Jamil Chughtai
The history of spying is as old as the beginning of human civilization itself. From the day humans started living in communities in the course of societal evolution, their distinct mental and ideological features started producing feelings of jealousy, envy, suspicion and distrust for the people living on the other side of the mental or virtual boundaries. These complex sensitivities were not limited to the neighbours who stood better-off in terms of riches or prosperity, rather the ones with equal or even lower fortunes had more than often remained the target of prejudice for unimaginable reasons. And to satiate such uncalled-for competitive sensation, the respective ‘close-bys’ were although used to be intruded into for physical take-over at times but were mostly subjected to covert interference through operatives, informers, spies, secret agents or the sleuths as of modern day terminology.
In the middle ages, during Christian-Muslim wars under Crusades, the strategy of spying had become well-known as the Muslims forces under Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi and the grand Christian alliance under King Richard (Richard the Lion-heart) were making full use of their informers and operatives to spy on the status of morale, logistics and next tactics to be employed by the respective adversary. Similarly, the best examples of spying acts in the contemporary modern world are associated with the Cold war era involving a strategic tug-of-war between USA and USSR, where these global powers had been thoroughly engaged in secret buying and selling of spies and double-agents in each others’ country.
Hence throughout the history of conflicts and clashes of interest, the spying aspect remained restricted to gathering of vital information or crucial data on the opponents. However, India of today has the singular distinction to give spying an altogether new and brutal contours, that is ‘spying for terrorism’ in the countries of neighbourhood. Being aggressively intruding, interfering, and prying by her very fibre, India has over the years been meddling into internal affairs of neighbouring Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China and every so often in Pakistan for her own mean and nefarious designs. In case of Pakistan especially, India’s unfounded rancour and unilateral animosity have gone to her head like madness and went down her very skin like rabies – both disorders do not allow the infected entity to act gentlemanly.
For the last 70 years, Pakistan has remained the focal point of India’s appalling espionage activities. When it comes to carrying out undercover work in Pakistan by an Indian spy, it invariably includes fanning terrorism, supporting violence, and creating as well as financing separatist movements in and around the target country. Starting from high-profile Indian spies of 70s & 80s namely Gopal Das and Ravindra Kaushik to much famed spy-come-saboteurs of later years Surjeet Singh and Sarabjit Singh who were responsible for the string of blasts in Faisalabad, Lahore, and Multan in 1990s, India continued to invest heavily to sponsor terror and subversive activities in Pakistan through spies and their facilitators.
The latest incident that has yet again exposed India’s nefarious designs is the arrest of a serving Indian Naval officer and RAW agent Kulbushan Jhadev in Balochistan by Pakistan’s security forces in March last year. He confessed that during his stay he contacted and funded various Baloch separatist leaders and insurgents, including Dr Allah Nazar Baloch, to cause damage to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC) and Gawadar Port, create unrest in Karachi and Balolchitan and support all the individuals who worked to destabilize Pakistan. The mission at-hand with the terror-spy was to establish a ‘Tiger force’ in Karachi aimed at spreading sectarianism in the city.
If truth be told, the admissions of all the Indian spies nabbed by Pakistan over the years, particularly of Kulbushan Yadav, clearly proved that India’s RAW has a well-organized spying system in and around Pakistan. To achieve its violent aims against Pakistan, the RAW with the tactical assistance of American CIA, Israeli Mossad and Afghanistan’s NDS has established its espionage network along Pak-Afghan border fully utilizing 15 Indian consulates that have been established for the purpose. Besides backing other similar terrorist and subversive groups in Pakistan, RAW has been supporting Afghanistan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), for carrying out terror attacks inside Pakistan like they did at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park Lahore on the eve of Easter in March 2016, killing 72 people. The cowardly terror attack by a TTP faction, Jamaat ul Ahrar was aimed at projecting Pakistan as an unsafe country for its minorities especially Christians.
More ridiculous remains the fact that every time a terror-spewing RAW agent is caught red-handed in Pakistan, India initially refused to accept him to be an Indian citizen at all, yet after few weeks down the line each one of them would abruptly turn out to be the,’ proud son of the soil” in the eyes of Indian officials as well as media – Kulbushan Jhadev is the case in point. It is high time for India to do a sincere soul-searching and introspection, at least for once in her national life-time, to make herself realize that putting next-door neighbour’s house on fire means nothing less than torching your own home consequentially. More especially, when the all-pervasive seditious and separatist air inside your home merely needs a tiny spark from outside to become an outraging inferno.
