Muhammad Hanif
WITH a view to weakening Pakistan to accept the Indian primacy in the region and to end Pakistan’s consistent political, diplomatic and moral support to the just freedom struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, India is conducting a planned, multi-pronged, political, diplomatic, economic, propaganda and psychological war against it. This hybrid war is being properly reinforced by India by supporting separatist elements in Balochistan, sponsoring terrorism in Balochistan and the KP, exploiting sectarian differences, and keeping the LoC hot by carrying out consistent cease fire violations and occasional air violations of the Pakistani airspace by terming those as so called surgical strikes. There is an ample evidence of the above stated India’s current hybrid war against Pakistan. In fact India has always blackmailed and pressurized all the smaller South Asian states to accept its hegemony in South Asia, except Pakistan, which has the capacity and will to resist its hegemony. To keep smaller countries under pressure to accept Indian solutions to resolve bilateral disputes, India uses its diplomatic clout and military and economic power, disregarding all international norms and even the UNSC resolutions regarding resolving the disputes.
For example, despite UNSC Resolution 47 of 1948 that gives the right to self determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir through a UNSC supervised plebiscite, to decide whether they wanted the State to join Pakistan or India, after its denial for the last 71 years to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, on 5 August 2019, India divided the state into two union territories to grab the state permanently and has unleashed a rein of terror in Kashmir using above 900,000 soldiers to crush the Kashmiris resistance, committing genocide and endless HR violations. And, to constrain Pakistan from supporting the Kashmiris’ just freedom struggle, India has launched a hybrid war against it. As part of the hybrid war, India uses all diplomatic forums and meetings to undermine Pakistan’s image by blaming it for sponsoring terrorism in India without a credible evidence. The latest example is the joint statement of Third US-India Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue, published in US Department of State, which states, “The Ministers called on Pakistan to take immediate, sustained and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for terrorist attacks, and to expeditiously bring to justice perpetrators and planners of all such attacks, including 26/11 Mumbai, Uri, and Pathankot.
India is currently using its propaganda machine to exploit political differences between the Pakistan’s PTI government and the opposition parties’ anti-government movement (PDM) to prove that Pakistan is ridden with instability. In this context, Nawaz Sharif’s speech delivered virtually from London during PDM’s Gujranwala public gathering was also discussed on the Indian TV channels with jubilation. There are numerous such examples of India’s propaganda and diplomatic war against Pakistan. This all is being done by India to prove that Pakistan is an unstable country so that the foreign investors are discouraged to invest in Pakistan. Likewise, India is opposing the CPEC by propagating that it passes through a GB area claimed by it. Moreover, India is trying to destabilize the CPEC route by sponsoring terrorist attacks. Also, to bring international economic sanctions against Pakistan, India is struggling to move Pakistan’s name in the FATF’s black list. These Indian efforts are meant to contain Pakistan’s CPEC and foreign investment boosted economic development to keep it economically weak. This is a part of India’s economic war against Pakistan.
India is sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan by using the Afghan soil as a weapon of war to disturb Pakistan’s peace and stability and delay the construction of the CPEC. To disturb the CPEC project, India’s RAW is also struggling to exploit the sectarian issue in Gilgit-Baltistan. By sponsoring terrorism in Balochistan, India is encouraging and supporting separatist tendencies among the dissident Baloch youth, who have taken asylum in the western countries. India has issued passports to some of those and is using them to carry out terrorism in Balochistan using Baloch dissidents. Similarly, India is sponsoring the Pakistani terrorists of TPP, who escaped Zarb-e-Azb and fled to Afghanistan, to launch terrorist attacks in KP province. In this context, the confessions of Kalboshan Jadav, Indian Naval Spy Officer that he was assigned to destabilize Balochistan by sponsoring terrorism, the former US Defence Secretary Hegel and Gen. MC Crystal’s earlier statements that India was causing difficulties for Pakistan using the Afghan soil and the 14 November 2020, joint press conference by the Pakistani Foreign Minister and DG ISPR giving evidence of India’s involvement in supporting terrorism in Pakistan, using its Embassy and Counsulates in Afghanistan are a sufficient proof that India is sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan.
Also, to keep Pakistan under pressure, India is constantly carrying out cease fire violations across the LoC and killing Pakistani soldiers and civilians. As Indian decision makers have become too arrogant after India became a close defence partner of the US, after the arrival of the French Rafel aircraft and the recent signing of the agreement of real time intelligence sharing with the US, the Indian Army Chief has threatened Pakistan for capturing Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This statement is a fair proof that the Kashmir dispute is a nuclear flash point in South Asia. The above discussion suggests that the Pakistani decision makers and the people need to understand that India’s this dangerous and destabilizing hybrid war is a reality and it is meant to harm Pakistan’s integrity and impede its CPEC boosted economic development. Hence, the successive Pakistani governments and the people should remain committed not only to counter this hybrid war as a united nation, but to exploit India’s numerous weaknesses, and put it on the defensive. This has to be done by the Pakistani leadership and the people by keeping Pakistan’s interest above their local interests, and focusing on Pakistan’s religious and social harmony, strengthening its economy, diplomacy, media management and the defence capabilities. In this context, Pakistan’s political parties and religious sects should display consensus.
—The writer is a former Consultant and Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad and Senior Research Fellow of Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), Islamabad.
