I am at a loss for words. If generals of the 3-star rank harbour such immature and half-baked ideas, heaven knows how they will behave under pressure during the war situation. Let us objective analyse what Gen Sahib is saying:
“Baluchistan is in the throes of terrorism. This terrorism is not indigenous nor a product of grievances. It is an outcome of an Achakzai and Rasik collaboration at the behest of RAW. Its nature and character is to attack soft targets and cause mass murder. Its purpose is to destabilize the region with a view to scuttle CPEC.
The manner of activity is likely to soon expand to Gilgit-Baltistan with the same objective. In the former case the projection of conflict is based on an alleged but utterly false Baluchistan Separatist Movement and evolves around accusations of human rights against the Government. In the latter it will be inspired by artificially raising sectarian strife”.
For the benefit of those who may have forgotten, let me remind all that Baluchistan separatist movement is indigenous and has been going on since the birth of Pakistan.
- Ahmad Yar Khan of Kalat declared independence and Pak Army had to be called in to annex Kalat and that was back in March 1948.
- Nauroze Khan Zehri started a guerrilla war in 1958 against the formation of one unit.
- Sher Mohammed Marri led another rebellion in the 1960’s
- Sher Baksh Marri instigated another armed insurrection in 1973 against ZA Bhutto regime.
- Current insurgency has been going on since 2004.
As a Lt General, I am sure Gen Sahib must have been taught history of Pakistan Army. On what basis can he declare that it is an outcome of Achakzai and Rasik collaboration at the behest of RAW? Was it Raw that asked Ahmad Yar to declare independence in 1947?
Baluch insurgency has been supported by Soviet Union, Afghanistan & India at various times. Even Iraq was at one time helping Baluch rebels because in 1973, arms were found in the Iraq Embassy in Pakistan ostensibly meant for Baluch insurgents.
Quote
On the midnight of 9 February 1973, Akbar Khan Bugti told
Pakistani authorities about weapons shipment smuggled from the
Soviet Union with Iraqi assistance. He reported that the weapons were being kept in the Iraqi embassy in
Islamabad. On 10 February 1973, the Pakistani authorities began to prepare a quick military operation. After limited hours of planning, a special military operation was led by
Special Service Group accompanied by the
Pakistan Paramilitary Rangers to storm the Iraqi embassy. Following this incident, authorities found 300
Soviet submachine guns with 50,000 rounds of ammunitions and large amount of money that was to be distributed amongst Baluchi separatist groups.
Unquote
With doubt Baluch insurgents have had foreign help but the separatist movement and the terrorists are all Pakistani Baluchis. General is severely mistaken here.
On the Gilgit Baltistan front, it is a historical fact that no one from Pakistan or Pakistan Army had any hand in the liberation of Gilgit & Baltistan region from the Dogra yoke. It was a wholly indigenous effort and the Glgitis invited Pak Army to come and take over after the area had been cleared. Unfortunately the region is largely Shia or Ismaili and this does not suit the Deobandi Taliban.
I had not heard of any sectarian strife in the area until the 1980’s. With the Afghan conflict and the bigot Zia’s support, sectarian Wahhabi / Deobandi maslak got a great boost. Construction of the Karakoram highway made it easy for the sectarian groups from outside to enter the Northern areas. In 1988, after a false rumour of an alleged Sunni massacre by the Shias, thousands of armed Wahhabi jihadists stormed the region and killed nearly 400 Shias. In 2012, Taliban targeted a number of busses carrying Balti Shia travellers on the two routes that connect Gilgit Baltistan with Islamabad.
This was the time when action against Taliban was not yet started and Baitullah Mahsood, beloved of JI Leader Munawwar Hassan was commander of TTP. It was not RAW that formed SSP & LeJ but our friend Saudi Arabia in response to the rise of Khomeini in Iran. Terrorist groups still take lead from the Wahhabi Saudis.
General Sahib also declares:
“With no one in the world willing to hear us out, no one willing to validate our narrative or reject it through an international fact finding mission, with callous indifference to our situation and criminal silence as we are subjected to such blatant and covert terrorism on a daily basis the bias and prejudice against Pakistan is conspicuous. It appears that India is accumulating brownie points every time it attacks a post or fires across the border. Pakistan is expected to take all this in, not complain or inconvenience the world by its ‘meaningless’ accusations."
The reason why no one in the world listens to us because we are not taking action against internationally proscribed organizations and allow the terrorist like Masood Azhar & SSP to work freely by the simply changing the name. Discussions related to this topic between Sartaj Aziz, Tariq Fatami & the ISI was reason of the whole Cyril Almeida episode. Undoubtedly India & RAW are exploiting the situation but fault lines lies within Pakistan.
Finally, I would have never expected such irrational remedial actions coming from a 3 star general as suggested by Gen Tariq. For example
:” Any terrorist activity or physical hostility from Afghanistan would be treated as an Act of War. The response would be a fire raid on Kabul and Bagram through missile attacks. Deploy and ready launchers for such a strike
Long range strikes against Fazalullah group in Kunar to commence till he is handed over.
For every Indian/RAW inspired terrorist act, at least three similar acts on a greater scale to be undertaken in the Indian main land.
Any cross border firing should lead to offensive concentration of Strike Formations with a view to severing the Madhupur-Jammu Road before the Indians can even mobilise.”
Is the guy serious? Is Pakistan a super power that we can dictate terms to the neighbouring countries?
There was a bomb explosion today in a Kabul mosque killing 30; suppose NATO aircrafts based in Afghanistan bomb a town in Pakistan in retaliation? Suppose India starts attacking Pakistan in response?
What Gen Tariq is proposing would surely result in a full scale war with India & Afghanistan. Pakistan is certainly not strong enough to fight on two fronts and such a war would result in probable destruction of Pakistan.
Zia’ legacy is still alive in the armed service and there must be many Taliban / Daesh supporters in uniform. . I would say that Gen Tariq is working for Taliban & ISIS. TTP/ISS have already killed about 60,000 Pakistanis, what do they care if another million die, extremists are hoping that from the ashes, extremist Sunni forces would be able to form a dark age Mullah Omer's Afghanistan type Islamic Caliphate.
I don’t wish to sound pessimistic , but IMHO Pakistan should avoid any serious conflict with India until Pakistan has built up sufficient conventional strength as well as a strong economic base
