Indian Defence Review

In September 2015 when Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations went public about Indian plans to build a wall along the Line of Control allegedly to convert it “into a quasi-international border” and dashed off two written complaints to the UN (on September 4 and September 9), one thought that some colour of Mitt Romney had rubbed off her, Maleeha having been located in New York since February 2015 and earlier in Washington from 1993-1996 and 1999-2002 as Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the US.  Remember Romney’s gaffe of 2012 when he referred to the Sikh victims of the Wisconsin Gurdwara terrorist attack as “The Sheikh People”.

At first glance, Maleeha was possibly confused between India and Iran because it is Iran that is replacing the border fence along its 700 kms border with Pakistan with a three feet thick and 10 feet high concrete wall fortified by steel rods to stop infiltration, narcotics smuggling and most importantly to prevent Pakistan based terrorists to attack targets in Iran.

Maleeha apparently enlarged upon the dimensions of Iran’s border wall while writing to Vitaly Churkin, UNSC President Lodhi, wherein she expressed “deep concern” at the plan by India to construct a 10 metre high and 135 feet wide embankment (wall) along the 197 km boundary between J&K and Pakistan. Her imagination obviously ran short otherwise she would have also complained that India had arrived at such dimensions of the proposed wall to diminish the importance of China’s Great Wall.

Significantly, Maleeha’s first letter written on September 4 stated there was no bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan, deliberately ignoring the fact that meeting between the BSF and Pakistan Rangers had already taken place.

The wording of Maleeha’s first letter to Vitaly Churkin was obviously not to the liking of Raheel Shariff, so she had to dash off a second one within a span of five days, coinciding with the visit of Nawaz Sharif to Washington in the following month. That Sartaj Aziz was deprived of his NSA hat before Nawaz Sharif visit to US by Raheel is well known. But Maleeha Begum’s fabrication of the Indian border wall story apart, she was obviously aware of ISI’s ‘rat brigade’ trained to dig under fence and wall akin to their North Koean brethren who have carved out some 103 tunnels under the DMZ into South Korea. But yes, the main aim of Maleeha Lodhi was to keep the Kashmir issue internationalized any which way least the Pakistani army chief order Nawaz Shariff to recall her from New York.

Before Nawaz Sharif’s October 2015 visit to Washington, the Pakistani media was agog with Nawaz carrying a folder of evidence of India’s involvement in the Baluch independence movement. But this turned out to be a damp squib. Significantly, a high level team of Sri Lankan officials visited Pakistan in 2012 on latter’s request to gain expertise to combat Baluch freedom fighters the same way Colombo combated LTTE, Same year as a Gallup Poll by UK international official body, DFID on Baluchistan found that 37% of Balochis want independence. But Pakistan hardly needed any advice from Colombo, having unleashed years of genocide in Baloch people; air and artillery bombings, ground attacks, killings, rapes, intimidation, looting, killing journalists, gagging media and scorching the land periodically.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote in his book ‘Pakistan on the Brink – The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan’, “So many journalists have been killed in Baluchistan that there are few honest reports from the province in the national print or electronic media because journalists are too scared. The story of this bloody civil war is going untold …. Nobody even knows how many people have disappeared – the figures are between hundreds and several thousand…. The fifth Baluch insurgency against the Pakistan state began in 2003, with small guerrilla attacks by autonomy-seeking Baluch groups who over the years have become increasingly militant and separatist in ideology. Their leaders who are mostly in exile abroad now demand independence from Pakistan….. As long as the government stays silent on Baluchistan, the longest civil war in Pakistan’s history will only create more casualties and break more records for longevity and heartbreak.

Musharraf’s indictment for murder of Nawab Bugti apart, the BBC through an article titled ‘Baluchistan: The untold story of Pakistan’s other war’ published in 2014 revealed: discovery of mass grave with 13 bodies in village Tutak near Khuzdar in Balochistan;  heartbreaking account of the mass grave by Saher Baloch, a journalist for Dawn, ending with the ominous prediction by an official that there are more bodies waiting to be found; Pakistan’s Frontier Corps together with anti-Shia group LeJ and other terrorist groups engaged in “pick up and dump” in which Baluch nationalists and even innocent bystanders are picked up, disappeared, tortured, mutilated and then killed.

More recently in February 2016, Baluchistan national media sources reported that Pakistani forces’ ground attacks and air strikes against Baluch people continue across Baluchistan. Baloch Republican Party issued a statement saying, “Gunship helicopters and thousands of ground forces have attacked civilian populations in Pailawagh, Ledav Patti, Chubdar, Loup, Sohrabi, Peeshani, Seekhun and Doe Wadh regions. Dozens of houses have been destroyed in these attacks and it is feared that several people including women and children have been killed.” 23 persons (mostly farmers) have been abducted while bodies of five previously abducted have been found. Earlier on February 15, the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) had issued a statement to media that Pakistani forces have killed many unarmed civilians and abducted more than 60 others during their attacks in Jaladi, Sangaan, Yakho, Sanjawal, Babar Kach and other surrounding area of Harnai, Sibbi and Bolan regions of Baluchistan.

