Terrorism And Pakistan’s ‘Indian Hand’ Fixation – OpEd

By Nilesh Kunwar

The ‘Catch’

On Wednesday, Balochistan’s Home Minister Ziaullah Langau held a press conference in Quetta to disclose that Pakistani security forces had apprehended two high ranking commanders of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] terrorist group.  A recorded confessional video of a person calling himself Nasrullah alias Maulvi Mansoor [one of those allegedly apprehended] who claims to be an “emir” in the TTP’s defence commission was also played and his revelations have brought back memories of a strikingly similar incident that occurred seven years ago. 

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Flash Back

Readers would recall that in April 2017, Director General [DG] of Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] had told the media that former TTP spokesperson and spokesperson for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar [JuA] Ehsanullah Ehsan had surrendered to the Pakistani security forces. Since Ehsan claimed that TTP was being funded by RAW, Rawalpindi was more than happy in allowing him to interact with the media, even though he belonged to the terrorist group responsible for the heinous 2014 Army Public School [APS] Peshawar massacre in which nearly 150 students were killed and more than a hundred injured.

Surprisingly, Ehsan was not handed over to the police but kept in custody of the Pakistan army. Furthermore, despite his confirmed association with TTP and JuA, leave alone being tried by a military court, in his nearly three-year-long detention, he was not even charge-sheeted. More surprising, while in military custody Ehsan was allowed to cohabit with his wife and children.  The most surprising part is that in early 2020, he managed to flee with his entire family. After his flight, Ehsan spoke to The Express Tribune claiming that he escaped since “the Pakistani authorities [had] violated” the “agreement” under which he had surrendered. 

Islamabad had circulated voluminous dossiers painstakingly prepared by ISI citing Ehsan’s revelations of India’s involvement in sponsoring anti-Pakistan terrorist groups and demanded immediate intervention of the international community. However, due to the strikingly atypical aspects of this case, Islamabad’s brazen attempt to peddle a false narrative proved to be a dismal failure. The international community not only took notice of Ehsan’s inexplicable surrender and his equally surprising escape, but also the preferential treatment accorded to him while in custody of thePakistan army.

The way Ehsan glibly parroted unending information regarding functioning TTP and JuA and their nexus with RAW and Afghan intelligence service, National Directorate of Security [NDS] must certainly have made the international community wary. Any doubts that some countries may still have been harbouring would have been dispelled by the fact that in 2018, parents and guardians of the APS massacre victims were compelled to approach the courts and obtain an order barring the government from offering clemency and releasing Ehsan in return for his ‘full and frank disclosure’! 

The Present

It is evident that ISPR has learnt its lessons from the Ehsan fiasco. It had used the so-called surrender of the TTP and JuA spokesperson to showcase Pakistan army’s success in the on-going ‘Operation Raddul Fasaad’ by saying “There can be no bigger achievement for Pakistan than the fact that our biggest enemies are now realising the error of their ways and are turning themselves in.” However, this time the Pakistan army has refrained from trying to score brownie points. Secondly, it has avoided physical interaction of TTP operatives with the media and instead played out a pre-recorded confessional video. 

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However, despite giving an impression that while the Pakistan army has done its duty by apprehending the TTP terrorists, and that disclosing the same is the government’s prerogative, ISPR has committed a grave error by trying to over-insure that its contrived narrative in the form of Nasrullah’s voluntary revelation has no loose ends. Accordingly, his statements bear the distinct ‘brevity and clarity’ signature which is the hallmark of military communication and as such patently it appears to have been scripted by a proficient staff officer. 

By claiming that RAW “wanted a nexus of the Balochistan Liberation Army [BLA] and the TTP,” and that “bases of the TTP be established in Khuzdar [Balochistan],” Nasrullah has crisply outlined the overall aim and modus operandi of the Indian spy agency. This revelation clearly suggests that just like Pakistan army’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence [ISI] had brought terrorist groups fighting in J&K under the umbrella of United Jihad Council [UJC] for better coordination, RAW was also trying to do the same with anti-Pakistan terrorist groups.

