Kashmir Watch, March 16

Mamoona Ali Kazmi

      According to a daily “The News” more than 100 Pakistani Baloch dissidents have been sent to India by the Indian consulate located in Kandhar (Afghanistan) for six-months training. These people were selected from areas bordering Pakistan as well as Baloch nationals residing in different camps in Kandhar. They have been promised a salary of $ 500- 1,000 on their return to Afghanistan. They will be imparted training in the fields of sniper shooting, handling of technical equipment such as GPS, wireless sets and intelligence gathering techniques. The handlers of the dissident Baloch elements plan to assign different targets in Baluchistan and Sindh provinces to the trained Baloch militants for sabotage and terrorist activities.

Ever since the Taliban were ousted from power and foreign troops landed in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Indians have been using the Afghan soil for sabotage and terrorist acts in Pakistan. Since 9/11, Indian influence has increased tremendously. India is following the strategy of the encirclement of Pakistan by making Afghanistan into a vocal anti-Pakistan client state with five very active Indian consulates along the Pak-Afghan border to destabilize Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP). RAW has organized a network of training schools throughout Afghanistan. Some of these training centers are operating in Kabul, Jalalabad , Khawaja Ghar (Takhar Province), Khost, Paktia, Urgun, Kandhar, Spin Boldak and Dranj (Badakhshan Province). All these training centers are being used for indoctrinating minds of innocent people of FATA and Balochistan to work against Pakistan. Refugee camps for Balochistan dissidents have been established in bordering towns of Kandhar, Spin Bodlak, Helmond and Nirmoz where RAW has been given free access to interact for spotting and cultivating them. RAW with the help of   local officials is providing financial support to Barhamdagh Bughti for undertaking terrorist activities in Balochistan. Spin Blodak is said to be the main hub of anti-Pakistan activities and the town is being used as a launching pad. RAW-RAAM used to providing weapons via Bajaur, Dir, Pewchar. In order to subvert loyalties of young generation, young Baloch students are spotted through senior Balochistan Student organization (BSO) hardliners, taken to Kabul for indoctrination, issued with Afghan passports and selected individuals then dispatched to training centers in various countries.

Apart from training, RAW also provided financial assistance for publication of propaganda material against Pakistan in Balochi Language, which in later distributed in Quetta, Khuzdar, Turbat, Gawader and Dera Bugti. In case of Baluchistan Indian role is not new. It is as old as the revolt itself. India is repeating the history and trying to separate Baluchistan just like East Pakistan. Pakistan has stockpiles of evidence against Indian consulates in Afghanistan that are being used to fund terrorism in Pakistan through Baitullah Mehsud’s TTP as well as Brahamdagh Bugti and his Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA). A dossier containing proof of Indian involvement in “subversive activities” in Pakistan was handed over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh during their meeting at Sharm-el-Sheikh. A substantial part of the shared material deals with the Baluchistan insurgency and Indian linkages with the insurgents, particularly Brahamdagh Bugti, Burhan and Sher Khan. Photographs of their meetings with Indian operatives are part of the evidence, which also describes Bugti’s visit to India and the meetings he had with Indian secret service personnel. The dossier mentions an India-funded training camp at Kandahar where Baloch insurgents particularly from Bugti clan were being trained and provided arms and ammunition for sabotage activities in the Pakistani province. Similarly, Talal Bugti said that 300 Baloch nationalists are getting training at RAW’s training center in Afghanistan. The Baluchistan Chief Minister said that RAW was running terrorist training camps in Iran and Afghanistan. It has now set up 30 to 40 such camps in Baluchistan, each with training facility for 30 people who are paid 10,000 monthly.

Federation of American Scientists website comments on RAW, “RAW has engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage and sabotage against Pakistan and other neighbouring countries. RAW has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure, rank, pay and perks of the Research and Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament”. Afghan officials have also confirmed that India is using Afghanistan to stir trouble in Pakistan. Afghan Government’s Advisor, Ehsanullah Aryanzai told, “India is using Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan and Afghan security agencies are unable to stop Indian intervention due to absence of centralized government mechanism”. Indian spy outfits are using the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to target Baluchistan. As much as eight foreign spy agencies are cramming this Pakistani territory. 

India had invested over a billion dollars in Afghanistan so that it could build a base of operations against Pakistan. More than 10,000 Indian troops were stationed in Afghanistan under the garb of supervising the construction of Jalalabad- Chahbahar road project which was completed. Many mercantile shops run by Indians have an intelligence officer in the rear. RAW is providing them money, training, sophisticated weapons and satellite communication system. According to sources Indian intelligence officials working in the disguise of diplomats in embassy and consulates in Afghanistan have set up a vast covert operation network to destabilise FATA, northern areas and Baluchistan engaging dozens of Afghan, Indians, the drug dealers and the Afghan warlords.  

According to sources, the US authorities strongly believe that RAW and some other Indian intelligence agencies base been the only source of terrorism in Pakistan. Jane’s information group, the world's foremost source on intelligence information, reported in July 2001 that the Indian spy agency RAW and the Israeli spy agency Mossad have created five new agencies to infiltrate Pakistan to target important religious and military personalities, journalists, judges lawyers and bureaucrats. In addition, bombs would be exploded in trains, railway stations, bridges, bus stations, cinemas, hotels and mosques of rival Islamic sects to incite sectarianism. Pakistani intelligence agencies also said that RAW had constituted a plan to lure Pakistani men between 20 and 30 years of age to visit India so they could be entrapped in cases of fake currency and subversion and then he cocked to spy for India.

The intention of the Indian government  and RAW is that Pakistan should be so destabilized internally that it could not support the Kashmir cause even morally, diplomatically or politically. There is a need that international community should check the activities of RAW as it operates in a mafia style, each time overstepping the limits of intelligence operations. It has not, only indulged in cross-border terrorism, but also played a very significant role in creating and funding terrorist and extremist religious parties within India and other countries of the region. The Hindu extremist parties which are involved in terrorist activities in India such as Bajrang Dal (BD), Rashtria Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and Shiv Sena (SS) etc enjoy complete backing and support of RAW. The agency uses these parties not only to carve out a role for itself in the internal politics but to divert the international focus from its terrorist activities. For that matter, it allowed these parties to carry out violent activities in India and throw onus on neighbouring countries. Fact of the matter is that Indian RAW is responsible for the present fragile situation of Pakistan as well as South Asia.