Daily Times

We, as a nation, are going through a very complex and paradoxical situation these days when security and insecurity go side by side, trust and distrust continue chasing us every now and then, and loyalty takes no time in turning into disloyalty. A couple of months ago, the nation had an occasion to re-strengthen its trust and confidence on the abilities of our security forces to counter a misadventure of the enemy by shooting down its fighter jet in IOK. Hardly had the memory of this incident vanished from our minds, than occurred (between 13 Apr – 25 May 2019) five terror attacks in Balochistan and one in Punjab, leaving 58 persons dead and nearly 100 persons wounded, that pushed us back into a fear of insecurity the causes of which can be relegated to both, internal and external factors. Though the perpetrators of these attacks were locals their strings were allegedly pulled by the same external enemy whose invasion was thwarted by our Air Force a couple of months ago.

Our inflated rejoice in the show of our air strength against Indian attack began deflating soon after reports started appearing of Indian secret agency’s involvement in each and every terrorist attack that took place in the country. Of the five terror attacks in Balochistan, two in Quetta were claimed by TTP, two in Gwadar claimed by an alliance of three insurgent organizations Balochistan Liberation Front, Balochistan Republican Army and Balochistan Republican Guard. The suicide attack in Punjab at Data Darbar shrine was claimed by Hizbul Ahrar, a splinter group of TTP. Nearly half of the victims of these attacks were security personnel while the remaining were from Shia Hazara community, pilgrims of Data Darbar shrine and other civilians. As is obvious these attacks carried a particular pattern that points to anti-state and sectarian designs which we have been observing since the time terrorism set its feet on this land of purists.

The insurgency in Balochistan is always considered to have its links with Afghan security agency (NDS) that enjoys covert support from Indian intelligence agency (RAW). Talking to the media on 23 April 2019, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that India was involved in terrorist activities in Balochistan. The investigation report on the terrorist attack at Chinese Consulate in Karachi also revealed that its planning was carried out by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in Afghanistan with the help of the Indian intelligence agency RAW. The suicide attack at Data Darbar in Lahore was another incident where the culprits was an Afghan national and he was brought to the town on a legal visa by his local handlers to carry out the attack. According to a senior analyst, this was done at the behest of India’s RAW which virtually runs KHAD.

If the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies have made such a high-level penetration as has been time and again asserted by the security officials, it means we are now being surrounded by our enemies from both – inside and outside the country

The militancy is not the only area where Indian intelligence agency (RAW) is reported to have already made its inroad, the political parties are allegedly another target of Indian spy agency now. Addressing a press conference, the DG ISPR made a stunning revelation that the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) led by two parliamentarians, Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, was actually launched in FATA regions on the behest of RAW. It was an admission that despite bringing violent crimes to a lowest level in the country, a new form of threat has emerged that is indicative of a new strategy being adopted by the Indian spy agency to expand its influence in the country.

A month after the DG ISPR’s press conference, a clash between PTM activists and army took place in the North Waziristan that left 13 activists and one soldier dead. As a follow up of this incident, the two MNA’s leading the PTM got arrested and one of their female leaders, Gulalai Ismail, was booked for sharing her anti-state videos on the social media. Around the same time, the intelligence agencies have also busted a subversive network, the Balwaristan National Front (Hameed Group) – BNF-H, that was allegedly working at the instigation of Indian spy agency to destabilize Gilgit-Baltistan by brainwashing young students in GB universities through anti-Pakistan propaganda.

While the news of BNF-H’s subversive network couldn’t attain much attention of the media, the clash of PTM activists with the security personnel became a highly debated and controversial issue that generated reactions that were opposing each other. The opposition and ruling political parties appeared divided when they indulged into rhetorical debates on this issue. “Whoever will try to take the law in his own hands, will be dealt with strictly,” the Minister of State, Shehryar Afridi said. Bilawal Bhutto, Chairman of PPP reacted to the reports by saying, “How can Mohsin Dawar attack a check-post? I don’t think an elected representative can conduct such an attack. And, if violence has taken place, we surely condemn it.”

The same divided opinion engulfed the media as well; some of them maintained restraints in condemning the incident outrightly while a number of them were very critical of PTM movement and took no time in tracing its links with the new CIA policy that focuses on strengthening the local leadership to counter the local Jihadist groups, meaning that PTM is a shadow entity of CIA. Like the militant outfit TTP and its splinter groups, the PTM is now declared to be a new organization whose links go across the border and thus it is an anti-state organization.

What makes the current situation very alarming is the alliance that has been allegedly established by the militant outfits and some political parties with the Afghan and Indian spy agencies. Once considered to be the disgruntled brothers, the militants are now found to have become agents of our enemies and the same is suspected of a political party that was until recently very instrumental in getting a bill passed in the national assembly for inclusion of FATA in the province of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.

The most surprising among all is an incident that didn’t draw any attention of analysts. Right at the time when PTM was being accused of following an agenda similar to TTP’s, a terrorist, Abdul Karim, charged with attacking the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Badaber in 2015 was released on bail within less than a month after his arrest (March 12, 2019 – 1 April 2019). He was nominated in two FIRs. In one of the cases, he had confessed before the police that he was working for RAW in Kandahar, Afghanistan that was distributing its funds among the terrorists in Pakistan including TTP and Lashkar-e-Islam. It wasn’t the only mysterious event of the month, the entry into the country of an Afghan national suicide bomber, holding valid Afghan passport and Pakistani visa, was equally unexplainable.

If the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies have made such a high-level penetration as has been time and again asserted by the security officials, it means we are now being surrounded by our enemies from both – inside and outside the country. Shall we call it a total failure of our intelligence agencies that claim to be one of the best in the world or take it as an ultimate result of the mess that our past policies have brought on to us? In both the cases, the responsibilities fall on to the government and its relevant departments. Instead of finding faults among others the government and security apparatus should make a self-assessment and address issues that are providing easy playing fields to the militants and their handlers inside and outside the country.

The writer is Freelance Journalist and Senior Research Fellow, Center for Research and Security Services