It is a good sign that after eight hours exchange of fire on March 30, 2009, our security forces regained the control of Police Training Center the at Manawan, Lahore, capturing five terrorists alive, who prove useful in the investigation. In less than a month, after similar pattern of assault on Sri Lanka’s visiting cricket team, this major attack on the police academy which killed 11 persons and injured more than 90 individuals in the heart of Lahore, underscores the course of threat. It was well-organized and highly coordinated act, while terrorists used hand grenades and sophisticated weapons. On the same day, Mr Rehman Malik, the Interior Advisor pointed out Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the planner and executioner of the terrorist operation, also indicated reference to a “foreign hand to be on the safe side.”
On March 31, Mehsud claimed responsibility for the Manawan attack, and threatened to carry out similar operations in Lahore and other parts of Punjab including US homeland in future. Regarding Lahore mayhem, he told BBC Urdu over the telephone from an undisclosed location, “These attacks were in reaction to US drone strikes in the tribal areas.” However, among the captured fugitives, one was Afghan national, and police arrested around 50 suspected persons from various parts of Lahore on his disclosure. While a number of questions arise in the minds of every Pakistani in connection with Lahore debacle—who was involved, why it happened and what were the aims behind that terrorist event.
These queries need logical conclusion to sort out the real culprits. First of all, statement of Bailtullah Mehsud, leader of the TTP, itself, requires special attention. After spreading terrorism in Pakistan’s Frontier Province, he has repeatedly warned to target Lahore, other parts of Punjab and Karachi. He has started implementing his nefarious game. Unlike the Swat-based Taliban who signed a peace agreement with the provincial government in the recent past, Mehsud whose insurgents are most active in Waziristan and other related tribal agencies, flatly refused to initiate or conclude any such peace accord. As a matter of fact, Bailtullah Mehsud is direct agent of Indian intelligence agency, RAW and indirect agent of American CIA. Just like his patrons, while, playing a double game, his main purpose is to destablise Pakistan in order to fulfill the sinister designs of his paymasters. Mehsud whose insurgents get arms and ammunition from Afghanistan where Indian RAW and military troops are well-entrenched against Pakistan, is allowed to condemn US drones attacks and New Delhi’s anti-Pakistan policies so that his followers do not doubt his integrity.
There is similarity in anti-Pakistan designs, being acted upon by our enemies, if we witness the ongoing phenomenon of sabotage in our country in wake of various developments. In this context, an article, published in the “Indian Defence Review,” Jan-Mar 2009 under the caption: Stable Pakistan not in India’s Interest, suggested the disintegration of Pakistan as it could better serve Indian interest in the region. In this respect, while opposing the two nation theory and creation of Pakistan, it elaborated: “The ugly separatist face of the agitation in the Valley (Kashmir) today is the consequence of the dereliction of the fundamental duty by the Indian Union.” In this connection, the article encouraged Hindu religious forces at the cost of secular character of India.
Indian Defence Review further pointed out: “With Pakistan on the brink of collapse, it is matter of time before it ceases to exist…multiple benefits will accrue to India…Balochistan will achieve independence. For New Delhi, this opens a window of opportunity to ensure that the Gwadar port does not fall into the hands of the Chinese. Afghanistan will gain fair amount of stability. India’s access to Central Asian energy routes will open up. Sindh and most of the non-Punjabi areas of Pakistan will be our new friends.”
Indian anti-Pakistan plan has also been endorsed by a 72-page white paper handed over to its Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the aftermath of Mumbai carnage. The paper, titled, War on Terror: The Agenda for Action, advised New Delhi to “exploit the divisions within Pakistan and expose its weaknesses in Balochistan, FATA and Azad Kashmir,” including building of pressure on Islamabad especially by the US. Notably, on March 22, 2009, David Kilcullen, a top adviser to the US Gen. David H. Petraeus disclosed during his interview to the Washington Post, “The Pakistani state could collapse within six months.” Intermittently, some US high officials and thinktants have also predicted instability or lawlessness in Pakistan in one or the other way. Nevertheless, US, India and Israel are in collusion to destabilise or disintegrate our country through their secret agencies owing to a number of common strategic goals such as depriving Pakistan of nuclear assets, occupying Gwader port which links Central and South Asia, thwarting the interests of China and Iran in the region and making India a superpower of Asia.
