Seven soldiers were martyred in two separate incidents in Balochistan, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Tuesday. In the first incident, six personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC) including a junior commissioned officer (JCO) were martyred when their vehicle hit landmine last night in Balochistan, said the military’s media wing. The attacks have reportedly been carried out by Baloch insurgents.
7 soldiers martyred in two separate terror attacks in Balochistan: ISPR https://t.co/aHm0XSGnQd
— Dawn.com (@dawn_com) May 19, 2020
In the second incident, sepoy Imdad Ali was martyred in an exchange of fire in Kech, Balochistan. The martyrs were identified as Shaheed Naib Sobedar, Ahsanullah Khan, Naik Zubair Khan, Naik Aijaz Ahmed, Naik Maula Bux, Naik Noor Muhammad and driver Abdul Jabbar.
A few days ago, Major Nadeem Abbas Bhatti and five FC soldiers embraced martyrdom in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack as the device hit their vehicle along the Pakistan-Iran border.
GVS learned through reliable sources that as India is facing international humiliation due to its hawkish occupied Kashmir policy, it is now trying to destabilize Pakistan through supporting Baloch insurgents.
Recently, a clip from an Indian talk show has gone viral following the incident. During the talk show, a retired major of the Indian Army Gaurav Arya openly hurled threats at Pakistan and predicted a terror incident in Balochistan ‘in 10-15 days’.
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“I am in touch with Baloch freedom fighters. The Punjabi Pakistani Army, we will give them such a bloody nose that these people will remember for ten generations”, he had said. He went on to say that he has their [Baloch freedom fighter]’s contact numbers in his mobile phone and he is in touch with them ‘almost every day’. He added that he told them about the entire Indian population stands with the ‘Baloch struggle’.
India is trying to destabilize Pakistan?
In 2019, the security forces successfully foiled attempts to spread terrorism and violence in Gilgit, Baltistan, and busted another network of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) involved in carrying out terrorist and extremist activities in Pakistan. However, the RAW supports Baloch insurgents have already been in the news.
According to details, the intelligence agencies have arrested at least 14 members of the nationalist organization, Balawaristan National Front (Hameed Group), and seized weapons and explosive materials from their possession. It is also reported that the leaders of the anti-Pakistan group have also surrendered, who were given the task to sabotage the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Media reports suggest that the RAW took BNF chairman, Abdul Hameed Khan, to India in 1999 and was given a three-star apartment in Dehli, where his family and three sons were shifted. RAW also provided identification proofs and facilities to Khan for starting a business in India, while his sons had been given expensive education in different schools and colleges in India and Europe.
Similarly, four years ago, Pakistan arrested Kulbhushan Yadav, who is serving the naval office of India, for destabilizing Pakistan through sponsoring Baloch insurgents. In a video, Commander Kulbhushan Yadav, while admitting his role in terror-related activities in Pakistan has said; “My purpose was to hold meetings with the Baloch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration. These activities have been of criminal nature, leading to the killing of or maiming of Pakistani citizens.”
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He explicitly narrated that Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is involved in a separatist movement in Pakistan. “I realise during this process that RAW is involved in some activities related to the Baloch liberation movement within Pakistan and the region around it”, he clarified.
Dr Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, opines that “The RAW and its allies sponsored terrorist strikes in Balochistan. They carefully crafted to ignite the sectarian divide in Quetta to spoil the societal and religious harmony among the people of the area and also terrorize the investors, who have been contemplating investing in Balochistan due to the development of Gwadar city’s port and the inauguration of an international airport. To terrorize the government employs commuting on the Makran Coastal Highway; the terrorist offloaded 14 employees of Pakistan Navy and Coast Guards and shot them cold-bloodedly.”
Mr Jaspal also noted that “Nonetheless, it is an open secret that Indian intelligence agency, RAW has been sponsoring and conducting terrorist activities in Pakistan particularly at the sites of CPEC to impede the developmental work and frustrate the investors. It had crafted a terrorist network in Balochistan to obstruct the construction of CPEC infrastructure. On the 3rd of March 2016, during a counter-intelligence operation, the Pakistani law enforcement agencies arrested RAW’s chief operator, a serving commander in the Indian Navy Kulbhushan Yadav, managing terrorist activities in Balochistan.”
Some analysts slam Pakistan’s political elite for their lack of will and understanding of international politics to develop a narrative on the basis of hard facts in the form of Commando Kulbhushan to prove India-sponsored terrorism in the country. More than 80,000 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and there has been direct or indirect involvement of India in all these.
Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, is often criticized for not even being able to name Kulbhushan at international forums. Dr Moeed Pirzada, of 92 News, three years ago, kept on asking to formally plead the case of Pakistan before the international community where Indian intellectuals and scholars, along with Indian media, have established a link between terror and Pakistan.
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The incumbent government has now a special focus on such cases and Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, also addressed the United Nations General Assembly and mentioned the case of Kulbhushan. Experts maintain that Pakistan needs to develop a discourse on an international stage while basing its arguments on these hard facts to expose the role of India in the destabilization of Pakistan.