B.RAMAN
Media reports emanating from Pakistan’s civilian
Government as well as from the General
Headquarters (GHQ) of the Army speak of an on-going review of Pakistan’s
military doctrine in order to give priority to the creation of a sub-conventional
warfare capability to fight domestically against non-State actors posing a
threat to Pakistan’s internal security.
2.While these non-State actors have not been
specifically named, it is apparent they have in mind the Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP), the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) and the Baloch
nationalist elements which are waging a
struggle for Baloch independence.
3.The Pakistan Army has not been able to prevail
over any of these organisations. The TTP has maintained a capability for
fighting against the Pakistani security forces in the tribal as well as non-tribal areas and there have
been indications of its extending its
activities to Karachi, thereby adding to the instability there.
4.The LEJ continues to indulge in large-scale
massacre of Shias all over Pakistan---- and particularly in Balochistan,
Gilgit-Baltistan, the Kurram Agency and Karachi. The freedom struggle of the
Baloch nationalists continues to gather momentum.
5.In the past, Pakistan’s military doctrine had
three components:
· A
Chinese-aided nuclear-cum-missile capability against India.
· A
US-cum-Chinese aided conventional capability against India.
· A
covert action capability for keeping India bleeding and ultimately annexing
Jammu & Kashmir. This covert action capability was acquired from the CIA in
the 1980s for use against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. It is now being
used against India and the Hamid Karzai Government of Afghanistan
6.The Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto Government had succeeded
in crushing the Baloch nationalists and the anti-Shia elements spearheaded by
the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, which later metamorphosed into the LEJ, were
actually created by the Zia-ul-Haq regime to counter the Iranian influence.
7. The revival of the Baloch freedom struggle
after the massacre of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and many of his followers by the
Pervez Musharraf regime and the birth of the Mehsud-dominated TTP to seek
vengeance against the Pakistan Army after the bloody Army action in the Lal
Masjid of Islamabad have confronted the Pakistan Army and its Inter-Services
Intelligence with serious threats to its internal security to counter which it
does not have the required sub-conventional warfare capability.
8.It is now proposed to pay greater attention to
the creation of this capability. This should not be misread into thinking that
the Pakistan Army’s traditional mindset of hostility to India is under
reexamination or that it may re-examine its continued use of its covert action
capability against India through organisations loyal to the ISI such as the
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET) and against the Government of Hamid Karzai through organisations such as the
AfghanTaliban or the Haqqani Network
9.The Pakistan Army is not about to give up its
use of jihadi terrorism as a strategic
weapon against India and its further strengthening of its nuclear and missile
capability against India with Chinese assistance. We must avoid any naïve assessment
of the reports from Pakistan on this subject. ( 6-1-13)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai,
and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com .Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