Due to its strategic location, Pakistan has become direct target of unrest, created by the external secret agencies through a perennial wave of suicide attacks and assaults on security forces, which began from tribal areas and Balochistan have now reached Lahore. Apart from other nefarious purposes against Islamabad, New Delhi’s plot against Pakistan is based upon century’s old animosity of Hindus against Muslims as partition of the Indian Sub-continental remains fresh in their minds.
Pakistan shares a common border with India and Afghanistan, so it becomes easy for Indian RAW to send its trained agents in Pakistan with the clandestine help of Mossad and CIA. In Wakhan, a religious Madrassa of the Indian Muslim clerics is functioning under the patronage of RAW. Very young boys including Afghans, recruits are mostly from Central Asia, bordering Afghanistan. Thus more than 20,000 ideologically motivated terrorists are continuously being infiltrated into troubled spots of Pakistan. Posing as volunteers, they join the Taliban militants to fight against our security forces and to conduct multiple subversive acts. At some places of our country, RAW’s Afghan agents are also actively involved in fuelling sectarian violence and killing of religious leaders.
In fact, by taking advantage of War On Terror, with the help of Indian-home grown terrorists and some of Pakistani militants, Indian RAW has become pro-active to arrange any terrorist event in Pakistan as recently noted in Lahore or in Indian Mumbai on November 26 last year and then to manipulate the same against Islamabad. This exploitation also entails every such militant attack which is being conducted by the freedom fighters who are struggling for the liberation of their lands from the alien rule either in Afghanistan or Kashmir. As already mentioned, the interior adviser, Rehman Malik, has held Baitullah Mehsud responsible for the terrorist carnage in Lahore, while referring to a foreign hand in that regard. He did not name any country because at present, Pakistan is facing multi-faceted crises which have compelled it to depend upon the US-led international community. And Islamabad had to accept the undue demands of Washington as recently it accepted some false demands in relation to Mumbai mayhem, thought that episode was actually prepared by the Indian RAW not only to distort the image of Pakistan, but also to isolate it diplomatically. The events like attacks on Sri Lanka’s cricket team and police facility at Manawa in Lahore were also part of this conspiracy. Although Rehman Malik could not disclose facts, yet his assertions endorse many ground realities.
As regard Bailtullah Mehsud, reports suggest that the US military commanders had been provided with his exact location on many occasions in the past, but the CIA-operated predators did not hunt him as he is Pakistan’s real enemy who masterminded almost every suicide operation in the country. He plays a key role in instigating the peace-loving Taliban against Islamabad. The US military has launched missile strikes to a precise location at very short notice, and killed high-profile leaders of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal regions, but Mehsud is free to move in Waziristan or other places of FATA, sometimes addressing press conferences and sometimes meeting journalists. With the direct help of RAW and indirect backing of CIA, he collects information on Pakistani troop movements from an unidentified foreign source. On the other hand, US military and high officials accuse Pakistan’s army and ISI of close links with Mehsud. Nonetheless, Mehsud like other secret agents is part of US and Indian double game in weakening the federation of Pakistan.
Returning to our earlier discussion, like other terrorist incidents, attack at Manawan police training centre in Lahore was sponsored by Indian intelligence agency RAW. And Bailtullah Mehsud along with RAW-paid local agents of our country played his sinister role in accordance with the Indian agenda. Every Pakistani patriot must remain vigilant as the wave of Indian-sponsored terrorism which started from FATA and Balochistan has, now, reached Lahore. No doubt, India which finances and trains insurgents to commit terrorist operations, wants total break down of institutions in Pakistan.
Pakistan Observer - Newspaper online edition - Article
