terrorists who were not surrendering. The military spokesman-Director General (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen. Ahmed Sharif stated that the army’s elite commandos killed 25 militants who had seized the Counter Terrorism Department police station in Bannu—foiled the militants’ attempt to escape the facility after their demand to provide them a safe passage to Afghanistan was rejected—During the operation three terrorists were arrested while seven surrendered.

In another assault, a policeman was killed and five others, including three policemen injured in a suicide attack on December 23, this year when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Islamabad. The interior ministry said the vehicle had been heading for a high-value target in the capital. TTP has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

It is mentionable that unlike other countries’ war against terrorism, including the US-led Western countries’ war against these non-state actors, Pakistan’s Armed Forces displayed unbelievable progress through the military operation Zarb-e-Azb (Sharp and Cutting strike), which started on Jun 15, 2014 against the militants in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) and afterwards extended to other tribal areas, has, successfully, achieved its objectives.

During the former army chief Gen. Bajwa’s term, continuing the Zarb-e-Azb, in February 2017, the Pakistan Army launched ‘Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad (Elimination of Discord) aimed at indiscriminately eliminating the residual/latent threat of terrorism, and further ensuring Pakistan’s border security.

Addressing the Defence Day and Martyrs Day ceremony on September 6, 2018, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa stated: “The country passed through a very difficult phase during the past two decades…Our forces and nation have rendered sacrifices in the war against terrorism…Our houses, schools and leaders were attacked. Efforts were made to weaken us internally.” Noting that more than 70,000 Pakistanis were martyred and injured in this war (2017), the army chief vowed to collectively fight this menace of terrorism.

Nevertheless, Pakistan’s armed forces and primary intelligence agency ISI have successfully broken the backbone of the foreign-backed terrorists. Peace has been restored in the provinces of Balochistan, KP and Karachi as well as in other vulnerable regions. 

But, new wave of terrorist attacks especially in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan which is central point of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) show that the CIA-led Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad are destabilizing Pakistan and want to damage the CPEC project which is part of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative or BRI, as Washington and New Delhi have already opposed this project.

This is noteworthy that the Taliban fighters on August 15, 2021 entered the Afghan capital Kabul and seized power, taking control of Afghanistan. The Taliban-led government clarified that Afghan soil would not be used for any terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, ISIS and TTP for terror-attacks against neighboring countries, including Pakistan. But, regarding some recent terror-attacks, sources suggested that some militants of the TTP which is based in Afghanistan have entered Pakistan from Afghanistan. Hence, military leadership has warned Kabul to check this infiltration. 

In fact, RAW which is in collusion with Israeli Mossad, supports TTP and other banned terror-groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and Balochistan Liberation Army, and their linked outfits such as Jundullah has been fully assisting terror-activities in various regions of Pakistan, including other regional countries such as China, Iran Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Besides these outfits, many other extremist groups are also being funded by rogue Indian intelligence agencies as a proxy to further Indian interests by weakening these countries. All these groups claimed responsibility for many terrorism related assaults.

Particularly, a surge of activities of ISKP from Afghanistan against Pakistan has been experienced in recent months. Indian media is at forefront to project such activities and trying to create a chaos among Afghanistan and Pakistan.

ISKP was created against Taliban by hostile intelligence agencies in order to prolong stay of extra regional forces in Afghanistan. Since 2014, Indian government was working on building contacts with the rogue groups in Afghanistan like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. In late 2014, international media reported secret visit of Ajit Doval—Indian National Security Advisor to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to establish contacts with the top TTP and ISIS leadership in Iraq to use them against Pakistan. In this connection, Indian consulate in Kandahar was used for coordination between the TTP and ISIS.

Now, ultra-radical ISKP is trying to undermine Taliban’s rule through violence inside Afghanistan and against its neighboring countries.

In 2020, a UN report on terrorism highlighted “significant numbers” of ISIS and ISKP terrorists in two Indian states i.e. Kerala and Karnataka.

Reportedly, ISIS terrorist Abdur Rehman Al Logari responsible for attacking American forces at Kabul airport in 2021 and killing 170 as well as 13 US Marines had connections with India. Al Logari had spent last years in Indian cities of New Delhi and Haryana before arriving in Afghanistan.

