Pakistan is struggling hard to wriggle out of the Financial Action Task Force grey-list. Pakistan needs 15 out of 39 votes to get rid of the listing. But it may remain on the grey list if it gets only three votes.
The whole listing procedure looks biased as it does not accommodate Pakistan’s perception. The main allegation is that Pakistan harbors UN-designated terrorists. But, the yardstick with which the US measures its allegation is lopsided. The UN views ongoing freedom movement in the Jammu and Kashmir State, a disputed territory under UN resolutions, `terrorism’, aided by Pakistan.
Evolution of the term “terrorism” over time
In the historical context, the term meant different things to different individuals and communities. The oldest ‘terrorists’ were holy warriors who killed civilians. Recent examples of religious terrorists are Aum Shinrikyo (Japanese), Rabbi Meir Kahane and Baruch Goldstein and Yigal Amir (Jews). The Jewish-controlled media describes Hezbollah and Hamas as ‘religious terrorists’.
In the first century A.D Palestine, the Jews publicly slit the Romans’ throats, in the seventh century India, the thugs strangulated gullible passersby to please the Hindu Devi Kali, and the 19th century adherents of Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) mercilessly killed their pro-Tsar rivals.
Read more: India ‘financing, organizing mercenary terrorists’ against CPEC: Pakistan
`Terrorist’ and `freedom fighter’ had been interchangeable labels subject to expediency. Not long ago, the US treated the Taliban as freedom fighters. Ronald Reagan accorded red-carpeted welcomes to Jalluddin Haqqani. Cuban terrorists were decorated in the US gallery as freedom fighters.
The term ‘terrorism’ received international publicity during the French reign of terror in 1793-94. It is now common to dub one’s adversary a ‘terrorist’. Doing so forecloses possibility of political negotiation and gives the powerful definer the right to eliminate the ‘terrorist’, an individual or a country. FATF is employed as a Sword of Damocles in the case of Pakistan.
The Doval doctrine: Inspired by the East Pakistan secession
In line with India’s security Czar Ajit Doval’s Doctrine, RAW aims at fomenting insurgency in Pakistan’s sensitive provinces. Doval is inspired by India’s nefarious efforts which resulted in the secession of East Pakistan. Naila Baloch’s `Free Balochistan’ office has been working in New Delhi since 23 June 2018. BJP MLAs and RAW officers attended its inauguration.
The spy initially worked for Naval Intelligence, but later moved on to the Intelligence Bureau. He got associated with RAW in 2010
B Raman in his books admitted that not only India’s then Prime Minister Indra Gandhi but also the heads of RAW and IB created and trained Mukti Bahini. Doval publicly claims that he acted as a spy under a pseudonym in Pakistan for 11 years.
Free Balochistan
It sponsored offensive posters on taxi cabs and buses in Switzerland and Britain. The USA has recently outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army. However, earlier, in 2012, a handful of Republican had moved a pro-separatist bill in US Congress. It demanded `the right to self-determination’.
Aid to Afghan insurgents
India’s ambassador Bharath Raj Muthu Kumar, with the consent of then foreign minister Jaswant Singh, `coordinated military and medical assistance that India was secretly giving to Massoud and his forces’… `helicopters, uniforms, ordnance, mortars, small armaments, refurbished Kalashnikovs seized in Kashmir, combat and winter clothes, packaged food, medicines, and funds through his brother in London, Wali Massoud, delivered circuitously with the help of other countries who helped this outreach’. When New Delhi queried about the benefit of costly support to Northern Alliance chief Massoud, Kumar explained, “He is battling someone we should be battling. When Massoud fights the Taliban, he fights Pakistan.”
Pushtun Tahafuz Movement
Pushtun Tahafuz Movement is apparently being backed by India. In their over-ebullient speeches, PTM’s leaders openly scold Pakistan’s national security institutions. For instance, Manzoor Pashteen, in an interview, berates Pak army operations and extols drone strikes. He says, ‘The army did not eliminate even a single Taliban leader. All the 87 Taliban commanders killed in the last 18 years were eliminated in drone strikes.’ At a PTM meeting in Britain, even Malala Yusafzai’s father (Ziauddin), echoed anti-Army sentiments. He said, “Pakistan army and intelligence agencies knew that Fazalullah was a terrorist who continued to operate a radio station in Swat.”
