THE ISSUE OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND INDIAN SURROGATE WARFARE AGAINST PAKISTAN

Abstract

The paper elucidates Indian motives and means used to support separatist elements, insurgencies, and
terrorist groups in Pakistan since the partition of sub-continent on communal lines that sowed the seeds
of antagonistic relations between two states enmeshed mainly on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. The
paper employs the concept of surrogate warfare that India used against Pakistan to pursue the former’s
political and strategic objectives. India supported militant and criminal groups and separatist elements
mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan besides Saraiki nationalists in Punjab. It
sponsored Mukti Bahini and then invaded East Pakistan to dismember Pakistan in 1971, and; and backed
criminal groups in Karachi, the financial hub or Pakistan. In the post 9/11, Indian RAW nurtured
terrorism unleashed by Tehreek–e–Taliban Pakistan and Baloch militants through using mainly Afghan
soil and occasionally Iranian territory where its consulates function as RAW’s “control room” for flaming
terrorism in Pakistan. India’s main aim is to force Islamabad to abandon the latter’s support to the
independence movement in Indian held Kashmir and to compromise on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir.