HVK Archives: Pak's undeclared war on India
Pak's undeclared war on India - The Observer
T V Rajeshwar
()
23 January 1997
Title : Pak's undeclared war on India
Author : T V Rajeshwar
Publication : The Observer
Date : January 23, 1997
A holistic view of the various events that have been taking place
in India at the instance of Pakistan, its ISI and its Indian and
other sub-continental operatives since the days of Gen. Zia
ul-Haq, brings up only one answer - that Pakistan wants to destroy
India by a war of attrition, as in J&K, extensive subversion and
sabotage as in the north east and other forms of militancy
including terrorism in Punjab and elsewhere.
In reality, India is under attack by the surrogates of Pakistan all
around.
Look at the evidence: The arrest of Azaz Mohammad Rafeik and
Maksoor Ali reportedly sent by Chhota Shakeel, Dawood Ibrahim's
shadow in Dubai, with 10 kg of RDX explosive and other accessories
for causing a series of explosions in Delhi around the Republic Day
is the latest in the series.
The Mumbai police is equally worried over the possibility of serial
bombings on the pattern of the explosions in March, 1993.
The Punjab police recently arrested a notorious terrorist, Pritam
Singh Bhatia, and recovered hand grenades, plastic bombs and 5 kg
of RDX. He was believed to be responsible for several explosions
such as the Jhelum Express bomb blast, the explosion near the Red
Fort in September 1996 etc.
The intelligence authorities and the Delhi Police have been on the
alert over the threatened explosions and bomb attacks during the
Republic Day week from Kashmiri and Sikh terrorists as well as from
certain north eastern subversives including Bodes who have come
into focus recently.
In Kashmir itself, the attacks on security forces, paramilitary
units and the National Conference activists have acquired an edge
since the beginning of the year. Grenades were thrown at the home
minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and some of his cabinet colleagues on
January 1, On the same day, a news reader of Srinagar television
station, Altaf Ahmad Fakhtoo, was shot dead while eating at a
restaurant.
His crime was that. he was working for the television in defiance
of the terrorists' ban. On January 3, a bomb planted near the chief
minister Farooq Abdullah's residence exploded killing four persons.
At a parallel level, there is dumping of counterfeit currency notes
of high denomination which have been recovered at several places in
the valley. If officials of some of the branches of important
banks colluded with the terrorists, due to threat or otherwise, the
dumping of these currency notes would flood the valley and
elsewhere.
All indications in Jammu and Kashmir point out that various
militant groups are regrouping and reorganising themselves and it
is only a matter of time before they launch a series of attacks on
the security forces. The foreign mercenaries, including those
recruited from Afghanistan and Sudan as well as Chechnya, are
increasingly being seen in the valley.
>From all these developments it is obvious that Pakistan wants to
undermine and weaken the newly elected popular government of Dr
Farooq Abdullah. He has escaped at least two attempts on his life
and such attempts would continue.
The north eastern militants are all under the overall direction and
guidance of ISI operatives who have been active from their bases in
Bangladesh and Nepal.
The ULFA and NSCN continue to carry out strikes including ambushes
on security forces.
While Bangladesh's prime minister has promised co-operation in
removing the militants from their camps in her country it remains
to be seen whether the close co-operation which was built up by ISI
with Bangladesh intelligence forces over the years would yield in
implementing the political directive.
Nepal has been co-operating with Indian authorities in apprehending
Pakistani infiltrators and handing them over to India. But there
are many difficulties in handling this matter effectively.
An influential Nepali muslim legislator is reportedly the kingpin
in co-ordinating the ISI activities there. There are recent
reports that the ISI operatives in Nepal have been receiving RDX
explosive material through diplomatic bags before pushing them on
to India through their subversives.
The Indo-Nepal border is porous and a foolproof security system in
this sector is very difficult. ISI's scheme for the heartland of
India through the Nepal border has been a long-term one, starting
with liberal financial assistance for construction of a series of
masjids along the Indo-Nepal border, followed by recruitment of
operatives from the Hindi heartland by cleverly manipulating the
religious factor.
Investigations after the serial explosions in Mumbai in 1993
disclosed the fact that a large number of collaborators had been
recruited by the ISI from several towns in UP and even as far as
Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The recent conviction of five Pakistani agents by the TADA judge of
Ahmedabad brings out the dimensions of ISI operations in great
detail. The convicted include a Sikh terrorist, a Pakistani agent
and three Indian collaborators from the Students' Islamic Movement
of India.
The involvement of Pakistan embassies in Delhi and Kathmandu, the
misuse of Aligarh Muslim University as shelter, the anti-national
activities of the Students' Islamic Movement of India etc, were all
highlighted.
Recent reports speak of Pakistan having training camps for Kashmir
infiltrators within a distance of three miles from the Line of
Control in J&K.
A country like Israel would have bombed these camps even much
deeper inside Pakistan and faced the consequences. India, at the
best of times, did not pursue the policy of hot pursuit in respect
of Pakistan and after Pakistan's nuclear capability the question
does not arise as it might escalate into a serious conflict.
The New York-based Council on Foreign Relations expressed the view
recently that to believe that a solution of Kashmir problem would
bring permanent peace between India and Pakistan was a simplistic
view.
This finding needs to be mulled over. It is not the Kashmir issue
alone which is responsible for Pakistan's undeclared low-level war
against India. There is something much deeper in the Pakistani
psyche which seems to seek nothing short of India's destruction by
slow stages.
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