Sinister
Web
Sanchita
Bhattacharya
Visiting Scholar, Institute for Conflict Management
The US
continues with its policy incoherent on tackling terrorism
in Pakistan, and purportedly promoting regional stability
in the AfPak and wider South Asian region. On March, 2017,
"the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Act of 2017”
(HR1449), was introduced in the House of Representatives
proposing that Pakistan be declared a state-sponsor of
terrorism. Ted Poe, who heads the House Sub-committee
on Terrorism and Non-proliferation, observed, while introducing
the Bill, "Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy
ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of
the United States for years."
Earlier,
in December, 2016, however, the US House of Representatives
passed a Defence Bill, pledging USD 900 million to Pakistan.
USD 743 million has already been approved as military
and developmental aid for Pakistan in FY 2017.
It is well
known that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
uses part of this aid, as well as a proportion of Pakistan's
defense budget, to support terrorist networks in the South
Asian region, and that Pakistan’s footprint
of terror is manifested across the
world. As reported in June, 2015, ISI’s known budget was
about PKR 169.7 billion [USD 1.62 billion].
Interestingly,
in October 2016, the US warned the Pakistani establishment
to act against terrorists, else Washington would act unilaterally
to "disrupt and destroy" terrorist underpinnings
in Pakistan backed by the country's spy agency, ISI. Adam
Szubin, the then US under secretary for terrorism and
financial intelligences stated,
The problem is that there are forces within the
Pakistani government – specifically in Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI – that refuse
to take steps against all the terrorist groups active
in Pakistan, tolerating some groups or even worse…
This is a distinction we cannot stand for... We
continue to urge our partners in Pakistan to go
after all terrorist networks operating in their
country. We stand ready to help them. But there
should be no doubt that while we remain committed
to working with Pakistan to confront ongoing terrorist
financing and operations, the US will not hesitate
to act alone, when necessary to disrupt and destroy
these networks.
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Astonishingly,
in April, 2017, despite global misgivings regarding Pakistan’s
sponsorship of terrorism, Russia, Pakistan and China came
closer to seek an ‘Afghan Solution’, purportedly to stabilize
the war-torn country and to destroy the growing influence
of the Islamic State (IS). Pakistan is seeking to restore
its influence over Afghanistan through its Taliban proxies,
now with Russian and Chinese support, even as the US has
relied repeatedly on Islamabad to secure a settlement
with the Taliban.
This is
despite the acknowledgement by all the involved external
powers, and indeed, the global consensus, that ISI remains
active in Afghanistan, seeking to establish its fiat through
terrorist proxies, and disrupting the rebuilding process.
In April
2016, Rahmatullah Nabil, the former chief of the Afghan
National Directorate of Security (NDS), released documents
and evidence detailing the nexus between the ISI and terrorist
organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to
the documents, Pakistan was directing US aid to the banned
Haqqani Network and other elements of the Taliban, and
also used madrasas (Islamic Seminaries) in Pakistan
for fresh recruitment to terrorist formations operating
in Afghanistan. There are an estimated 150,000 madrassas
in Pakistan and only 25,000 of these are registered. Incidentally,
the chief of Police of Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province,
General Abdul Raziq, claimed that the Haqqani Network,
backed by ISI, was behind the January 10, 2017, bomb attack
in the Kandahar. Another report in April 2016 claimed
that ISI paid USD 200,000 to the Haqqani Network for a
suicide attack on a CIA camp in Afghanistan in 2009. Seven
American agents and contractors and three others, were
killed according to a declassified State Department cable.
It is,
by now, well known that ISI has been trying to set up
bases in countries of South Asia not only to encircle
India, but also to spread extremism in other parts of
the world.
The island
nation of Sri Lanka has it's own strategic importance
in the Indian Ocean region and also in South Asia, with
India and China establishing their presence in the Trincomalee
and Hambantota ports, respectively. Pakistan, on the other
hand, has sought to establish a jihadi outpost in the
country on its own strategic calculus. It is now being
assessed that the ISI's primary and apparent objective
in using Sri Lanka as an intelligence operations hub is
aimed at encircling India from all sides, and specially
have access to its southern parts, to possibly scout for
terror networks as also to recruit fresh cadres. Also,
an October 2016 report from Sri Lanka has exposed ISI's
use of the country as a staging post in this mission.
