by Harsha Kakar

The recent attacks on Hazara Shia’s in Quetta and the case of the gunmen storming a bus moving between Karachi and Gwadar had the Pak Inter Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) working overtime to place the blame on India. Even the foreign office spokesperson joined the anti-India bandwagon. In a statement, post the attack in Baluchistan, he said, ‘Pakistan has repeatedly found and shared with the world evidence of India’s sabotage activities and interference in Baluchistan. We will unearth the truth this time too and the world shall know.’ He added, ‘These terrorist attacks are taking place in the province where we found Kulbhushan Jadhav.’

The Pak army has regularly been claiming that it has eliminated all terrorists in the state, yet when an attack takes place, rather than accepting their failures, they seek to throw the ball across the border and blame India and the Afghan NDS.

The responsibility for the attack on Hazara Shia’s was taken by the TTP and the IS, both Sunni extremist groups, which have regularly been targeting minorities in Pak. After the attack, Pak faced international criticism for failing to protect its minorities. Amnesty International’s Deputy South Asia Director, Omar Waraich, condemned the attack, saying, ‘Targeted for their religion by sectarian armed groups, they have suffered many such tragedies over several years. Each time, there are promises that more will be done to protect them, and each time those promises have failed to materialise.’

In an editorial in the Dawn of 20th Apr, Irfan Hussain wrote, ‘Imran Khan has lots of time to dash off to China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE with begging bowl in hand. However, he cannot spare a few hours to console the loved ones of the victims of the latest atrocity against a beleaguered community.’ He added, ‘By refusing to fly to Quetta, Imran Khan is sending a signal that the Hazaras are on their own.’

The next day, after intense international and domestic pressure, Imran Khan’s government announced his decision of visiting the families of the victims, two weeks after the tragedy. Imran had earlier called the New Zealand PM, Jacinda Arden, his role model for grieving with the victims of the Mosque attack, whereas he followed suit a fortnight later.

In the incident in Baluchistan, gunmen downloaded all non-Baluchi passengers travelling in the buses, post identifying them from their identity cards,and subsequently gunned them down. The dead included Pakistan’s navy and coast guard personnel. The Baloch Raaji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS), an alliance of armed ethnic Baloch separatist groups, claimed responsibility for the attack.

A day after accusing India, Pak suddenly changed tune and charged Iran and Afghanistan for not acting against BRAS. As per the Pak foreign minister, Qureshi, BRAS training camps are in Iran and their leadership in Afghanistan.

The reasons for blaming India appear to be evident. Pak aims to project India as the nation inciting terrorism within their country, forgetting that terrorist groups operating against the Pak army are their own creation. The TTP rose from the ashes of the attack by the Pak army on the Lal Masjid in Jul 2007 and the Baluch freedom struggle began post the brutality of the Pak army on innocent Baluchi’s. There are regular reports of killings, disappearances and rapes in Baluchistan.

Every time an incident occurs, the Pak army launches a crackdown and in a few days’ claims success. In this case too, they claimed six terrorists were killed near Peshawar, however none were identified. Thus, clearly it was another fake message being sent through the ISPR’s controlled media network.

The other reason appears to be that by blaming India, it hopes to win over the Shia population which remains amongst the most persecuted minorities in Pak. It also hopes to gain sympathy from the Shia community based in Iran, Afghanistan, Oman and India. It is also seeking to create a rift between Muslim communities in India. Further, with elections on, it is hoping to polarize the Indian Muslim community.

It is also attempting to project the Indian anti-Muslim stance in the OIC. By accusing India, it is desperately attempting to seek a change in the team assessing Pak’s response to FATF, claiming the anti-Pak bias of India. It is trying to save itself from being placed on the Black List and by removing India, it is hopeful of Chinese support for the same. However, all its attempts are being ignored by the world community.

Further, projecting Indian responsibility for attacks on its soil, it seeks to justify its firing along the LoC and thus ignore the problems faced by the population of POK post strong Indian retaliation.

Pak had also blamed India for the attack on the Chinese consulate in Nov last year. It sought to create an impression that it is India which is against the CPEC and the construction of Gwadar port, since it could be a challenge to Chabahar, and hence are supporting the Baluchi’s against the same.

It has projected Kulbhushan Jadhav as an Indian agent regularly in their press, to continue reminding their own population that the rising incidents of violence in Baluchistan are not their failure as they are planned from across the border.

The Pak army has been failing in Baluchistan. There are regular reports of attacks on its vehicles and bases by Baluch insurgents. With the PTM Movement gaining ground in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, the Pak army appears to be losing control. Imran Khan while addressing a rally in Orakzai over the weekend stated, ‘how will it benefit Pakistan and the tribal areas (for PTM) to turn people who have been through pain against their army and raise slogans like this?’ It is now desperate for a face-saving gesture. What better option than to throw the blame on India and the Afghan NDS working together to destabilise Pak.

Its public is fed what the Deep State desires, not what is reality. Failures of the army are converted into actions by a hostile state. The truth is twisted to create a positive image of the army in the public eye. Casualties to soldiers are hidden, while those of ‘supposed terrorists’ enhanced. The reality behind the uprising in Baluchistan including maltreatment meted out by the Pak army are never disclosed. PTM activities and their large anti-army rallies are barred from being projected on national media networks.

The DG ISPR’s attempts to bring India into their internal politics is to cover their own failures and ensure that an anti-India sentiment continues within the country. This provides the Pak army the justification to stick to its game of supporting terrorist groups operating within India and maintain ahigh standing of the army in the public eye.

It also enables hiding current economic problems, joblessness and rising inflation faced by the nation. The game is to convince the public that while they may be forced to continue suffering, the army which is ‘supposedly’ standing tall needs additional funds and resources to counter a strong Indian military challenges. This can only happen in a country run by the army, not the army of a nation.