It is in the above backdrop that Raheel Sharif has pulled out a rabbit from his hat alleging he has caught a ‘serving’ Indian Navy officer in Baluchistan working for R&AW. According Pakistani military intelligence, the arrested man identified himself as Kulbhushan Jadav on deputation to Iran and was apprehended with a passport with assumed name of ‘Hussein Mubarak Patel’ and valid Iranian visa. Pakistan claims the details have been shared with the Indian High Commissioner but as per media latter denied any documents had been handed over. Consular access to the arrested man by India has been denied. India has rejected Pakistan’s claims that it had arrested a serving naval officer in Baluchistan for what it called “subversive activities”.

The MEA admitted that the man believed to be arrested was a former officer of the navy, stating, “The said individual has no link with Government since his premature retirement from Indian Navy.” Denying Pakistani claim that the former officer was spying, MEA added, “India has no interest in interfering in internal matters of any country and firmly believes that a stable and peaceful Pakistan is in the interest of all in the region.”

According to Pakistani officials, Jadav had entered Pakistan illegally through the border with Iran and he was believed to be contracted privately with a construction project linked to the Chabahar port in Iran. Significantly, the arrest was announced on the day Iranian President Rouhani landed in Pakistan for a bilateral visit, and just prior to the Pakistani JIT heading to India for probing the Pathankot IAF base terror attack engineered by Pakistan on January 2.

Till India is given consular access to Jadav, the real picture is unlikely to emerge. But there are numerous possibilities. With the type of massive Pakistani Army-cum-ISI linked terror groups ongoing operations in Baluchistan, why would Jadav cross into Baluchistan from Iran? With Pakistani cross-border operations into Iran, was Jadav lured into Baluchistan by the ISI for use him to prove India’s involvement in Baluch insurgency, all other efforts having failed? Was this to score point against the Iranian President, telling him Iranian territory was being used for anti-Pakistan activities? Did ISI arrange the passport for him with a fake name – which would be no problem with ISI expertise including with their fake Indian currency industry? Was Jadav lured from Iran or was he first lured from India via Iran? What would one man crossing into Baluchistan achieve when the digitized world is already flat?

If Raheel Sharif wanted to impress President Rouhani with his catch, he sure needs to think twice. Iran favours stability of the Af-Pak region and wants to further economic relations with Pakistan but is deeply concerned about: Pakistani proxies attacking and operating in Iran and Afghanistan; Pakistani military actions against Shias in Baluchistan; Pakistani supported efforts to Talibanize Afghanistan that would bring them in direct confrontation with Northern Alliance traditionally supported by Iran, particularly Hazaras; Pakistan Taliban (linked to sections of Pakistani military and administration) fighting alongside ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and; creation of ISIS in Afghanistan particularly in Nangarhar province, which actually is no more than an ISI (not ISIS) organization, though described by Director US National Intelligence as disgruntled group of TTP and Afghan Taliban.

Iran is also aware of Pakistani genocide unleashed in Gilgit-Baltistan which has already reduced the Shia population of that region from 70% to 50%. And, Iran is also aware of the delegation from ISIS that visited the Jundallah terrorist group in Baluchistan more than a year back obviously on behest of ISI, with Jundallah being the main group undertaking cross-border raids into Iran.

There is every reason for Pakistan to be suspicious about India, guilt-ridden because of her continuing proxy war on India. But Raheel Sharif do well about the consequences of subletting Pakistan’s sovereignty to its northern neighbour which the West is watching very keenly. In his article ‘Balkanizing Pakistan: A Collective National Security Strategy’ published on July 6, 2010, Michael Hughes wrote, “The most popular approach to fragmentation is to break off and allow Afghanistan to absorb Pakistan’s NWFP and FATA, which would unite the Pashtun tribes. In addition, the provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh would become independent sovereign states, leaving Punjab as a standalone entity.” In February 2012, a bill was tabled in the US Congress in support of giving Baluchistan the right to self-determination against their ‘forced accession’ into Pakistan on March 27, 1948. The day is still mourned as a Black Day throughout the Baluch land, including parts of the provincial capital, Quetta.

US Congressman Louie Gohmert stated, “Perhaps it is time to recognize an independent Baluchistan, where we’d have a friend who would not keep supplying the enemy of America, those people train and prepare for 9/11 to kill as many thousands of Americans as they could …… We don’t want to leave Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban and all of the American life and treasure be for nothing….. We leave, but we empower the enemy of our enemy, the Northern Alliance and the Baluch people. Let them take care of their own area. Let them prevent the Taliban from taking over. Let them prevent Pakistan from becoming such a focused enemy as they have unabated. Let them worry.” The next US President just may take such advice and stop mothering the Pakistani military.

It is in Pakistani interest to stop the proxy wars on India and Afghanistan. Declaring a holiday for Holi in Pakistan doesn’t fool anyone when the anti-India terror factories both in Pakistan and POK are going full swing. Time Raheel Sharif also tells Abdul Basit, Pakistani High Commissioner in Delhi to stop experiencing fake orgasms fooling around with Hurriyat separatists. The West may be worried about Pakistani nukes falling into terrorist hands but Pakistan may have a bigger problem with her Baluch Regiment watching the genocide in Balochistan even though Pakistan has been careful that their officers are mostly Punjabis. Isn’t it time for the Pakistani army to stop fooling its own public?