In 2020, UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team revealed that individuals from India are part of ISKP in Afghanistan.

International forces killed the leader of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in 2019 who was an Indian citizen.

ISIS terrorists who carried out Easter Sunday Attacks on April 21, 2019 across Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo were also linked to ISKP elements based in Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Besides, New Delhi has been sponsoring various factions of TTP which formed an alliance with militant outfits Jamat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) and Hizb-ul-Ahrar (HuA) in Afghanistan in August 2020 to foment trouble in Pakistan—simultaneously sabotaging efforts to restore peace and stability in its war-ravaged Afghanistan.

According to the UN report of July 26, 2020, “The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar continue to target Pakistan from their bases in Afghanistan”.

It is worth-mentioning that in November, 2020 at a joint press conference, DG of ISPR Major-Gen. Babar Iftikhar and the then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi unveiled a dossier containing “irrefutable evidence” of “India’s sponsorship of terrorism from its soil and beyond Pakistan.”

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram had handed over the dossier to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

In its 27th report, dated February 3, 2021 and the 28th report, recently published, the UN Security Council’s monitoring team for tracking terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS confirmed Pakistan’s dossier, and drew attention to the increasing cross-border terrorist threat to Pakistan.

Especially, 27th report of the UNO also addressed the activities of the TTP and noted the “reunification of splinter groups [of TTP] in Afghanistan as a point of concern…Five entities pledged alliance to [the] TTP in July and August [2020], including the Shehryar Mehsud group, Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA), Hizbul Ahrar, the Amjad Farooqi group and the Usman Saifullah group [formerly known as Lashkar-e- Jhangvi].”

As regards the recent terror assaults, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on December 19, 2022 called on the Afghan Taliban “to prevent terrorist organizations…the Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) from attacking Pakistan or any other neighbouring country from Afghan territory.”

Earlier in October, this year People in Swat had staged massive demonstrations to protest against a militant attack by the TTP on a school van which left the driver dead and two students injured.

Before this on November 18, 2022, local residents of Lakki Marwat had also staged a huge protest against the increasing lawlessness in the district, as on November 16, this year, six policemen were killed in an ambush assault.

And country’s security agencies arrested the terrorists involved in a blast which occurred on June 23, 2021 near the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed’s house in Johar Town, Lahore. Addressing a press conference, the then Punjab Inspector General of Police Inam Ghani proved that the mastermind behind the blast was an Indian citizen, having clear links with RAW.

The then Foreign Minister Qureshi had remarked that if the international community had taken timely notice of Islamabad’s concerns over New Delhi’s involvement in terrorist activities across Pakistan, Lahore’s Johar Town blast and several terrorist incidents in Balochistan would not have taken place.

Addressing a news conference along with Punjab Counter Terrorism Department’s  Additional Inspector General (IG) Imran Mehmud, Pakistan’s Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah on December 13, this year revealed that Pakistan had “irrefutable evidence of the involvement of Indian intelligence agency RAW in the blast at Johar Town, Lahore last year as three terrorists had been arrested…India had transferred more than $800,000 to the terrorists to carry out the task…the arrest of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav and his statement was sufficient to prove that India was involved in every act of terrorism in Pakistan.”

He added “we are initiating the process to take it up at the international level…will raise the matter of Indian involvement in terror financing and subversive activities in Pakistan at the United Nations.”

Nonetheless, Islamabad tried to garner Taliban support by urging the international community to comprehensively engage with the Taliban to avert a humanitarian and security crisis. Country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif even raised the issue at the UN General Assembly asserting that isolating the Afghan Interim Government could aggravate the suffering of the Afghan people.

So, it is the crucial time for the Afghans to recognise their real enemy-India and true allies like Pakistan, China and Iran who have stood with their Afghan brethren in every uphill situation.

Contrarily, a peaceful Afghanistan is not in favour of New Delhi, but a war-torn Afghanistan is, as Indian strategic thinkers are prone to manipulate the conflicts and wars to destabilises the region to achieve her  selfish Designs

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad­[email protected]