Indian RAW-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan
On 9th June, I had to attend a briefing session and community resilience event of Counter terrorism Unit of British West Midlands police. On the night of 8th June, I prepared well for the coming day’s deliberations without knowing that the country of my origin (Pakistan) was under attack. Next morning, I reached the Police Training centre to attend the event. The news of the terrorist attacks on Karachi Airport shocked me to the core the moment I entered the Lord Knight suite (venue of the event). The event was focused on British counter terrorism strategy as UK has also a substantial threat level of terrorism. However, the Karachi incident remained topic for discussion during deliberations. The delegates including Counter terrorism security advisors and senior police officials condemned this terrorist attack.
The recovery of Indian manufactured weapons from the site of the attack clearly indicates that the real problem is India which is manipulating the crisis in Pakistan. As identified by SH S Soharwordi in one of his articles, ‘Pakistan Army has numerous proves and witnesses that RAW agents were financing and supplying weapons to the Pakistani Taliban’. The attack also reminded me of the April, 2014 statement of Indian Prime Minister Modi in which he talked about conducting operation on Pakistani territory. Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is now under direct control of Modi. Chief of the RAW is designated Secretary in the Modi’s Cabinet Secretariat which is a part of the Indian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). RAW has expanded its budget to Indian Rs. 1500 crore, alternately estimated at 145 million US dollars. As indicated in a report by Federation of American scientists ‘as many as 35,000 RAW agents has entered in Pakistan, with 12,000 working in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab, 8,000 in KPK and 5000 in Balochistan’.
The war on terror has concreted the way for RAW to conduct clandestine operations. These stealthy terrorist activities in Pakistan are being conducted in conjunction with Afghanistan’s Intelligence agency RAAM (Riyast-i-Amoor-o-Amanat-i-Milliyah) and Israeli Mossad. RAW is using Afghan soil for carrying out massive terrorist activities against Pakistan. Daily Dawn has also previously reported that the three arrested militants of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan namely Khurram Ishtiaq, Ghulam Mustafa and Shamim have disclosed that RAW has been funding suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan and that the Indian intelligence agency has channelled Rs680 million through its links with the Afghan secret agency, RAAM.
Webster Griffin Tarpley , an American correspondent in a TV interview while responding to a question said; “the Research and Analysis Wing of Indian intelligence, they are up in Afghanistan, recruiting crazies from there to bring them down and help them to engage in terrorism inside Pakistan. So the Indians have this real dirty aspect’.
RAW and RAAM supports insurgent groups in Balochistan. Pak-Afghan Zahidan border has been used for destabilisation of Balochistan. Shahgarh-Kishangarh Indo-Pak border is also under use to supply arms to terrorists in Karachi and Balochistan. There is a strong suspicion that the unrest in Balochistan and FATA region has something to do with the RAW’s presence in Afghanistan and the number of Indian consulates that are operating close to the Pakistani border. In this connection, one cannot ignore the observations made by renowned scholar Christine Fair of Rand Cooperation who said that “having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity. Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Kandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Balochistan.’
While deceitfully accusing Pakistan of terrorism, RAW has been indulging in terrorism in Pakistan since at a massive scale. Dozens of RAW agents killed and arrested in Swat, FATA and Punjab in recent times. The confiscation of Indian origin explosives, ammunition clearly indicates RAW’s involvement in concealed operations. Even USA has advised India to slender Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar infamous for RAW’s clandestine activities against Pakistan.
On July 16, 2009; Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani met his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh in the Egyptian city of Sharm-el-Sheikh on the side-lines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit. The meeting concluded with the issuance of a joint statement in which both countries agreed to de-link action on terrorism. A reference to Indian involvement in Balochistan in the joint statement was also criticised in India. The then opposition and present Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made such hue and cry that Manmohan Singh was forced to backtrack from the commitment made in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
RAW has also aimed to promote sectarian violence in Pakistan. It has fuelled the fire of sectarianism by killing religious leaders of one group and pointing it towards the other sectarian group. The recent Taftan incident are the latest example of such activities in which 23 people have been killed and a number injured in a gun and bomb attack on Shia pilgrims in Balochistan.
RAW has also been criticised in Indian policy debates for its poor attention to domestic affairs to safeguard India’s security and territorial integrity. There is no doubt that RAW has had limited success in dealing with separatist movements in Manipur and Tripura in the northeast, Tamil Nadu in the south and Punjab and Kashmir in the northwestern part of the India. RAW obviously feel embarrassed that ISI has surpassed it in terms performance. Feeling outstripped and bested, RAW’s is intriguing against ISI.
The notorious RAW under Modi Government is trying to achieve the policy goals set by Chanakya (Kautilya) centuries ago in his book Arth Shastar. Knowing that engagement of Indian Armed forces in conventional warfare with Pakistan is no more a viable option; RAW has adopted indirect, unconventional warfare against Pakistan.
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Dr Iqtidar Cheema
