by Sultan M Hali
CHINA-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is stuck down India’s gullet. It refuses to reconcile to the advent of CPEC because it knows that once the mega project is complete, Pakistan’s economy is likely to spiral upwards. Indian machinations have been aimed at destabilizing Pakistan to the extent that it gets subjugated and kowtows to Indian diktat. Various heinous plans have been hatched to ensure that Pakistan reels under pressure. CPEC negates all Indian odious plans against Pakistan, thus the focus to target the Sino-Pakistan development project. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, objected to Chinese President Xi Jinping that CPEC was passing through Gilgit-Baltistan, which is disputed territory hence it should be scuttled. President Xi Jinping’s response was that CPEC is a commercial project and not a military or strategic one.
IDN NOTE: A story goes that this fellow Sultan M Hali had a pleasantly entertaining reputation among our former Gnat fighter pilots. During a 1971 encounter, this moron was hounded by our fighter pilots during a dogfight, deliberately playing ball with him in the air, but before the kill he scudded of with his much superior Sabre jet like a coward, which I am certain he surely is. That everlasting humiliation is what makes this chap take on India vehemently.
Indian sinister plans to derail CPEC included launching a terror campaign in Baluchistan, from where the project begins. Indian secret service Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) positioned its senior operative Indian Navy’s Commander Kulbhoshan Yadav to wreak havoc in Baluchistan. Baloch youth were led astray to commence insurgency and shake the Pakistani federation by demanding independence. Yadav and his ilk were shuttling through Iran, Baluchistan and Afghanistan, establishing terror centers in their wake. The majority of the misled Baloch were taken to RAW training camps in Baluchistan, where they were imparted with training in launching terror attacks, sabotage, and subversion. They were provided weapons and funds and let loose in Baluchistan to create mayhem and anarchy.
Commander Kulbhoshan Yadav’s timely arrest from the Baloch border town of Chaman lifted the shroud of secrecy from Indian odium. Yadav sang like a canary and divulged his malevolent agenda, which had been passed to him from none other than the master terrorist, India’s National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval. On India’s 69th Independence Day, Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation, admitted to supporting the Baloch insurgents. It’s a pity that the world at large remains oblivious to Modi’s monstrous conspiracies against Pakistan and meddling in its internal affairs.
Simultaneously, India conducted a series of false flag operations, slaughtering its own army personnel but blaming Pakistan for them. So far he has not succeeded in finding any takers for the conspiracy theory implicating Pakistan but his own people became irate, demanding punitive action against Pakistan. Modi had to resort to another nautanki (drama) that of conducting fake surgical strikes against selected targets in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and pretending Indian army destroyed fictitious terror camps and decimated 38 “terrorists”. This figment of Modi’s imagination was bought by only a gullible India media and public.
To counter Pakistan’s deep-sea port of Gwadar, from where CPEC commences, Modi invested in Iran’s Chabahar Port and built a highway leading to Afghanistan. Modi’s aim was to convince the Central Asian States and coerce Afghanistan to transit their exports and imports via Chabahar, rather than Gawadar. Out of sheer spite against Pakistan, Afghanistan agreed to do so but the Central Asian States are reluctant to ditch Gawadar. So much so that Iran, an erstwhile Indian ally, too has requested to be made a part of CPEC. Pragmatism is setting in the Iranian leadership.
CPEC, which terminates at China’s city of Kashgar, is a launching pad for China’s “One Belt One Road” project, which has highways, railways, oil and gas pipelines and information networks fanning into the Central Asian States and beyond to Europe. The One Belt One Road project will transform the economies of the entire region. India wants to hurt its arch rival China as well as Pakistan thus Indian social media activists have become very active in spreading false propaganda against CPEC to hurt Pak-China economic activities and sabotage CPEC.
In a recently uploaded video on YouTube which contained a lecture by an Indian scholar, Dr. Gaurav Garg portrayed CPEC as Pak-China endeavor to dominate regional economy by compromising American, Indian, Iranian, Russian and Central Asian States’ interests. He persuaded Indo-US cooperation to counter China’s alleged hegemonic designs over the region. To oppose Pakistan he illustrated through maps and used the oft-parroted warped logic that CPEC is passing through Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan which are part of India and Pakistan has illegally occupied it. Moreover, he also declared Baluchistan a disputed territory and challenged Pakistan’s position. Dr. Gaurav spewed venom that India is constructing its Chabahar port in Iran which is only 72km away from Gawadar Port and the presence of China at Gawadar would be a constant threat for India. The bulk of Indian fuel supply traverses the maritime route from the Gulf to India adjacent to Gawadar. India surmises that if China decides to block the trafficking of Indian fuel supply, it can ably do so from Gawadar.
Another allegation that India is constantly proliferating via the social media is that Pakistan is constantly violating Human Rights in Baluchistan while Baloch is looking forward to India’s assistance in liberation from Pakistan. The freedom fighters such as Akbar Bugti’s grandson Brahamdagh Bugti show their allegiance to India. India claims to have offered Indian citizenship to Brahamdagh Bugti. It has been known for decades that Bugti and other feudal lords from Baluchistan, spending time in self-exile are on the payroll of India. Dubious fake Baloch Naila Qadri has been sponsored by India and she is in the process of establishing an independent Baluchistan Government in exile in India. Naila Qadri is not even a real Baloch; she hails from Hyderabad Deccan in India, married a Pashtun and is now settled in Canada but is being propped up as a Baloch freedom fighter.
To enhance its lethal game, India has roped in Afghanistan as an ally to help tighten the screws on Pakistan. India is falsely propagating that it wants to inaugurate Salma Dam in Afghanistan but Pakistan’s illegal occupation of Baluchistan is making it impossible. Moreover, CPEC would pass through Baluchistan which would then strengthen Pakistan’s claim on Baluchistan. Combined efforts of China and Pakistan are essential to counter its propaganda and efforts to sabotage CPEC.
—The writer is retired PAF Group Captain and a TV talk show host.