IDN TAKE: PAKISTAN PROJECTED RAIL ACCIDENTS, SERIOUS CONCERNS FOR INDIA

[Zarvan]

by Brigadier Arun Bajpai (Retd)

Indian railway minister told parliament that in last 40 days 18 bids have been made to sabotage the running trains all across the country by sabotaging the railway tracks. The Latest bid being to derail the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Exp. These bids are in addition to four major rail accidents we have had in last 12 weeks across India losing a lot of lives and limb. It was purely by default that some local Pakistan sympathizers were caught by police who have clarified that all these train accidents have taken place not because of cracking of overworked rail tracks but these cracks have been purposely created by these sympathizers on the pay of the Pakistani ISI. This is a very dangerous situation created by the ISI of Pakistan which is past master in such dirty games In this act, they have complete deniability because their dirty job is being done by local traitors who live and eat in India but take orders from Pakistan. A Karachi-based ISI agent responsible for Indian rail accidents has been arrested by Nepal police recently. However, these are purely defensive measures which are not going to deter ISI.

Even though some of these acts could be blamed on Naxalites but be rest assured even they are paid and motivated by Pakistani ISI. Needless to say, this is a dangerous situation. The bulk of Indians travel by rail and if fear sets in that no long distance journey is safe it will have very negative effect on Indian people and economy. So what is the answer? Indian political masters must now understand that Pakistani Army and ISI are at war with India since 1988. The only difference is that this is a proxy war an unconventional war where armies do not fight but their proxies do. In the current case, Pakistani trained and equipped jihadis the L-e-T and Jaish Mohammad fight Indian army with Pakistan having deniability. Pakistan is waging this war under cover of their nuclear screen which makes it immune to India teaching Pakistan a lesson through its vastly superior conventional forces.

On 25 January an iron rod, seven meters long weighing 30 kg was found kept across a busy rail track near Mumbai A major accident got averted due to the alertness of the driver of the train. This is an open case of sabotage which was being attempted just a day before the Indian Republic day. The question is how is that our intelligence agencies did not get the wind of this new mischief of Pakistan? The truth is that our intelligence agencies both RAW meant for external intelligence and IB meant for internal intelligence concerning home are no patch on Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. ISI is an inter-service group organized on the lines of famous American intelligence agency CIA and functions as such. ISI is totally India and Afghanistan-centric with their soul goal to destabilize India. They have been trained and equipped by famous American intelligence agency CIA. In the case of India, our intelligence agencies are full of police officials with IPS background. In keeping with their policy mindset all their acts to tend to be defensive In the current day cloak and dagger games of intelligence people, there is no place for defensive mindset
It is time India reorganizes its intelligence gathering capability. India must have dedicated cadres for both IB and RAW who should be directly recruited and trained in intelligence specific ways. It must be remembered that anybody and everybody cannot be an intelligence officer it requires special traits. To give it a broader base the police and army officers as also people from other disciplines should also be capped in on deputation on a rotational basis.
Both IB and RAW should work under parliament under an all-powerful parliamentary committee of all parties. They should be accountable to parliament and should have the right to offensive action (RAW) in other countries. RAW had this power till that short term Pakistan loving PM of India IK Gujral withdrew it. Accountability to parliament and not PMO will ensure that later on, no political party will be able to blame a particular government in power for any act of omission or commission

If Pakistan does not desist from these dirty acts of it's of sabotaging Indian trains it should face the same problem and more in its provinces of Sind, Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and even Punjab We in India have to remember that in this proxy war. Fighting for Pakistan is being done by their slum dwellers the jihadis who are just cannon fodder to the Pakistani army. In last 28 years, 5000 Indian soldiers and about 40,000 civilians have been killed in J&K alone with hardly any casualties to Pakistani Army. They are beating it up and enjoying their pay and perks. They have a shield in their nuclear weapons.

If we want to win this war we will have to bring Pakistani army out from their comfort zones and face casualties. That is only possible if discontent within Pakistan is brought to boiling point and their jihadis are turned against them. A bit of greasing by money and moral and political support to Baluchistan cause with Sind also thrown in will do the trick. Proxy war to be met with proxy war. Had America not done this to Russia during the time of Afghan occupation by Russia in the late seventies? There is no way we can win an unconventional war with conventional methods. At this rate, Pakistani Army is bleeding us, even though we have double their armed forces. They will continue doing so and testing our threshold of tolerance. Even if we go for a limited war with Pakistan their nuclear shield will ensure their security. We have no option but to equally bleed them. The only answer is a proxy war.

Brig Arun Bajpai (Retd) is a prominent Defense and Strategic Analyst. Views expressed are of the author and do not reflect the views of IDN.

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