The arrest of Yadav, who is said to be a serving Indian military official and an Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis (RAW), operative is a key achievement of Pakistan in unearthing the grand conspiracy against the country by regional forces spearheaded by Delhi. Yadav has reportedly admitted to carrying out subversive activities in Balochistan and sectarian violence in Karachi and the presence of an extensive Indian intelligence network in Balochistan and Karachi for subversive activities. India, after losing face and having no way to deny Yadav’s arrest at an undisclosed location in Balochistan, has described him (Yadav) as a former Indian Naval officer. The grand conspiracy Yadav had been working on included fomenting separatist sentiments and proping up secessionist groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army and Balochistan Republican Army etc., in an attempt to effect the act of dismembering Pakistan yet again. But whether the Indian strategic thinkers and intelligence operatives could be able to make Baloch separatist groups prevail as did the Bengali separatist group, Mukhti Bahini, in 1971 is highly improbable. In fact, through such subversive activities India wants to economically destabilize Pakistan and keep it on the defensive.
Two important strands of India’s strategy to keep Pakistan economically backward and militarily on the defensive have been to keep the sectarian pot boiling in Karachi and fan the flames of separatist violence in Balochistan in order to sabotage the mega project that is the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which aims at linking the Pakistani seaport of Gwadar in Balochistan with western China, after traversing most of Pakistan mainly Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. An economically stable Pakistan is obviously an eyesore for India, as in this case Islamabad would attract huge international investment, Delhi thinks, due to the strategic location of Pakistan as it is situated at the cross roads of Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East-Persian Gulf. India considers the CPEC project a project which would give its arch-rival Pakistan profound economic stability and political cohesion; therefore it wants to torpedo it by any means. The network of Indian intelligence in Balochistan, which has been revealed beyond an iota of doubt by the arrest of RAW operative Yadav recently, is primarily aimed at sabotaging the CPEC project, which is to formally commence in a few months from now. In other words, the immediate aim of the subversive activities of intelligence agents in Balochistan is to create such conditions in Balochistan to make it impossible, or extremely difficult, to initiate work on the CPEC. It may be mentioned that India has openly spoken against the CPEC project and has dubbed it as a project which threatens its “vital” interest in the region. In order to make its apprehensions appear justified, India has dubbed the CPEC project mainly aimed at giving China, another military rival of India, a strong foothold in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. In fact, India fears that Chinese presence in Gwadar would result in giving Beijing a strong military outpost, which could in an event of war between Delhi and Beijing, be used by the latter to block oil supplies from the Middle East to Indian seaports. Moreover, Chinese presence in Gwadar undercuts India’s capability to force a naval blockade of Pakistan in case of war between Pakistan and India.
It seems to be on the minds of the Indians that with successful completion of the CPEC not only would Pakistan become economically and politically secure, but also China would get a dominating role in the regional economy and would play a greater political role in the entire region. India since long has been eyeing to dominate trade and commerce with Afghanistan and, beyond, with Central Asia. India dominates trade with its northeastern and eastern neighbours of Bhutan and Nepal, which have made the latter virtually dependent on Delhi. But, Pakistan with its extremely important strategic location and strong security apparatus has stopped India from fulfilling its ambitions. However, India fails to understand that it can only play a greater political and economic role in the region, as is being done by China, once it resolves its political disputes, primarily on Kashmir with Pakistan and Tibet with China. Thus, India’s approach has been a stumbling block in the economic development in the entire region and linking and integrating Central and South Asian regions, as well as the Persian Gulf. For instance, India has been involved beyond doubt in financing and arming anti-Pakistan groups in Afghanistan including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, (as revealed by Wikileaks) in collusion with the anti-Pakistan lobby within the Afghan security establishment specifically the National Directorate of Intelligence (NDS) of Afghanistan, undercutting Pakistan’s ability to play its vital role in peacemaking in Afghanistan.
Pakistan whether one accepts it or not, is a key to peace in Afghanistan, but Pakistan can only play its role in Afghan peace when it is fully assured that India and Afghanistan have full respect for the territorial integrity of Pakistan and its vital security and economic interests. Noticeably, Afghanistan still does not officially recognize the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Durand Line, and considers it disputed. India seconds the Afghan stand. In this atmosphere when India and Afghanistan are also colluding in subversive activities in Pakistan, particularly Balochistan and Karachi, no peace could prevail in the entire region.
A disturbing fact in the episode of Indian intelligence agent’s arrest in Balochistan is that he crossed into Pakistan from Iran and was, in fact, based in the Iranian port city of Chahbahar, located opposite Gwadar in Pakistan. Yadav reportedly entered Chabahar with a visa stamped on a fake passport in 2003. There he got a new identity: Hussain Mubarak Patel, born in August 30, 1968, in Maharashtra India. While Iran has always respected Pakistan’s political stability and territorial integrity but the prospect of Gwadar becoming the regional porting hub attracting away investments and cargo from Iran may have made Tehran facilitate India’s saboteurs on its soil to foment unrest in Balochistan. However, it is expected that Iran would soon realize its mistake and would consider the larger political and economic impact of the CPEC and other projects like the Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline rather than indulging in the futile exercise of trying to stop Gwadar becoming a regional trading hub.
Keeping in view the designs of India and other regional countries, Pakistan has to make radical changes in its security policy and first should root out pro-Indian and pro-Afghan lobbies present in different Pakthun, Baloch, Sindhi and Muhajir political groups and the institutions dominated by such parties in their respective areas. Pakistan must come up with a prompt strategy to repatriate millions of Afghan refugees, who have been used by India and Afghan intelligence agencies to create security issues in Pakistan.
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