GHQ Rawalpindi Exposed: Pathankot Air Force Base & Mazar-i-Sharif Afghanistan Twin Terror Attack Signature Style of JeM & its Punjabi Tanzim In TTP

NSA Ajit Doval arrives at South Block on 2nd January 

Shailesh Kumar
New Delhi 

It was a damp morning, just past first day of the new year, National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, was struggling with multiple audio channels and monitors in the ops room in New Delhi while answering a call from a journalist. With swollen, watery eyes and hoarse voice, he could briefly answer the call. It was a damn whole night he couldn’t sleep. Intelligence of a major terrorist intrusion made him monitor the deployment for the Counter Terror Operations (CT Ops) himself. Terrorists’ calls intercepted by NTRO made the military establishment deploy extra force at Pathankot Air Force Base and Mamoon Cantonment area. Inputs from the interrogation of Salwinder Singh, SP Hqrs who was transferred from Gurdaspur to PAP just three days back were so specific that no one could have taken a chance. Terrorists in combat fatigue were on prowl. Terror was looming large, target still uncertain. Task was to trace 15 terrorists with a time running on the edge. But against all wishy-washy, terrorists came through the thin air, entered strategic forward air force base in Pathankot. Soon bullets were flying at the air force station leaving 6 Indian soldiers martyred and 5 terrorists dead in the counter operation.

While Pathankot operation is still on, exactly two days later, there is an attack on Indian Consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan. Nearly forty five commandos of ITBP engaged 4 gunmen, killed 2 on spot and foiled the terror bid. Afghan police and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) later carried out rest of the operation. Within days two Indian targets were chosen and aimed by terrorists. What is the connection? Well the footprints in both the attacks were of JeM in Pathankot attack and their Taliban counterpart in Mazar-i-Sharif attack led to GHQ Rawalpindi. Both attacks followed the visit of General Raheel Sharif to Afghanistan on 27^th December 2015. General Sharif was under tremendous pressure from US, Russia and even China to improve relations with Afghanistan and broker peace talks with Taliban. Two days before General visited Kabul, Prime Minister Modi had a stop over in Kabul. He inaugurated the Indian funded new Parliament building besides visiting Indian Embassy. Prime Minister Modi has invested huge political capital when he decided to drop by in Lahore to meet and greet his Pakistani counterpart on his birthday. Many had seen a strategic shift in Modi’s diplomacy towards Pakistan and welcomed his decision. But the developments led General Raheel Sharif tizzy about Pak PM Nawaz Sharif and Indian PM Modi’s growing bonhomie. Ultimately Pak Army would never like to be relegated to secondary position if not at equal partnership.

Blessed Sons of India: Pathankot Martyrs

Pakistan Army never liked India to grow its influence in Afghanistan. But, having been under tremendous pressure from West particularly America, which General Raheel Sharif made a hollow visit to, in November last year and got rebuked by the states to have cordial relations with Afghanistan and India. The later enjoys huge clout with the current Afghan Government whereas Pakistan is close to Taliban and wants them to be part of the Government when NATO forces leave the country. Pakistan wants to change the paradigm to shift Afghanistan again as its political backyard. So it has chosen the proxy war route. At one hand it will try to isolate India, on the other it will prove its importance by convincing the world that it holds clout with the terror groups. For this very reason it has chose Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), whose cadres are battle hardly and trained in its Bahawalpur headquarter followed by terror camps in PoK being run under its patronage. Maulana Masood Azhar, whose handler was ISI Brigadier Ijaz Shah, a close confidante of the then president Parvez Musharraf, had set up recruitment and training camps for Taliban in Dhir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Later, Pakistan Army under the then Lt. General Kayani helped JeM to set up a coordination centre in Peshawar to recruit, train and facilitate the travel of thousands of new recruits of Taliban to counter NATO military missions. So, JeM has strong presence in Afghan Taliban forces. JeM itself has operational network in J&K and known to carry out attacks on high security target, including security forces' bases, camps and convoys. Their modus operandi is that after storming, they either fortify themselves within the target, killing as many security force personnel and civilians as possible before they are killed by retaliatory action. In other cases, they kill and injure as many as possible before attempting to escape. So the trail is visible in both the terror strikes.

