Terrorism and violence continue in Pakistan, along with the political intrigues, and this may eventually lead to the return of the military rule in some form or the other. The Pakistani army may spur fears of Indian aggression in these circumstances to gain public support and may intensify the proxy war efforts in Kashmir. India has to brace itself to accept the realities of our troubled neighbourhood and be prepared to face greater threats to its security in this situation.
The U.S. raid and the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, in a hideout in the Pak garrison town of Abbottabad, exposed the Pakistan armys dubious games and its designs of selective terrorism. Once the Pakistani game was fully exposed, U.S. aid was curtailed.
Pakistan, till recently, continued to covertly support al-Qaeda, the Afghani Taliban and the Haqqani network, which regularly targeted and killed U.S. soldiers while getting military and financial support from the United States on the pretext of fighting terrorism and al-Qaeda. The result of this duplicitous policy was that al-Qaeda was protected in Pakistan and it carried out its business without hindrance. After the U.S. Special Forces intruded into Pakistan and killed Osama and the border incident in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed, the relationship between the United States and Pakistan soured a bit.
The ISI has been involved in sinister designs all over the world, including its own country, and it has been fomenting terror in the entire South Asian region. The U.S. raid and the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, in a hideout in the Pak garrison town of Abbottabad, exposed the Pakistan army’s dubious games and its designs of selective terrorism. Once the Pakistani game was fully exposed, U.S. aid was curtailed. But an uneasy partnership for mutual strategic benefits between the two countries continues regardless of these developments.
The Pakistan army has not been able to explain its lack of knowledge about the existence of Osama bin Laden since the last five years close to sensitive military establishments to the people of Pakistan, and it is now playing new political games to re-establish its image and credibility. The army, however, appears unfazed and is not ready to give any quarter to the civil administration.
The ISI, through its terror fronts, frequently targeted U.S. supply convoys to Afghanistan moving through Pakistan”¦The convoys are still blocked, and the U.S. remains a helpless spectator because of its strategic compulsions.
It is difficult to believe that the Americans, despite a close and long association with the Pakistan army, have all along been in the dark about the shadowy double-dealing of the Pakistan army and the ISI’s support to the terrorist groups in the Af-Pak region. It is more likely they did very little because of their strategic stakes and interests in the Af-Pak region till gradually things went beyond bearable limits. Drone attacks and covert ground actions by the U.S. against al-Qaeda and its supporters in the areas astride the Durand Line area could have been more effective but for the ISI’s “tipping off” terrorists and their leadership before American attacks. After the border incident in which a large number of Pakistani soldiers were killed, Pakistan stopped cooperating and intelligence sources available to American forces dried up, making the targeted killing of al-Qaeda more difficult.
The ISI, through its terror fronts, frequently targeted U.S. supply convoys to Afghanistan moving through Pakistan. Eventually, they closed this route as a grim reminder to the United States of Pakistan’s strategic importance to them. The convoys are still blocked, and the U.S. remains a helpless spectator because of its strategic compulsions.
The army’s intense involvement in the internal and external policies of Pakistan is perhaps the main reason of the importance of the ISI, which has been its prime instrument to oversee and conduct all covert operations in the region. The ISI conducts its armed operations through the terrorist organisations based within and outside the country that it has raised, sponsored and funded. The Jamaat-ul-Dawa and its terror affiliate, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), the Sunni strike forces, Sipahe-Sahaba, the Afghani Taliban, anti–U.S. warlords and the Haqqani network besides many others, work under the directions of the ISI and are being trained by the Pakistan army as elite commando groups.
ISI links with al-Qaeda have been now well established and are well known, but that does not seem to bother either the ISI or the army. The Pakistan army still believes that all these terror organisations are part of its strategic assets to be employed against India”¦
ISI links with al-Qaeda have been now well established and are well known, but that does not seem to bother either the ISI or the army. The Pakistan army still believes that all these terror organisations are part of its strategic assets to be employed against India, Afghanistan and the U.S. forces operating in the Af-Pak region. The Pakistan army seems oblivious of the fact that its terror-based policies are wrecking its own country and ruining its economy. Some of those groups it raised to execute its covert agendas have turned against it; they now attack various military establishments. Moreover, innocent people are now being killed almost every second day by blasts triggered by these groups. ISI-raised groups attacked the ISI HQ in Rawalpindi itself. Apart from this, some of its branch offices are being targeted frequently.
