Asif Haroon Raja
Commonality of interests of USA, Israel, India and Afghanistan under US installed puppet regime integrated the four into strategic partnership. While India was handsomely rewarded by Bush and Obama administrations for pioneering proxy war against Pakistan and for agreeing to act as a bulwark against China, Kabul regime was also compensated generously for its collaborative role. The theme of terrorism promoted against Pakistan by India and Afghanistan was in sync with the US design and it helped in widening trust deficit and in intensifying the misgivings/enmity between Pak-US, Pak-Afghanistan and Pak-India relations and in keeping Pakistan that had rendered maximum sacrifices and produced best results against terrorism, in the dock. The other tool used by USA was to keep pressing Pakistan to do more or to get deprived of economic assistance/military funds. The reason behind rancor was Pakistan’s nuclear capability and its intimacy with China. Another reason was that Pakistan was a convenient scape goat to hide the failures of ISAF and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. Once CPEC became a reality, it further peeved USA and India. Donald Trump took over the reins of power on January 20, 2017 amidst noisy protests. During his election campaign, he never minced his words in expressing his malice against the Muslims. In his inaugural speech he stressed upon eliminating Islamic radicalism from the face of the world. This assertion must be music to the ears of Indian leaders and has made it easier for Indian psychological operators to chalk out another false flag operation like in 2001 and 2008 to convince Trump and his team that Pakistan is an abettor of terrorism. Possible venues are Afghanistan, IoK and India. There will be no problem for RAW to stage-manage an attack in any of the three places. In Afghanistan, it can be undertaken by a selected team from Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) based in Kunar and Nangarhar. In IoK, fake Kashmiri Mujahedeen can perform as was the case of Uri attack in September last year. 4-5 Kashmiris or members of TTP kidnapped from IoK/Afghanistancan be used in India after imparting training. AjmalKasab was kidnapped from Nepal to undertake Mumbai attacks.A bigger and sensitive target will be selected to create an uproar. Probably, one of the US administrated military bases in Afghanistan will be attacked to antagonize the Americans and impel impetuous Trump to jump the gun and target Pakistan as Bush had done in 2001. Recent bomb attack inside the compound of Governor’s guesthousein Qandahar on January 10, killing five visiting UAE diplomats was an in-house act to spoil Pakistan-UAE relations and to reinforce the narrative of terrorism built against Pakistan. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has let the cat out of the bag by blurting out that Trump must keep his promise of ending terror camps in Pakistan that Obama failed to do. He spoke India’s language by lamenting that “America should have gone for Pakistan to defeat extremism and not Afghanistan; and that is where Trump should goâ€.To recapitulate, when the US finalised its plan to invade Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, India offered all its bases and resources and insisted that Pakistan must be destroyed along with Afghanistan to root out terrorism. Bush ruled it out on the plea that without Pakistan’s assistance, Afghan venture would prove costly and risky. He assured India that Pakistan will be dealt with separately at an opportune time after weakening it from within through covert war. Vexed by Pakistan’s silent but effective exterior maneuver to expose the ugly face of India and to cultivate better understanding with the new US administration, the Indian lobby helped by Jewish lobby in USA have redoubled their efforts to bring the new US regime under Indian magic spell and to create bad blood between Pakistan and USA.
