Rawalpindi(National Times)- Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has once again called out India for using terrorism to suppress Pakistan’s rise. The DG ISPR said that India is acting as a “bully” and using terror cells and carrying out transnational killings in Pakistan. “Who is the beneficiary […] by these acts of terrorism in Pakistan. It is India. The strategy of India is to keep Pakistan embroiled in the menace of terrorism so that Pakistan’s true potential is not realised,” the military’s spokesperson said in an interview with Al Jazeera. Lt Gen Chaudhary said that the progress and prosperity was the destiny that the state owes the 250 million people of Pakistan but India does not want it to materialise. He said that India wants the power differential between the two countries keep on increasing so that the it can act as “a regional hegemon and a bully” who can dictate its own terms. This is the biggest strategy New Delhi has, he added. The DG ISPR said that there was not one face of Indian terrorism. “Indian terrorism in Pakistan has multiple faces,” he added. Highlighting the forms of Indian-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan, the general accentuated the transnational killings carried out by New Delhi and pointed out towards Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) operatives and handler. Noting that Pakistan had come on record with proof of terror financing of RAW operatives’ involvement in transnational killings through criminal enterprise to carry out targeted killing in Pakistan, the chief military spokesperson said: “It’s all on public record.” He also referred to an extensive investigation in Indian involvement, which revealed that a terror cell was being operated by an individual named Major Sandeep — a serving Indian military intelligence officer — and was responsible for carrying out IED attacks and planting them all over Pakistan. “You can see their record, the transactions that are going on between these people. “These are the faces of the other accomplices,” the military spokesperson said while referring to a non-commissioned officer of the Indian military intelligence and other soldiers involved in such activities. “These are the audios that’ve all been made public already — where the instructions are being passed, where the money is being exchanged, where the targeting is being done, and these terror cells are operating and they are telling that we are operating in Pakistan from Lahore to Quetta and we’ve been doing it for years,” he remarked. Expanding on India’s rationale behind such hostile policies towards Pakistan, Lt-Gen Chaudhry said that it “serves India very well, it is their ideal tool of terrorism [….] if you see historically it is not being done for the first time [and] it is not only the last two decades”. “If you go way back in 1971, what was Mukti Bahini? It was also state-sponsored terrorism by India. And historically, if you see Indians [themselves] have acknowledged it. Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi went on record, he not only acknowledged it but boasted about it that we used terrorism, we used Mukti Bahini,” he said.
Lower thresholds and risk of war
Responding to India’s repeated allegations of terrorism against Pakistan, the DG ISPR termed the terrorism as New Delhi’s internal problem arising out of its own actions. “We must understand that terrorism is an internal problem of India as a result of the continuous oppression which India imposes on its minorities as part of its policy […] against Muslims, especially Kashmiris, Sikhs, Christians, other minorities and against [even their own] backwards castes,” he said. Calling out India for putting the blame on Pakistan instead of addressing these grave injustices, inequality and doing some soul searching, the general pointed out towards “externalisation of the problem of terrorism” by New Delhi and the threat that it poses. “This externalisation of the internal problem of terrorism this goes as a policy in India. And what is it turning into, because of this senseless blame game that the Indians are resorting to, it is bringing the thresholds between India and Pakistan to a dangerously low level, where one incident of terrorism or an act of violence can be turned into an act of war,” he remarked. “This foolhardy, this hubristic political mindset of India is putting the destiny of 1.6 billion people of this region at risk. Not only that, it is also putting the lives of these 1.6 billion people hostage in the hands of non-state actors […] third parties who might be interested — because of their very own reasons — in a military conflict between Pakistan and India,” he concluded. “So what is the light here, where to go? The light only here is the responsible and mature manner in which Pakistan is acting,” the DG ISPR concluded while contrasting Islamabad’s actions and policies to those of India’s. On the issue of Islamabad’s own security and ongoing efforts against the menace of terrorism, he said: “Pakistan is not only fully committed to fight this menace of terrorism, we are also fully committed to uproot this extremism”. The general also touched upon the concerns regarding the country’s nuclear programme and stressed that it was fully secure and well-protected against any threat. “No one can dare target Pakistan’s nuclear assets,” he said while underscoring that the country was a responsible and declared nuclear power, and its nuclear capability reflected the nation’s defensive strength and commitment to maintaining regional strategic balance. “Pakistan’s nuclear assets are under strong institutional control and meet all international safety standards,” he remarked.