Revealing that this plan was made in connivance with Majeed Brigade commander Bashir Zeb and adding that “Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud and Mufti Muzahim said we and our friends, i.e. RAW, have three objectives in establishing a foothold in Balochistan,” Nasrullah has cleverly [albeit indirectly] conveyed that the TTP top leadership [chief Mehsud and his deputy Muzahim] were in direct contact with the commander of Majeed Brigade, which is the suicide attack wing of BLA and has accepted responsibility for attacking Chinese citizens working on CPEC projects. 

Nasrullah has also methodically listed out the objectives of RAW’s three point sinister plan in great detail by saying that these included:

• One, “sabotaging CPEC projects, including targeting Chinese citizens.” 
• Two, “carrying out kidnapping for ransom to play up the matter of enforced disappearances so that intelligence agencies can be defamed.” [Emphasis added].
• Three, “spreading anarchy and frustration among the people by fomenting terrorist activities in Balochistan.” [Emphasis added].

Coming a day after Islamabad announced ‘Operation Azm-e-Istehkam’ [Resolve for Stability] to prevent attacks on Chinese interests and its citizens, the apprehended TTP operative’s revelation regarding Indian involvement in “sabotaging CPEC projects and Chinese nationals” is nothing short of a spectacular [if not divine] coincidence. However, by summarily labelling India as the TTP and BLA’s “single [only] investor,” Balochistan’s Home Minister has let the cat out of the bag!

A Flawed Narrative 

What needs to be noted here is that while both Beijing and Islamabad have been talking a lot about their “firm commitment to protect CPEC from its detractors and adversaries,” both haven’t made any direct or indirect reference to any Indian involvement. The fact that Beijing is currently unnecessarily involving itself in India’s domestic affairs by adverse and provocative comments as well as levelling unwarranted accusations, it certainly would not have kept quiet had there been even an iota of truth in the apprehended TTP terrorist’s assertions of Indian involvement in Balochistan. 

The same holds good for Nasrullah’s ludicrous claim that the TTP chief holds meetings with RAW agents at the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Since the Taliban government of Afghanistan is heavily dependent on Beijing in its desperate quest for gaining international legitimacy as well as attracting investment, the allegation of a RAW-Kabul-TTP nexus is highly suspect. Moreover, if this is true, would Beijing keep quiet while its citizens working on CPEC projects are being targeted? 

The most intriguing part of the TTP terrorist’s disclosure is its palpable attempt to conceal Pakistan army’s dismal failure in the war against home-grown terror as well as its abhorrent practice of orchestrating enforced disappearances and committing unspeakable excesses in Balochistan that the international community and rights organisations are very well aware of. 

Who in his right senses would ever believe that RAW agents would be so naïve as to disclose its devious designs by telling TTP and BLA leaders that the aim of “carrying out kidnapping for ransom [is] to play up the matter of enforced disappearances so that intelligence agencies can be defamed,” and that the real objective pro-freedom activities in Balochistan was “spreading anarchy and frustration among the people by fomenting terrorist activities”?

Perhaps ISPR will someday finally be able to churn out more plausible narratives!

Tailpiece:

Just last month while hearing the case of Kashmiri poet and journalist Ahmed Farhad Shah who had been subjected to enforced disappearance, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of Islamabad High Court [IHC] summoned a report from the defence secretary on the alleged role of intelligence agencies [ISI, Military Intelligence or MI and Intelligence Bureau or IB]. 

Regretting that “Shamefully, the whole nation knows who is doing what, the whole of Pakistan knows, including me, but we have closed our eyes” he sarcastically told the Senior Superintendent of Police that “Either you say that the agents of RAW  came and took away the man. Then I will accept it.” Hence if what the apprehended TTP terrorist Nasrullah has said is to be believed, then this is exactly what seems to have happened- the only problem is that the missing Kashmiri journalist abducted from outside his house subsequently resurfaced in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s [PoJK’s] Muzaffarabad police lockup, a whopping 135 km away!

So, it would the Pakistan army in general and ISI in particular a lot of good if both seriously introspect on Justice Kayani’s astute prognosis that “You may not do anything today, but the time will come when officials of intelligence agencies will face prosecution”!