Let’s not forget

Sajjad Shaukat

The Post
http://www.thepost.com.pk

India has been supporting separatism in Sindh, Balohistan, and
insurgency in NWFP. It had played a key role in the Dhaka debacle.
December 16, 1971 is the day of tragic memory when Pakistan was
dismembered and a new state of Bangladesh was created through the
Indian plot. India has a long gone history of many centuries, based
upon religious prejudice and ethnic antagonism against Muslims. In
this regard, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the spy agency of
India which was founded in 1968, has assumed a significant status as
invisible actor in formulation of India’s domestic, regional and
global policies, particularly directed Pakistan.

Hindus give credit to Indira Gandhi who in the late 1970s gave RAW a
new role to suit her Indira Doctrine specifically asking it to
undertake covert operations in neighboring countries, especially
Pakistan which comprises majority of Muslims. RAW was given a green
signal to mobilise all its resources by exploiting political turmoil
in East Pakistan in 1971 which RAW had created through its agents who
provided Bengalis with arms and ammunition for conducting guerrilla
acts against the Pakistani defence forces.

As regards the separation of East Pakistan, Indian Raw had unleashed a
well-organized plan of psychological warfare, creation of polarisation
among the armed forces, propaganda by false allegations against West
Pakistan, creation of differences between the political parties and
religious sects of East and West Pakistan, control of media,
manipulating linguistic, political and economic disputes in order to
keep maligned the Bengalis against Islamabad.

There is no doubt that one can note political, economic and social
disparities almost in every third world country. India contains these
disparities in the developed and the less developed regions. In seven
states of India separatist movements are at work. But New Delhi, which
has not recognized the existence of Pakistan since partition, left no
stone unturned in planting and exploiting differences between the
people of East and West Pakistan.

RAW has a long history of sinister activities in East Pakistan,
backing secular areas of Hindu minority who had played an important
role in motivating Bengali Muslims against West Pakistan. RAW’s well-
paid agents had activated themselves in East Pakistan in the 1960’s,
when this intelligence agency made an aim to dismember Pakistan. For
this aim, RAW took the responsibility of funding Mujib-ur-Rehman’s
general elections in 1970 including the members of the Awami Party. It
colluded with the pro-Indian persons and had paid full attention in
training and arming the Mukti Bahni. RAW, while playing with the
bloodshed of Muslims succeeded in initiating a civil war in East
Pakistan.

Meanwhile, India welcomed the refugees from East Pakistan, provided
them with every possible facility so as to incite them against West
Pakistan.

However, huge quantity of arms and ammunition started entering East
Pakistan along with the guideline of Indian army and RAW. In this
connection, Asoka Raina in his book, Inside RAW: The Story of India’s
Secret Service, reveals, “Indian intelligence agencies were involved
in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, since early 1960s. Its
operatives were in touch with Sheikh Mujib as the possible ‘Father’ of
a new nation-Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujib went to Agartala in 1965. The
famous Agartala case was unearthed in 1967. In fact, the main purpose
of RAW in 1968 was to organise covert operations in Bangladesh. Indian
army officers and RAW officials used Bengali refugees to set up Mukti
Bahini. Using this outfit as a cover, Indian military sneaked deep
into East Pakistan. The story of Mukti Bahini and RAW’s role in its
creation and training is now well-known.”

Asoka further elaborated, “Indian sources, including journalists, have
put on record how much before 1971 RAW had established the network of
a separatist movement through ‘cells’ within East Pakistan and
military training camps in Indian territory adjoining East Pakistan.
The Mukti Bahini were there to take advantage of the political trouble
in 1971 and carry out acts of sabotage against communication lines so
that Indian forces simply marched in at the ‘right’ time. RAW agents
provided valuable information as well as acting as an advance guard
for conducting unconventional guerrilla acts against the Pakistani
defence forces.”

Nevertheless, India had played a key role in the debacle of Dhaka,
which culminated in dismemberment of Pakistan. Even at present, Indian
RAW with the direction of New Delhi has been implementing a hidden
agenda against other countries such as China, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan
and Afghanistan in order to maintain Indian dominance in the region.
In this context, Pakistan has become a special target of RAW where
this secret agency is making clandestine efforts either to
disintegrate or weaken our country.

Regarding the RAW’s covert tactics, M. K Dhar in his book, Open
Secrets, India’s Intelligence Unveiled, while proving its operations
in the neighbouring countries, points outs, “RAW’s operations against
the regional countries are conducted with great professional skill and
expertise, which include the establishment of a huge network inside
the target countries. It has used propaganda, political dissent,
ethnic divisions, economic backwardness and criminal elements to
foment subversion and terrorism to weaken these states in consonance
with Indian regional ambitions”. However, application of these
nefarious designs vary from country to country as RAW’s incursion
takes different form in accordance with the vulnerabilities of the
concerned country.

Nevertheless, Indian sinister aims against Pakistan continue unabated.
RAW which played a key role in the dismemberment of Pakistan has been
still working on the same pattern to further destabilize our country.
It is notable that India has established more than 200 foreign offices
and training camps in Afghanistan where RAW’s intelligence officials
with the help of Khad are doing their utmost to weaken Pakistan by
sending weapons to the separatist elements in Balochistan and the
insurgents of FATA regions. Very young boys including Afghans,
training recruits are mostly from Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan.
Thus more than 20,000 ideologically motivated terrorists are
intermittently being infiltrated into troubled spots of Pakistan. They
join the Taliban militants to fight against Pakistan’s security
forces. These miscreants also conducted a number of suicide attacks
and bombblasts in Pakistan, killing a number of innocent people and
personnel of the security forces. In Kurram Agency, RAW’s Afghan
agents are also actively involved in the sectarian conflict. However,
their main plot is to create unrest in our country.

In this context, in its editorial on December 7, 2008, The New York
Times wrote, “India’s growing investment and intelligence network in
Afghanistan is also feeding Islamabad’s insecurity and sense of
encirclement”. Now, again India, while acting upon groundless
evidence, is blaming Pakistan for the Mumbai carnage which occurred on
November 26 this year. New Delhi has demanded Pakistan to hand over
some most wanted persons to New Delhi. Surprisingly, she has presented
same list of the suspected men to Islamabad, which it had sent in
2002. Now New Delhi has submitted another list in this connection. On
December 2, Pakistan urged India to provide credible evidence about
persons living in Pakistan, allegedly involved in the Mumbai terror
attacks, but India failed. And this fact has exposed the hollowness of
its anti-Pakistan propaganda.

India had accused that the arrested gunman, Ajmal Amir confessed his
links with Lashkar-i-Tayiba and told that he is from Faridkot,
situated in Pakistan. While, early reports disclosed that an
organization, calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed
responsibility for the Mumbai incident. Notably, Lashkar-i-Tayiba also
denied any involvement in Mumbai tragedy. Meanwhile, Indian police
have arrested two persons of Indian origin, illegally buying mobile
phone cards as used by militants in the Mumbai attacks. As regards
Indian senseless allegations against Pakistan, Newsweek indicated on
December 4, 2008, “India has been extremely reluctant to come to terms
with the fact that at least some of its terror problem is now
homegrown.”

Without any doubt, India had played a vital role in the Dhaka debacle.
To avoid further disintegration, our politicians, armed forces and the
general masses need a strong sense of unity in thwarting RAW’s
sinister designs against the federation of Pakistan.

The writer is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible
Balance of Power