Today marks six years since the security forces were able to capture RAW agent Kulbushan Jadhav, alias Hussain Mubarek Patel—a manifestation of Indian sabotage efforts to destabilize Pakistan.
Jadhav was caught red-handed on March 3, 2016, from Mashkel area of Balochistan while travelling to Pakistan on an Iranian passport.
A serving Indian Navy officer, Jadhav was involved in spying, acts of terrorism, and sabotage against the state on behalf of the Indian government, costing Pakistan thousands of lives and subsequently was awarded a death sentence in April 2017.
Jadhav was born in the city of Sangli in the Indian state of Maharashtra on April 15, 1969. He joined the Indian National Defence Academy in 1987 and was later commissioned in the engineering branch of the Indian Navy in 1991. Jadhav to date is a serving Commander of the Indian Navy.
He was inducted in the Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) at the end of 2013 where he earned his pseudo name Hossein Mubarak Patel to conceal his real identity.
Now when we come into defensive offence, we start working on the vulnerabilities of Pakistan, it can be economic…it can be political…. it can be defeating their policies in Afghanistan, making it difficult for them to manage internal political balance or internal security…. Pakistan’s vulnerability is many times higher than that of India…. You do another 26/11, you lose Balochistan….”
Ajit Doval
India’s National Security Adviser
Jadhav was tasked to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and collaborate with they to carry out attacks in Karachi and Balochistan.
Jadhav, in pursuit of targets set by his RAW handlers, was arrested by Pakistani authorities on March 3, 2016, when he attempted to cross over into the country from the Saravan border in Iran.
Masterminding attacks
During the years Jadhav was involved in terrorist activities, he masterminded a number attacks taking hundreds of lives.
During interrogation, Jadhav revealed that at Wadh, he was in contact with Haji Baloch, who provided financial and logistic support to Baloch separatists and the Islamic State network in Karachi.
He further revealed that the perpetrators of the Safoora bus attack— where gunmen shot dead 45 Ismaili passengers— were also handled by Haji Baloch.
Jadhav accepted that he met Haji Baloch several times, sometimes for planning sectarian violence in Karachi and the rest of Sindh.
Security agencies were able to arrest hundreds of undercover operatives working to sabotage peace in Pakistan on the information received by the Indian spy.
Jadhav was found guilty of heinous crimes against the state of Pakistan and was sentenced to death by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) on April 10, 2017.
In July 2019, after a petition lodged by India, the International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan to allow Jadhav full and unimpeded consular access to Indian officials but rejected an Indian plea for his conviction to be dismissed.
India’s conspiracies
Over the years, RAW exploited the swaths of ungovernable areas of Afghanistan for setting the bases across the Durand Line and even within some of Indian Consulates in Iran.
RAW’s objectives have been clear— to befriend anti-Pakistan terrorist organisations and support selective but ruthless terrorist organisations like BLA, BRA, MQM (militant wings), TTP, Lashkar e Jhangvi and Daish etc
Likewise, to penetrate the area west of River Indus including Balochistan to support proxy war against Pakistan; support dissident leadership of BLA etc, and supply them arms and ammunitions to sabotage lifeline of Balochistan, especially the communication networks; provide diplomatic support to dissident leaders and organise seminars and conferences in major capitals of the western world to highlight cause of liberation of Balochistan.
The Gwadar Pearl Continental hotel attack claimed by BLA which was sponsored by RAW in a bid to sabotage CPEC.
The attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi was planned in the neighbouring country and executed with the assistance of RAW while evidence of its involvement in the attack on Karachi Stock Exchange building have also been found.
Pakistan has condemned these acts and time and again raised this issue at world forums.
In an interview with Indian Journalist Karan Thapar, Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security Moeed Yousaf said that “Pakistan had proof of Army Public School Peshawar massacre’s mastermind was in contact with an Indian consulate during the attack. He further said India recently spent $1 million to merge the TTP and four other terrorist organisations under the supervision of RAW officials.
Evidence supports that there are over 2,000 transactions valued at over $1 billion between 2011 to 2017 linked to RAW to finance terrorism against CPEC in Pakistan.
RAW is also instrumental in exploiting sectarian and sub-nationalist issues in Gilgit-Baltistan by getting some dissident individuals to run campaigns to instigate locals against CPEC and Pakistan.
The Indian has accepted their involvement in the proxy war when in 2014, Indian NSA Ajit Doval threatened Pakistan by saying, “Now when we come into defensive offence, we start working on the vulnerabilities of Pakistan, it can be economic…it can be political…. it can be defeating their policies in Afghanistan, making it difficult for them to manage internal political balance or internal security…. Pakistan’s vulnerability is many times higher than that of India…. You do another 26/11, you lose Balochistan….”
India is a mother of state-sponsored terrorism; for New Delhi any gain for Pakistan is a loss for India. The international community must take notice of Indian cross border sponsorship of terrorism.
