Indian involvement in Balochistan

Pakistan and India are two important powers of South Asia and have fought three wars since independence. Beside other issues Kashmir has always been a major bone of contention between the two. India has been blaming Pakistan for supporting militants in Kashmir and Pakistan has given proofs of Indian involvement indicted India for supporting the separatist Baloch militants.

Indian involvement in Balochistan is not a new issue. The debate has been on that terrorists there are working on some foreign agenda; foreign hands are providing weapons and funds to insurgents for terrorist activities. Earlier we had been using word "non-state actors" and name of India was not that prominent, but during the NAM summit held in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani presented dossier to Manmohan Singh with proofs of Indian involvement in Balochistan via Afghanistan. Though the Indian prime minister denied it, yet reference of Balochistan in the joint statement in Sharm-el-Sheikh was a positive outcome for Pakistan. Diplomatically stocks of evidences proving that India is sponsoring terrorism and giving training to terrorists put India on back foot.

Major General Salim Nawaz, inspector general of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in Balochistan told Reuters that 'A lot of evidence of Indian involvement through Afghanistan is there, supporting the separatist movement'. Nawaz Sharif also said that 'the separatists were not very strong, they don't have enough people or a proper command and that the foreign element is providing them strength. The proof has been given at various levels including photographs and documents.

The publication of the Jain Commission Report for the Indian Government has confirmed whatever we were suspecting in South Asia, that Indian Intelligence service Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has been conducting destabilisation and violence at the domestic level of south Asian region. India is not only conducting the terrorist activities in Pakistan but it is also involved in spreading violence in Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal, Bhuttan and Maldives and there are many evidences about it.

This is not the first time that India is supporting separatist movements in Pakistan; India is repeating the same history as they did in 1971 by supporting the separatist movement in East Pakistan which resulted in the disintegration of Pakistan. But India didn't stop there and now again India is supporting the separatist movement in Balochistan. We cannot deny the fact that these opportunities have been provided to India by political plotting and RAW has always shown quickness in taking advantage of the political ups and down in South Asian region as it's a good tactic to seek the group which can be easily influenced.

From decades RAW has been getting advantage from the domestic issues of Pakistan, whether it was Pakhtunistan issue or the Sindhi language issue, sectarian group issues and now Balochistan issue, all these issues have always provided India a fertile ground for their seeds of violence and terrorism. It was also indicted by Islamabad that RAW has established its training camps in Afghanistan in collaboration with the Northern Alliance remnants. Approximately 600 Ferraris, or Baloch tribal dissidents, are getting specialized training to handle explosives, engineer bomb blasts, and use sophisticated weapons in these camps. India has invested heavily in its old connection with the leaders of the erstwhile Northern Alliance. It has sizeable support in Afghan Parliament and India is gradually increasing the number of its paramilitary personnel in Afghanistan and their motive is to use the Afghan land for conducting terrorist activities in Pakistan and to destabilise Pakistan.

In current year Islamabad claimed that 'Pakistan has found concrete evidence of India's involvement in militancy in South Waziristan and decided to take up the matter with New Dehli', this was disclosed by Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and military spokesman Major-General Ather Abbas at a press briefing on the progress of operation Rah-e-Nijat. It was the first time in recent times that Pakistan had pointed fingers at India from a forum having representation of political and military leadership. General Abbas said a huge quantity of Indian arms and ammunition, literature, medical equipment and medicines had bee recovered from Sherawangi area, near Kaniguram. He said that foreign office had been informed and the matter would be taken up with the Indian authorities through diplomatic channels. While sources in the Foreign office said a dossier containing proofs of India's involvement in South Waziristan would soon be handed over to officials in New Delhi. Kaira also said that although it had been decided to raise the issue with India, Pakistan would not deviate from the peace process.

The question raises that why India always wanted to get into such activities? The answer seems to be the India's power ambition; India wanted the regional hegemony and recognition as a major global actor since independence. And as India and Pakistan are rivalry states since independence due to this India always wanted to destabilise Pakistan. Islamabad not only suspected Indian involvement in Balochistan but also accused India for conducting terrorist activities in Pakistan which can effect Pakistan relations with other countries and can raise a bad reputation in the international community.

Pakistan has said that she will solve the Balochistan issue on diplomatic channels with India but for solving this issue some steps are needed to be taken on domestic levels. Balochistan has remained a neglected province since independence. It was government responsibility to announce proper budgets for their development. Lack of funds for development and education in this province strengthen the tribe system here and left the common people behind to become an active social part of society. They can't get benefits from the resources of their province. Despite surveillance system, trained terrorist continued to came from Afghanistan border. Unequal distribution of resources in Balochistan erases nationalism and our enemy is taking the advantage of this situation by filling their minds for a separate federation. No doubt, external threats are there but a lot of work is needed to be done to current internal threats.