IN a statement, Indian Army Chief, General Upendra Dwivedi, accused Pakistan for promoting terrorism in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). He said that, “Pakistan is the epicentre of terrorism, asserting that the ongoing cycle of violence in IIOJK is being orchestrated from within Pakistan.” This is very adolescent statement given by Indian Army Chief without having realized the ground realities. India fenced the ceasefire line (LoC) from 2003 to 2008; while there was a ceasefire agreement between Islamabad and New Delhi, hence no Pakistani or Kashmiri can cross the ceasefire line. Moreover India has installed flood lights over the fenced parts of the ceasefire line with very strict monitoring through its regular Army units. How can Pakistanis and Kashmiris from Azad Kashmir cross this heavily fenced and well-guarded ceasefire line. Therefore, this is a flawed statement of the Indian Army Chief under political influence of frustrated Modi Regime which faces a lot of criticism at home and abroad. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has declared this statement of Indian Army Chief as, “extreme duplicity” and nothing more than garbage.
Indeed, this is a baseless and unfounded statement; which ISPR asked India to refrain from “pandering to political exigencies”. It is not only contrary to facts, but also an exercise in futility to beat the dead horse of India’s default position.” It is a futile Indian effort to divert the attention of international community from the Indian oppression against innocent Kashmiris in IIOJK where India is killing and persecuting the Kashmiris through fake encounters and raping the womenfolk with total impunity. Indian Military is carrying out state-sponsored terrorism in IIOJK with complete impunity under the Armed Forces Special Power Act and Public Safety Act. Besides, India is making demographic changes in IIOJK by settling non-Kashmiri Hindus from various parts of India after amending domicile laws of IIOJK. Since all these Indian actions are illegal hence being criticized by international community. In order to refract the global attention from its cruelties in IIOJK, Indian Army Chief has issued a baseless and fake political statement, which Kashmiris consider as idiocy.
The ground reality is that, Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism for decades and decades now. The source of this well planned and ceaseless terrorism has been its eastern neighbour, India. While sponsoring terrorism against Pakistan, India has been using all direct and indirect methods including hybrid warfare mechanism. From the decades of 1990, it has been using the soil of Pakistani neighbours with total latitude, complete freedom and fearlessness. So much so, Pakistan arrested Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, a serving Indian Naval Officer (on deputation to RAW) on March 3, 2016 while entering Pakistan from Iranian soil. He was in charge of terrorism in parts of Pakistan with major task of sabotaging the construction work of CPEC and Gwadar Port. Besides, he was promoting sub-nationalism in Balochistan Province of Pakistan through banned organizations like BLA and funding terrorism of terrorist networks like TTP.
After the US and NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Afghan soil has been used by Indian RAW and other spying networks for training, financing and abetting terrorists of various cadres to conduct terrorist attacks in Pakistan. This Indian sponsorship of terrorism continued till 2021, once Afghan Taliban took over the control of Kabul. Nevertheless, Indian RAW is getting back to Afghanistan since Interim Afghan Taliban Government has got closer to India repeating the old game of Indo-Afghan alliance against Pakistan. For the past one decade Pakistan has been constantly asking United Nations (UN) and international community to stop India from using Afghan soil against it. In this regard, Pakistan provided irrefutable evidence of Indian involvement in terrorist attacks against it to UN more than once. Pakistan has irrefutable evidence of Indian state-sponsored terrorism in parts of Pakistan. Pakistan has compiled a dossier containing “irrefutable evidence” of Indian state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan and demanded that the international community must take notice of it in order to maintain peace and stability in nuclear South Asia. From its aggressive and terrorist acts, India is clearly presenting itself as world’s biggest rogue state. India is fanning terrorism in Pakistan with the sole purpose of destabilizing it.
In its 27th Report, the UN Analytical and Monitoring Team found that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has undertaken over 100 cross-border attacks in Pakistan from Afghan soil in the last three months. For for last five years, TTP is stationed in Afghanistan under the patronage of NDS and RAW. This UN report also acknowledged the Pakistani efforts against the terrorism as part of its drive against global war against terrorism. This all is done through a ‘Grand Indian Design’ against Pakistan. Whereas Pakistani security forces had defeated terrorist organizations in its drive against terrorism and the Indian RAW is trying to breathe life into these terrorist outfits once again by making a consortium of these terrorists groups. The long-term grand Indian designs are aimed to create a chaos, social unrest, rise in militancy and economic crisis in Pakistan. Indian terrorism against Pakistan is being implemented through three main strategies; a) directly hiring of terrorists from within Pakistan by RAW operatives, b) using Iranian and Afghan soil for terrorism all along western borders of Pakistan and c) making use of separatist elements like Baloch sub-nationalists.
The ISPR statement clearly refuted the statement of Indian Army Chief and advised him to better stop using its military aggression and oppression against innocent Kashmiris in IIOJK. Apart from sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan, India has a trans-national terrorist network for assassinations of Sikhs and other minority members who escaped India for the safety of their lives. ISPR also advised Indian Army Chief that “Instead of trying to conjure up a non-existent terror infrastructure in Pakistan, it would be wise not to indulge in self-delusion and appreciate the ground reality”.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
