All culprits that executed the bomb blast in Johar Town, Lahore on June 23 were arrested by the law enforcement agencies within four days of the incident. The investigations of that dastardly occurrence point to Indian involvement.
In a presser held to reveal relevant details, Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security, Moeed Yousaf, sat alongside Punjab Police IG and Federal Minister for Information. He noted,
“I want to make sure that our message is heard very clearly regarding this particular incident. We have concrete evidence and intelligence, including financial and telephone records, which point to direct Indian sponsorship of these terrorists.”
There were also mentions of forensic analysis and electronic equipment that identified the main mastermind and the handlers of this terrorist attack. “We have absolutely no doubt or reservation about informing you that the main mastermind belongs to the RAW, the Indian intelligence agency, who is an Indian national and is based in India,” he added.
Yousaf claimed, “Very unusually, there is also evidence of thousands of attempts of cyber-attacks against our critical investigative infrastructure right after the attack.”
Indian RAW, in connivance with the Afghan intelligence agency, NDS, has been helping TTP execute terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the one on APS in December 2016
It is not the first time that India has sponsored acts of terrorism in Pakistan. Indian RAW, in connivance with the Afghan intelligence agency, NDS, has been helping TTP execute terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the one on APS in December 2016. It has also been supporting and financing insurgents in Balochistan province besides executing acts of terrorism in the province and Karachi. This was confessed by Kalbhushan Jhadav, an Indian naval officer caught in Balochistan by our intelligence agencies. He was later awarded a death sentence by the military court. That India has links stretching out to Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) is a proven fact.
India was also behind the attack on Karachi Stock Exchange by BLA on June 29, 2020. The attack carried the hallmark of the 2018 BLA attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi. It was not only designed to scare investors, but also to send a warning signal to China since its companies took over the management control of the stock market in 2016 after acquiring 40 per cent of its shares. These shares are held by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange. The group has also been targeting Chinese nationals working on corridor projects in Balochistan. It killed several workers in a bus attack in Dalbandin district about three years ago. The US-Indian nexus to sabotage the CPEC is another well-known reality.
In February 2019, the Modi government orchestrated the Balakot attack as a ploy to win elections, as revealed in the transcript of WhatsApp conversations between Republic TV Chief Editor, Goswami, and the incarcerated head of rating company, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Pratho Dasgupta. This was widely reported in the Indian and international media.
India has also been carrying out a sustained campaign to malign Pakistan, as revealed by Euro Disinfo Lab by generating and propagating false and fake news through a network of 750 fake media outlets and 550 website domain names in 162 countries. Reportedly, Indian RAW set up a fake front entity Srivastava Group (SG) with headquarters in New Delhi in 2005, which was developed over the last 15 years.
Pakistan has been inviting the world’s attention to Indian state terrorism. We even shared a dossier with the UN, US and other important capitals, which contained irrefutable evidence in this regard. But regrettably, the response has not been very encouraging. The US, particularly, has shown criminal indifference to state terrorism enacted by India. Instead, it has gone with her narrative of Pakistan being responsible for incidents of terrorism within India and an epicentre of terrorism, even though India never came up with credible evidence to prove its assertions.
The reality is that Pakistan as a frontline state in the war against terror– as an ally of the US–has lost 70,000 of its citizens, including personnel of the security forces and law-enforcing agencies in addition to a loss of $150 billion to its economy. This indicates an unparalleled commitment to take the fight against terrorism to its logical end. Despite that, the US has proven to be an unfriendly ally like always. It keeps looking the other way whenever Indian acts of terrorism and her continued hostility against Pakistan are talked of. This, in turn, is a reward for her role as a strategic partner in the “Contain China” policy. It is hypocrisy at its worst.
This selective approach to the phenomenon of terrorism and aggressive Indian designs can have disastrous consequences for peace and security in the South Asian region. Therefore, Pakistan is justified in upgrading its diplomatic offensive to sensitise the world about the terrorist credentials of India. In the backdrop of the Lahore incident, Prime Minister Imran Khan was right on the money to ask the global community to mobilise international institutions against this rogue Indian behaviour.
The writer is a retired diplomat, and a member of the visiting faculty of the Riphah Institute of Media Sciences, Riphah International University, Islamabad