ISI's primary and apparent objective is to encircle India
from all sides, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its charitable
wing, the Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq (IKK), have been its principal
proxies to radicalise Sri Lankan Muslims. In 2004, when
the tsunami struck parts of Sri Lanka, LeT-IKK contingents
visited Sri Lanka and the Maldives under the cover of
a humanitarian charitable effort, but established networks
to recruit potential Jihadis. The report revealed
that many youth from these areas headed to Pakistan and
were found in LeT training camps in the Punjab province
and in the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Significantly,
towards the end of 2014, Indian Intelligence officials
had successfully managed to identify and neutralize a
terrorist module and spy ring operating within the Pakistan
High Commission in Sri Lanka. The job of creating a spy
ring and then launching a 26/11 styled attack in Chennai
had been handed over to the consular officer in Sri Lanka,
Amir Zubair Siddiqui. Further investigation revealed that
Siddiqui's job was to set up a full-fledged terrorist
module in South India. It was also learnt that he had
brought in a charity outfit to open shop in Sri Lanka
to help build a base for LeT. India had sought action
against Siddiqui and had even moved to question him. However,
Pakistan immediately extracted him from the Mission under
diplomatic cover, and he returned home.
In a recent
incident, however, cooperation among Sri Lankan, Chinese
and Indian intelligence agencies led to the arrest of
a Pakistani currency smuggler, Faiz Muhammad, in China's
Guangzhou province in October, 2016. Fake currency has
been a critical instrument in Pakistan’s resourcing of
terrorism in the region. This trilateral sharing of intelligence
has left Pakistan, especially ISI, alarmed at the possibility
of intelligence cooperation, particularly between its
arch-enemy, India, and its ‘all weather friend’, China.
Pakistan
has also established a dangerous footprint in the Maldives
as well, contributing to a long process of Islamist radicalization
and a ‘blooding’ trained cadres in the conflict in Afghanistan.
Maldives has now contributed a major share in Islamic
State (IS, also Daesh) recruitment, as a result of these
protracted processes of radicalization. Some 200 Maldivian
recruits had joined Daesh, as per 2016 estimates. Large
numbers of Maldivians were provided free education in
radicalized Pakistani madrassas, joined the jihad
in Afghanistan and subsequently within Pakistan, and returned
to propagate a hardline Islamism significantly at variance
with indigenous practices. A July 2016 report suggested
that Pakistan had sent about 200 doctors to the Maldives
to extend ISI operations in the country. Cyber profiling
of these doctors and inputs with intelligence agencies
suggest they had been in regular touch with the ISI and
also with LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Pakistani agencies
had trained these doctors on the cultural milieu of the
island nation according to Maldives sources. The numerous
islands in Maldives provide easy connect to South India
through Sri Lanka and makes it an ideal destination to
launch terror attacks on our coastal cities.
ISI's Nepal
connection was once again exposed when three operatives,
Moti Paswan, Uma Shankar Patel and Mukesh Yadav, were
arrested by the Bihar Police in the Adapur Police Station
area, on January 17, 2017. The trio allegedly confessed
to having worked for a Nepalese contact suspected to be
connected to the ISI to target the railways. As a result,
the role of the ISI in the November 20, 2016, train disaster
in Kanpur was suspected. The three had been paid INR 300,000
by a Nepali, Brajesh Giri, who allegedly had connections
with Shamsul Hoda of Dubai. Hoda is believed to be linked
to ISI. The money was paid to them to plant a bomb on
the railway tracks at Ghorasan in East Champaran District,
bordering Nepal. Further, an Intelligence source disclosed
the linkages between the ISI and international Street
Daawah were also being probed for the case. Street
Dawah has been linked to the Islamic State and terrorism
in several location, is active in the Terai region of
Nepal, and recruits non-Muslims for its terror agenda,
including suicide bombings. In 2014, India had apprised
Kathmandu of the issue of checking anti-India activities
by religious schools funded and supported by Pakistan’s
ISI.