Read more: India’s terrorism in Pak: Indian Major’s prediction of attacks in Balochistan becomes true
RAW officers Raman and RK Yadav’s self-incriminating disclosures
In a published letter, Yadav made a startling revelation that India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi, Parliament, RAW and armed forces acted in tandem to dismember Pakistan. The confessions in his letter are corroborated by B. Raman’s book ‘The Kaoboys of R&AW’. He reminds:`Indian parliament passed a resolution on March 31, 1971 to support insurgency.’
Indira Gandhi had then confided with Kao in case Mujib was prevented, from ruling Pakistan, she would liberate East Pakistan from the clutches of the military junta. Kao, through one RAW agent, got hijacked, a Fokker Friendship, the Ganga, of Indian Airlines hijacked from Srinagar to Lahore.
Kulbushan Jadhav unmasked
Jadhav was an Indian Navy officer attached to RAW. His mission was to covertly carry out espionage and terrorism in Pakistan. Pakistan also alleged there were Indian markings on arms deliveries to Baloch rebels pushed by Jadhav. To India’s chagrin, India’s investigative journalists confirmed from Gazettes of India that he was commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1987 with the service ID of 41558Z Kulbhushan Sudhir.
For one thing, India should close the `Free Balochistan’ office on its soil and stop resuscitating propaganda skeletons of pre-Bangladesh days
A later edition of the Gazette showed his promotion to the rank of commander after 13 years of service in 2000. His passport, E6934766, indicated he traveled to Iran from Pune as Hussein Mubarak Patel in December 2003. Another of his Passports, No. L9630722 (issued from Thane in 2014), inadvertently exposed his correct address: Jasdanwala Complex, old Mumbai-Pune Road, cutting through Navi Mumbai.
The municipal records confirmed that the flat he lived in was owned by his mother, Avanti Jadhav. Furthermore, in his testimony before a Karachi magistrate, Karachi underworld figure Uzair Baloch confessed he had links with Jadhav. India’s prestigious frontline surmised that Jadhav still served with the Indian Navy.
Read more: India says Pakistan is blocking all options in Jadhav case
Gazette of India files bore no record of Jadhav’s retirement. India told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Jadhav was a retired naval officer. But it refrained from stating exactly when he retired. The spy initially worked for Naval Intelligence, but later moved on to the Intelligence Bureau. He got associated with RAW in 2010.
India’s unexplained contradiction
It is not understood why freedom movement in Kashmir is terrorism, while India-sponsored insurgency, followed by armed intervention, in erstwhile East Pakistan isn’t. B. Raman, in his book The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane makes no bones about India’s involvement up to the level of Prime Minister in Bangladesh’s insurgency. One is shocked to read accounts of former diplomats and RAW officers executing insurgencies in some other neighboring countries also.
India portrays the freedom movement in Kashmir as `terrorism’. What about India’s terrorism in neighboring countries? Will the world take notice of the confessions by India’s former intelligence officers and diplomats? Pakistani outfits sympathizing with Kashmiri freedom fighters are dubbed as terrorists. But Indians abetting terrorism in Sri Lanka or supplying IED components to ISIS go scot free.
Read more: India: Emerging Hub Of Terror under Hindutva and BJP
B Raman‘s book and RK Yadav’s letter of 14 August 2015 published in Indian and Nepalese media confirms India’s involvement in terrorism against Pakistan. Kalbushan Jhadav wanted to replay the Mukti Bahini experience in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The conduct of Indian diplomats amounts to state-sponsored terrorism. For one thing, India should close the`Free Balochistan’ office on its soil and stop resuscitating propaganda skeletons of pre-Bangladesh days.
Mr. Amjed Jaaved has been writing freelance for over five decades. He has served the federal and provincial governments of Pakistan for 39 years. His contributions stand published in the leading dailies and magazines at home and abroad (Nepal. Bangladesh, et. al.). He is the author of eight e-books including The Myth of Accession. He knows many languages including French and Arabic. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.