To cut short, Tehrik-i-Taliban-Pakistan’s (TTP) Punjabi faction is represented by Jaish-e-Mohammad. Terrorists in Mazar-i-Sharif launched RPG fire. On earlier occasions also TTP resorted to RPG fire and tried to penetrate Indian premises. This is the 6^th terror attempt ITBP has foiled in Afghanistan. The signature attack points finger towards TTP Punjabi Tanzim led by JeM. The clout of Pakistan Army over JeM is so much that at times it does not even need ISI to command and control the outfit. Pakistan Army provides logistics, funds and military training to the JeM cadres to perpetrate terror tantrum. Pak Army’s uses JeM as its strategic asset to balance internal and external power politics. This time General Raheel Sharif used JeM for both the purposes-, one- to settle scores with India another to maintain its importance within Pakistan equal or above Nawaz Sharif.

India has earned influence by contributing in the growth of the Afghanistan via strategic investment whereas Pakistan has resorted to destructive means to destabilize the Afghanistan by illegitimately supporting Taliban forces. Pakistan is certainly jealous of India and always try to harm Indian interests in Afghanistan. Inside Pakistan, General Raheel Sharif faces lot of insecurity and inferiority complex from Nawaz Sharif who has again attempted to bring Indo – Pak peace process on track. However, apparently it was being said that Army is on board for the rejuvenated talks with India but the facts speak otherwise.  To remind readers, Pakistan's army chief Raheel Sharif in September 2015 described Kashmir as the "unfinished agenda of the Partition" and threatened an "unbearable cost" of a "short or long" war. According to strategic experts, Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif is said to be close to the new National Security Adviser, recently retired General Naseer Khan Janjua, who in October replaced civilian Sartaj Aziz, an ally of the Prime Minister. The said appointment has further strengthened Pak Army’s hand in talks with India, with the military remaining circumspect of a civilian government giving too much away.

General Headquarters, Rawalpindi seems to have planning proxy attack on Indian establishments for a long time. ISI director appointed by Army Chief reports to PM Nawaz Sharif only on papers. Actually General Rizwan Akhtar is accountable to Pak Army Chief. For Intelligence inputs, GHQ Rawalpindi relied heavily on ISI, whose agents managed to penetrate Indian security establishment. Recently, Indian police and intelligence agencies have busted an India wide ISI spy ring. ISI used honey trap and blackmailing to gather humint on security installations and armed forces deployment. Indian Air Force personnel (LAC) Ranjith KK fallen in ISI honey trap through its woman operative Damini McNaught. He was arrested form Bhatinda Air base by Delhi police in cooperation with MI and IAF-LU. Possibility of him or his associates for leaking out sensitive information about Pathankot air station can not be ruled out. Recently, security agencies have tapped multiple VOIP calls between ISI handlers and their operatives back in India. Infact, investigations have revealed that Pathankot terror module was in touch with their handlers in Bahawalpur in Pakistan. Bahawalpur in Multan of Pakistan is the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammad. A recruitment and training centre of JeM is spread in sprawling 6.5 acre land. The activities are supported by Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services-Intelligence and GHQ Rawalpindi. Pathankot terrorists conversed in Multani dialect, the information reportedly revealed by Salwinder Singh, an SP deployed in the Headquarters in Gurdaspur. The recorded conversation of terrorists with handlers in Pak also substantiates the fact.

Pathankot terrorists tried to enter the technical area of the base. Their plan was to to inflict heavy damage as strategic assets were parked at Pathankot Air Force base. JeM or TTP is a camouflage used by GHQ Rawalpindi. Every time, GHQ Rawalpindi try to give alibi but this time nailed. Pakistan Amry has befooled America, Afghan, Iran and India too. But ultimately whose responsibility is to monitor, check  and dismantle terror originating from its soil?

Also Read (Inside story of Jaish-e-Mohammad): "The Forgotten Enemy"