The ISI-Bangladesh
linkages run deep, and, before the Sheikh Hasina Government
cracked
down on terrorist groupings in the
country, there had been numerous attacks in India mounted
from, or with the assistance of, networks operating from
Bangladeshi soil. In March, 2017, H.T. Imam, Advisor to
the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, observed, “There has
long been the influence of ISI and Pakistan sympathisers
in Bangladesh. So the first thing we decided was that
we must get rid of ISI bases here, and their supporters.”
The ISI
has been trying to strengthen its influence in the Indian
state of West Bengal, and this has been emphasized by
Bangladeshi officials on a number of occasions. In December,
2015 officials stated that, over the preceding years,
the ISI had been as active in Bangladesh as it had been
India. With operational difficulties mounting in Jammu
and Kashmir, the ISI had apparently turned its attention
to Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. A senior
Bangladeshi officer noted,
The ISI is exploiting efforts by the JMB (Jama'atul
Mujahideen Bangladesh) and other organisations to
create unrest both in Bangladesh and the eastern
States of India. West Bengal is primary in the scheme
of things as there has been long-standing talk of
jehadi outfits planning a Caliphate in Bangladesh
after incorporating the districts of Malda, Murshidabad
and Nadia of West Bengal. Pakistan and the ISI in
particular has a lot to gain from the acts of violence
perpetrated by the terror outfits... By creating
trouble in this region, Pakistan can make both Bangladesh
and India suffer as unlike in northern India, the
borders in the east are more porous.
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ISI has
also been channelizing funds for several terrorist outfits
operating from Bangladesh with an anti-India agenda. Farina
Arshad, Second Secretary at the Pakistan High Commission
in Dhaka, was charged by the Bangladeshi establishment
of financial terrorism and hastily recalled in December
2015. Bangladeshi authorities asked the diplomat to leave
for reportedly having “extended financial support to a
suspected militant who faces spying charges.” The Police
stated that a JMB operative, Idris Sheikh, alleged in
a Dhaka court that he had links with Arshad and had received
30,000 taka (USD380) from him. Earlier, in January 2015,
Mohammad Mazhar Khan, a Pakistani diplomat was expelled
from Dhaka for allegedly funding various extremist formations.
An intelligence report alleged that Mazhar Khan, in collaboration
with some colleagues at the High Commission, used to channel
money earned through the fake currency to Bangladeshi
militant organisations such as Hizb-ut-Tahir, Ansarullah
Bangla Team and affiliates of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
The ISI
Directorate, formed in 1948 following the Indo-Pakistan
war of 1947, has dramatically augmented its capacities,
both within Pakistan, and across expanding theatres abroad.
Backed by USA’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through
the anti-Soviet Campaigns in Afghanistan after 1979, the
ISI came to control huge – often unaccounted – finances,
executing a range of sustained covert operations, including
the creation and support of a multiplicity of terrorist
groupings, across the South Asian neighbourhood.
The ISI
is also trying to launch anti-India missions from Myanmar,
taking advantage of the ongoing Rohingya
problem in the country. December 2016 reports indicated
that ISI had been planning to open a new front in eastern
India to launch attacks. Intelligence assessments suggest
that ISI had made a tactical shift in its strategy for
India and had set up a terror camp in Marisot (situated
on Thailand-Myanmar border), using Taliban 'fighters'
to train Rohingya Muslims. Intelligence sources indicate
that ISI was channeling ‘huge funds’ and weapons for these
activities and had also arranged a meeting between Maulana
Abdul Kuddus (a Rohingya Muslim of Pakistani origin who
heads the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Arkana: HuJI-A) and
LeT founder Hafiz Saeed. Kuddus is also believed to be
close to the Pakistan Taliban. In June 2015, a senior
Indian intelligence official noted, “ISI-backed terror
outfits like Lashker, Jamaat ud Dawah and Falah-I-Insaniyat
Foundation (FiF) have been hobnobbing with Rohingya community
leaders and organizing jehadi training along the
Bangladesh-Myanmar border."
With the
incoherence of Western policy and continuing, albeit diminishing,
financial and military support pouring into Islamabad,
even as Pakistan is ascribed a lead role in the search
for a ‘solution’ in Afghanistan, there has been no decisive
disincentive to ISI’s continuing subversive activities
across the region. Pakistan’s footprints
of terror are visible across the world,
but Islamabad continues to operate with complete impunity,
and there are no signs of any dramatic change in strategy
or orientation that could reverse this deleterious trend.
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