The main target of the ISI and the Pakistan military is India, and it has been attacking various targets here and in Afghanistan. Besides helping terrorists infiltrate Indian Kashmir, it is employing its terror outfits to attack sensitive targets in other parts of India periodically. The Pakistan army and the ISI are likely to continue this game, and it is not possible to see peace returning to the region unless these two instruments of Pakistani power are brought under the control of a civilian government, which is most unlikely in the prevailing situation in Pakistan. Conflicting policies of the army and the civil government have created an open confrontation between the two, and now there is danger of a coup, which has rendered the government totally ineffective. In these environments, the security situation will not change in South Asia and the mentors of domestic terrorism who have already emerged stronger than the state may be able to lay hands on the nuclear weapons of Pakistan and threaten the entire civilised world.
Pakistan has been trying to bleed India through “a thousand cuts,” as advocated by Bhutto and later adopted by the Pakistani army. The common people and economic establishments in India have been regularly targeted by Pakistan-based terrorist groups with the active connivance of the ISI. Now, the jihadi terrorist groups may no longer be sponsored or launched from Pakistani soil, but attack by these will continue to be orchestrated by the ISI. Its policy to conduct a proxy war against India in Kashmir and the other means of bleeding India by a thousand cuts have proved a failure, and Pakistan has instead landed into an economic and political mess. It is now a target of domestic terrorism of its own creation. These domestic groups are now busy damaging, degrading and destroying economic and power centres within their own country. It is for the Pakistani military brass to ponder their disastrous policies, which are primarily responsible for creating this situation. It is for the civil society of Pakistan to take up the cudgels against the short-sighted policies of their army, and it is time for Pakistan to wake up to the realities of the situation in South Asia and stop training and sponsoring terrorism, which has come back to haunt it. Pakistan must realise that it cannot annex Indian Kashmir by any overt or covert military strategy. India-related policies of the Pakistani army need be reviewed by the army and the country as a whole if that country is to be saved from splintering and an economic meltdown.
It seems most Indian options after the withdrawal of American forces will depend on the kind of government that is formed in Afghanistan rather than what happens inside Pakistan.
India’s options as related to its policy for the Af-Pak region need to be reviewed and rehashed in view of the rapidly changing situation there and the new developing situation in both these countries. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, India should continue its development programs resolutely despite Pakistan’s attempts to thwart its development work in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime installed with the help of the Pakistan army in Afghanistan will certainly not allow our welfare and developments programs to continue unhindered; and with this in view, we must think about what we are going to do in such circumstances and not just hope for the best.
By all present indications, conditions will remain highly volatile in Pakistan, and this may lead to a takeover by a regime that besides encouraging fundamentalist forces to intensify their proxy war in Kashmir will continue to focus on other targets in India. However, if there is a moderate India friendly regime in Afghanistan, Pakistan may be more careful of provoking India. It seems most Indian options after the withdrawal of American forces will depend on the kind of government that is formed in Afghanistan rather than what happens inside Pakistan.
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दीदी, इस लेख से मैं अधिकांशतः सहमत हूँ … सेवा में चयन भी मजबूत व्यक्तित्व वाले लोगो को किया जाता है और प्रशिक्षण के दौरान ही उनके व्यक्तित्व में और निखर आ जाता है …ज्यादातर सैनिक अच्छे, मजबूत और सुन्दर व्यक्तित्व के धनि होते हैं … अपने देश के लिए कुछ भी कर गुजरने के लिए उनके मन में जो जज्बा होता है वो किसी तारीफ़ के मोहताज़ नहीं है ..हाँ आजकल कुछ ऐसे वारदात सामने आ रहे हैं जिससे इस बेदाग़ वर्दी पर कुछ धब्बे ज़रूर लग गए हैं …पर मुझे लगता है कि ये सब अपवाद हैं …