Fact-Finding: Pathankot and Doval

By Sajjad Shaukat

Being a peace-loving country, Pakistan is determined to promote peace in its neighborhood and the entire region in particular and the whole world in general. Hence, bilateralism and non- interference have been the key components of Pakistan’s foreign policy initiatives.

Regrettably, India which has never accepted the reality of partition of the Sub-continent has always been sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan through its proxies. Now, to realize the 1971 experience, Indian government has tasked its secret agency, RAW to support terrorist activities in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan as part of India’s offensive-defensive doctrine whose real architect is Ajit Doval, the ex-spymaster who is now National Security Advisor of Indian Prime Minister Modi and is also controller of Indian internal and external policies.

With the tactical backing of CIA and Mossad, RAW has also been supporting the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)  and other separatist outfits and Jundollah (God’s soldiers) which have committed various subversive acts in Balochistan—abductions and killings of several nationals of China and Iran. These agencies are also weakening Pakistan, because it is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World.

Therefore, Pakistan has become hub of cross frontier proxies and Indian role has become naked after the arrest of Kulbhushan Yadav, on March 24, 2016. Yadav openly admitted that he was the serving agent of Indian RAW in Balochistan, and during his stay, he contacted various Baloch separatist leaders and insurgents, including Dr Allah Nazar Baloch, to execute the task to damage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC).

In this regard, while addressing a joint press conference with Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rasheed, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa disclosed on March 29, 2016 that Yadav was an active officer of the Indian Navy prior to his joining RAW. He also served as a scrap dealer and had a jewelry business in Chahbahar, Iran, after he joined RAW in 2013.

In a video, during the press conference, Yadav confessed that he spied for India and was assigned with the task to create unrest in Karachi and Balolchitan—to destabilise Pakistan and to target the Gwadar Port. Yadav also disclosed that he was funding Baloch separatists along with other terrorists—he was captured, while heading Iran.

However, different instances of Indian involvement in Pakistan like support to Mukti Bahini terrorists in creation of Bangladesh, exploitation of sub-nationalists in Balochistan and Sindh, links with sectarian extremists groups including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) etc. to create unrest in the tribal areas and in the whole country are part of the offensive-defensive of Ajeet Doval.

In this context, RAW with the assistance of some external entities, particularly Israeli Mossad have well-established its espionage network in Afghanistan, and besides backing other similar terrorist groups, it has been assisting Afghanistan-based TTP which has claimed responsibility for several terror attacks inside Pakistan, including the recent one at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park (Children Park) in Lahore on Easter Sunday (March 27, 2016), which killed at least 72 persons, including 29 children.

It is notable that Islamabad condemns terrorism of all sorts and is committed to stand by its international commitments. Security policy of the country, supported by all stake holders including the government and security institutions aims at eradicating terrorists from its soil.

International community must take cognizance of the fact that Pakistan is a major victim of terrorism, conducted by state and non state actors. And still, India is pursuing the anti-Pakistan narratives concerning terrorism.   

New Delhi’s various mischievous attempts to hyphenate Pakistan with terrorism have been exposed. In this regard, Indian media also creates frenzy and volley of allegations against Islamabad which are a true reflection of Indian establishment and Hindu mindset which are intolerant to any improvement in the bilateral relations between both the neighboring countries.

Implementing Doval’s scheme, India’s devilish National Investigation Agency (NIA) and RAW have been arranging various subversive acts inside India to shift the blame game to Islamabad like orchestrated drama of Gurdaspur episode, terror boat incident etc. The main aims behind were to defame Pakistan and its security agencies.

It is mentionable in relation to false flag operations conducted by Indian government; a report was carried out by Indian media in 2014. It stated that former home ministry officer R.V.S Mani had submitted signed affidavits in the court, citing member of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-the Special Investigation Team (SIT)—accused Indian incumbent governments of orchestrating the terror attack on Indian Parliament and the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai.

Indian establishment vis-à-vis Doval has become habitual of organizing false flag operations. They create false alerts and security hype to attract attention of international community. Terror attack at the Indian Air Force Base in Pathankot is another attempt of Doval’s mischievous scheme against Pakistan.

Without any investigation and evidence, since the first day of the Pathankot incident, Indian media and top civil and military officials started claiming that the attackers had arrived from Pakistani Punjab’s Bahawalpur district, and had links with Jaish-e-Mohammad and Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). But, despite Islamabad’s cooperation with India like formation of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) consisting of professionals to investigate the Pathankot attack, crackdown against the militant group Jaish-i-Mohammad—lodging of a First Information Report (FIR) in relation to the incident, New Delhi failed in providing any proof of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pathankot episode. In fact, besides fulfilling other sinister designs against Islamabad, New Delhi orchestrated that drama to postpone secretary-level talks with Pakistan, which were scheduled to be held in Islamabad on January 15, 2016.

In fact, Indian authorities failed to provide evidence to Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team which visited India to probe into Pathankot attack. The JIT members visited Pathankot Airbase on March 29, this year, where Indian National Investigation Agency officials briefed and showed them the route from where the attackers stormed the airbase. As part of the fact-finding task, Pak JIT had asked for handing over swab of four alleged terrorists Nasir Hussain (Punjab), Abu Bakar (Gujranwala) and Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum (both from Sindh). However, the JIT was provided the DNA reports. The lights along the 24-km perimeter wall of the Pathankot airbase found to be faulty on the eve of the attack. The Pakistani investigators were allowed to enter the military airbase from the narrow adjacent routes instead of main entrance and their duration of the visit was just 55 minutes, enough to take a mere walk through the airbase. The JIT could not collect evidence in this limited time. The visiting team was only informed about the negligence of Boarder Security Force (BSF) and Indian forces. It was disclosed that at the time of the assault, the BSF individuals were sleeping, even though they had been alerted of a possible terror attack 48 hours earlier. 

Meanwhile, a Muslim Officer of the NIA Mohammad Tanzil who was investigating the Pathankot airbase assault was shot dead by two unidentified attackers near his hometown-Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, when he was returning from a function, as India media also reported on April 3, 2016.

New Delhi’s non-cooperation with Pakistan’s JIT has proved that Indian intelligence agencies, especially RAW has arranged the killing of Mohammad Tanzil who wanted to detect the real culprits of the Pathankot attack. While, as a formality, Indian government has directed to conduct a high level inquiry to know regarding his death.

It is of particular attention that murder of NIA Tanzil Ahmed may be linked up with the killing of police officer Hemant Karkare who was killed by Hindu extremists after he had exposed their involvement (Saffron terror) in the wave of terrorist incidents of 2008 in Malegaon and other India cities.

Undoubtedly, Tanzil Ahmed was also part of the Indian government team to probe Pathankot terror attack. He was punished for having knowledge about the false flag operation at Pathankot and was suspected of sharing the same thing with the Pakistan’s fact-finding team.

Nonetheless, New Delhi is sabotaging the investigation of the Pathonkot terror incident, and is creating hurdles in the fact-finding mission of Islamabad, because India has itself arranged the attack as part of India’s offensive-defensive doctrine which was planned by of Ajeet Doval.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com