India Pakistan Proxy War – Abdul Majid Zargar

INDIA,PAKISTAN-PROXY WARS

(By Abdul Majid Zargar)

India & Pakistan are once again engaged in war of words & bullets at Borders. After the aborted meeting between National security adviser of India & Pakistan’s adviser to PM on foreign affairs pursuant to Modi – Nawaz Joint statement in Russian city of Uffa , both the Countries appear as distant as ever. Even after 68 years of their independence, neither nation has learnt to live in peace, leave alone harmony.Innocent civilians are increasingly becoming fodder to their guns.

A sad factor of the ever deteriorating relations is the leverage enjoyed by the spies & security experts of both countries in determining the ‘Red lines’ for politicians of their respective countries .Every step between the two countries is now being measured & evaluated through security prism. The relations get further strained by ultra-nationalist & jingoistic media driven by agencies, particularly on the Indian Side . Politics & diplomacy is not allowed a free run to instill & nurture a good neighborly relation between the two Countries.   

The security agencies are playing havoc in each other’s country. Dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971 & Military Coup at Siachin in 1984 are two instances of India playing dirty games against Pakistan. Fear of an adversarial neighbor coupled with the unresolved issue of Kashmir, has lead Pakistan also to engage in secret operations against India . Training & arming of Sikh separatists in Eighties & Kargil intrusion in 1999 can be cited as Pakistani instances of covert operations against India. The resultant mess on ground is for all of us to see.

Graphic details of proxy wars between India & Pakistan , which intensified in 1987, are provided by writer & Historian Dilip Hiro in his book “ The longest August”. As per said details reproduced below, intelligence agencies of three Countries-RAW (India), KGB (Russia)& KHAD (Afghanistan), increased their training & arming of Baluchi separatists for subversive activities in Baluchistan. The separatists aim of establishing an independent Baluchistan would have meant reducing Pakistan by a hefty 43 percent and was, therefore resisted bitterly by Pakistani Govt. As part of the axis of three intelligence agencies, RAW’s counter intelligence team –X in coordination with KHAD became an active participant in stoking subversion in Pakistan. The result was a low level but steady campaign of bombing s in Karachi, Lahore & Multan. According to US State Department, more than half of the 835 terrorist incidents worldwide in 1987 were in Pakistan (`Chicago Tribune 18th Jan. 1988)

On the Indian side Punjab remained on boil. Militants aided by ISI ,had started creeping into the Golden temple from the summer of 1986. Their takeover was complete in June 1987. Soon Delhi imposed president’s rule which would eventually continue till 1992. In November 1986 Indian Army staged a biggest war game code named “Brasstracks” in Rajasthan, barely 30 miles from Pakistan border. It was the largest war game ever seen on the subcontinent involving 4lac troops from 9 Army divisions, 5 independent armored brigades, 1300 tanks, 1000+ armored vehicles . Contrary to mutually accepted standard procedure, Indian Army chief didn’t inform his Pakistani counterpart of the location, schedule and scale of the exercise. Pakistan thought this as an Indian attempt to launch a piercing strike to cut off northern Pakistan from the Southern Part. In defense Pakistan extended its army’s winter exercises in Punjab and also mobilized the 5th Corps in Karachi as well as the Southern Air command while deploying mechanized divisions & artillery along the Indian border. Indians perceived this move as part of a pincer to squeeze Indian Punjab, where Sikh insurgency had revived following assassination of Indira Gandhi & Anti Sikh riots. On 18th January, Pakistani Foreign Minster Zain Noorani conveyed President Zia-ul-Haq’s message to Indian ambassador S.K.Singh that in the event of an Indian misadventure, Pakistan was capable of inflicting unacceptable damage on it. The underlying message of Zia-ul-Haq was clear that Pakistan possessed a nuclear weapon, notwithstanding the fact that few months earlier President Reagan of America, in order to enable him to continue military aid, had testified before the Senate that Pakistan was not pursuing a nuclear agenda .

While Pakistan’s terse message created doubts in New-Delhi, it deployed veteran Journalist Kuldeep Nayar to get some details. He arranged an interview with Pakistan’s nuclear scientist Qadeer Khan who testified Pakistan’s possession of bombs. Though publication of the interview was delayed by four weeks, but India got the message it wanted.

To reduce tensions between the two countries, Rajiv Gandhi used Cricket diplomacy and invited Zia-ul-Haq to witness a cricket match between India & Pakistan in Jaipur, who accepted the invitation. Sitting next to his host, Haq reportedly whispered to Gandhi-“ If your forces cross our border by an inch, we are going to annihilate your cities” indicating that his military would not hesitate to make a first use of Atom bomb.(Nuclear Dangers in South Asia by S. A. Hashmi).Those sitting close to two leaders testify visible signs of nervousness in Rajiv Gandhi.

To ensure that Proxy wars played by two intelligence agencies in each other’s country didn’t escalate into a full fledged battle, Zia-ul- Haq conceived the idea of an unofficial meeting between two agencies. But he needed an intermediary with extraordinary skills to act as a go-between. For this he chose his Jordnain friend Crown Prince Hassan bin talal, whom he had met during his military assignment in Jordan. Talal was married to a Pakistani girl, Sarvath Ikramullah, the niece of H.S. Suharwardy, the former Prime Minster of Pakistan. The efforts fructified in a meeting of two intelligence chiefs- A.K.Verma of RAW & Lt. General Hamid Gul of ISI in Amman. The meeting resulted in phased handing over of nearly 3000 Sikh Militants by Pakistan who had crossed to Pakistan for training in lieu of RAW de-escalating bombing campaign in Pakistani cities in Stages (Ravi Shankar-spy wars).Another meeting between the two heads took place in Swiss city of Interlaken. This time resolving Siachen Glacier was on agenda-but no results were achieved.

It may be recalled that A. S. Dulat, former Raw chief has also testified to such meetings between the two intelligence chief in his recently released book-“Kashmir-the Vajpayee years” under the chapter Spy Vs. Spy at page 151.In a recent article published in ‘the Hindu’ of 28th August 2015,former RAW chief A.K.Verma has also confirmed such an agreement between the intelligence agencies of two Countries.

(The author is a practicing chartered Accountant. E mail: abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com