Homeland Security

How Pakistan's Proxy War Began - VIII
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By B Raman

The careful drafting of the strategy has to be entrusted to a special task force on a time-bound basis.

Before drafting and implementing an effective counter proxy war policy, we have to pose to ourselves certain questions, which have rarely been posed till now, or if posed, rarely answered keeping in view the imperatives of national security. The more important of these questions are:

  • Is it in India’s interest to ensure that the law and order situation in Pakistan continues to be as bad as ever thereby deterring foreign investment?
  • Is it in India’s interest to do anything, such as the normalisation of the bilateral trade, which might help Pakistan come out of its economic difficulties?
  • Is it in India’s interest that the unbridgeable sectarian divide in Pakistan strengthens demands for an independent Shia State?
  • Is it in India’s interest that the movements of the non-Punjabi nationalities of Pakistan for a genuine confederation, if not independence, succeeds?
  • Is it in India’s interest that the movement for the restoration of democracy with the Army returning to the barracks with no political role gathers momentum and succeeds?
  • Is it in India’s interest that Pakistan remains inextricably trapped in the black hole of Afghanistan?
  • Is it in India’s interest that the swarming Mullahs and their organisations continue to drag Pakistan back into the past, thereby making it an unwelcome proposition either as an ally or as a friend or as an investment destination?

You find the right answers to these questions and you will have the right mix of the covert component of our counter proxy war strategy. The careful drafting of the strategy has to be entrusted to a special task force on a time-bound basis. Once the strategy is adopted, its implementation has to be the responsibility of a counter proxy war centre in the external intelligence establishment.

Pakistan has the advantages of terrain and local support in this region and, therefore, will be able to frustrate any covert actions without serious difficulties.

The strategy should be executed in such a manner that it does not come in the way of the US-led “war” in Afghanistan which, if successful, would have spin-off benefits for India such as the disruption of the heroin economy of Pakistan and Afghanistan, of the training infrastructure in Afghan territory and of open channels of money transfer.

We have till now treated our intelligence agencies essentially as intelligence collection, analysis and assessment agencies and not given them an adequate covert action/ counter proxy war capability. This capability is an urgent need.

Even on the basis of the assessment of its own experts in the State Department, the Pakistani military junta is as responsible as the Taliban for harbouring and assisting international terrorist organisations, which caused the horrendous acts of catastrophic terrorism in the US on September 11, 2001.

Instead of acting firmly against the junta and insisting on its dismantling the terrorist infrastructure on its territory, the USA has chosen to reward it by removing even the existing sanctions and projecting the junta as the USA’s strategic ally in the “war” against terrorism.

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Instead of controlling terrorism, this unwise policy would only further aggravate the threats from Pakistan and Afghanistan-based terrorists to the rest of the world.

Despite his pretense of cooperation with the international community in its fight against terrorism, Musharraf follows his double-faced policy of covertly supporting terrorism to achieve Pakistan’s strategic objective. This is evident from the horrendous act of terrorism by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed outside the building of the Legislative Assembly in Sri nagar on October 1, 2001, which resulted in the deaths of 40 innocent civilians. His modus operandi has been exactly the same as before: first, to describe the terrorists as freedom-fighters; then, when he finds the rest of the world condemning it as an act of terrorism, to allege that the Indian Security Forces committed the act in order to discredit the “freedom-fig hters”.

Book_a_terrorist_stateSo long as he and his junta feel confident that the international community would not act against them, they would continue to use terrorism to achieve their objectives and New York – September 11 would not be the end, but only the beginning of the depredations which the terrorists from this epicentre would repeatedly cause in the heart of the US.

Continued…: How Pakistan’s Proxy War Began – IX

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

B Raman

Former, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai & Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat. He is the author of The Kaoboys of R&AW, A Terrorist State as a Frontline Ally,  INTELLIGENCE, PAST, PRESENT & FUTUREMumbai 26/11: A Day of Infamy and Terrorism: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

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