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

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