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Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Emerging India-Israel nexus in Balochistan
Feudal nomadic Baloch society is still struggling to fully integrate itself in political structure of Pakistani state. Being a frontier region for British India, administration of Balochistan was mostly franchised to tribal sardars, allowing central government to direct resources to other priority needs. After independence, perpetual political instability consumed Pakistan's rulers in political matters in country's heartland. As a result, central government continued with pre-partition policy of managing Balochistan through sardars who were kept under control through regular payouts and quasi suzerainty in their fiefdoms. Whenever any sardar attempted to step out of state's fold, the state re-asserted its authority by employing force while simultaneously playing feudals against each other. While sardars enjoyed extraordinary autonomy in their areas of influence, had final say in administrative matters and received regular payouts from government in name of royalties, bogey of exploitation was kept alive as leverage against state. And the result has been numerous area specific insurgencies since independence. However, the ongoing militancy in the province is unique in character, as its control has moved from traditional sardars to middle class militant leaders with no feudal or political background. This phenomenon is a consequence of state's refusal to negotiate with recalcitrant sardars as practiced in past, and decision to assert its authority permanently like in other settled regions of the country. Displacement of feudal authority led to vacuum which was filled by new leadership, outside of traditional feudal fold. Whatever their initial motivations, external patronisation led this group to choose militancy instead of adopting a coherent political strategy to attain their goals. Right after the onset of the current unrest in Balochistan, India hijacked militant movement to exploit this Achilles heel of its archrival. Indian support to armed groups like BLA and BLF is well documented. Pakistan has many a time shared dossiers containing evidence of Indian support to militants with Indian government, the UN and major world capitals. In 2016, the arrest of Indian RAW officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, a serving Naval Commander level officer working on an intelligence assignment, from Pakistan provided irrefutable evidence of India's covert operations in Balochistan. Jadhav confessed to collaborating with terrorist groups, as tasked by RAW, to incite Baloch youth against Pakistani state. This is an unprecedented case of state sponsorship of terrorism, where a serving intelligence officer of India was on a clandestine mission inside Pakistan. Lately, Israel has also jumped into the fray. Israel is long believed to have supported separatist/militant movements in Iran including those in Sistan-Baluchestan province. Iranian Baluchestan adjoins Pakistan's Balochistan province. Since harsh terrain facilitates militants to move across border undetected, dual-prong approach can deliver optimal effects. There is also an obvious convergence of interest between India and Israel which is likely to have catalysed pursuit of a joint strategy to target Pakistan and Iran through Baloch inhabited regions. Israel's interest in destabilising Pakistani Balochistan likely stems out of a number of drivers which can include pressurising Pakistan in response to its support to Palestinian cause, pushing it towards favourable disposition on Abraham Accords, Pakistan's nuclear capability and its clout in Muslim world. Meanwhile, India is pursuing its core interest to weaken Pakistan through any means possible and also disrupt China's BRI project. Their combined project also has the potential to deny Gwadar deep sea port to China and opening of rare earth elements for exploration by Western countries. On 18 June 2025, Meir Masri, former Israeli Deputy Minister of Defence and a lecturer at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, tweeted that "after Iran's campaign, we may seek to dismantle Pakistan's nuclear program". Probably Israeli establishment has now concluded that route to its objective runs through Balochistan. Hence, cooperation with RAW which has a plenty of experience in handling terrorist proxies like BLA and BLF is the logical path. On 12 June 2025, a Washington-based Israeli think tank, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), launched Balochistan Studies Project, featuring key participation from Baloch diaspora championing separatist cause. Investment in translating and analysing Urdu, Balochi, Persian and Pashto sources signals that quarters in Israel now view the Baloch region as a strategically important space with geopolitical interests. MEMRI appointed a mysterious character Mir Yar Baloch as President of the project. On 12 May 2025, Mir Yar Baloch declared independence of Balochistan via social media and called on the UN to recognise it as an independent state. Indian media identified him as a prominent Baloch dissident advocating for independence. However, the image circulated with this identity was falsely attributed and actually depicted Mazdak Baloch, the son of another Baloch activist Naela Qadri. Haribyar Marri has also published subversive content on MEMRI's website. Recently, some international websites and publications have sharply increased their coverage of Balochistan. While ostensibly highlighting human rights concerns, their narratives are in fact promoting an anarchist agenda. The Diplomat has published more than 25 stories on Balochistan since March this year. Narratives being pushed out by MEMRI and The Diplomat have striking resemblance. Both glorify acts of violence by BLA and other terrorist outfits, while projecting Pakistani state in extremely negative manner. Since the beginning of this year, Baloch activists in Europe have suddenly become much more active; holding seminars, debates and rallies and interacting with various think tanks and other organisations - something which is not possible without significant clout. Their narrative intentionally sidelines ground realities in order to garner financial and political support for specific agenda. They hide facts which can question legitimacy of their claims, like: overwhelming segment of Baloch society is patriotic and sincere to Pakistan; Baloch people have always been part of federal and provincial legislatures and other governance institutions; Baloch people have always held top executive positions in the province though Pushtuns make the second largest segment of population there; special quotas in jobs and universities are reserved for Baloch; a larger share of resources in NFC award is specially allocated for Balochistan by reducing the due share of Punjab; and a large number of Baloch people are happily serving in civil bureaucracy, armed forces and paramilitary forces, even more than their demographic share while hundreds of thousands are peacefully pursuing their occupations in different parts of the country. Misleading narratives and malafide campaigns by vested interests have blurred facts concerning Balochistan. Though state needs to play its part in addressing genuine grievances, interference by India and now Israel are there to complicate the matters.
AFP
15-07-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Movie footage falsely shared as Israeli spy execution in Iran
"Iran has hanged Mossad agents," reads a Urdu-language post shared June 30, 2025 on X, referring to Israel's intelligence agency. A video included in the post shows a blindfolded man with his hands tied and a noose around his neck attached to a crane. Two masked men remove the stool under him. "But in Pakistan, Indian terrorist commander Kulbhushan Jadhav is alive and well," the post adds, mentioning an alleged Indian spy who has been on death row for years (archived link). Image Screenshot of the false X post taken June 30, 2025 with a red X added by AFP Similar posts also surfaced on TikTok after a US-proposed ceasefire ended the Iran-Israel war, which killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and at least 28 people in Israel. Hostilities erupted after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran on June 13, targeting nuclear sites and killing several senior military officials and nuclear scientists (archived link). Tehran responded with waves of drone and missile fire, and the demonstration of Israel's deep intelligence penetration prompted a major hunt for spies (archived link). According to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, six men have been hanged on charges of spying for Israel since the start of the conflict, dozens more on other charges and more than 1,000 arrested during or after the conflict on charges related to the war. A reverse image search of keyframes on Google led to longer footage published on YouTube on April 16, 2024 with the title, "Hanging the actor backstage" (archived link). A part of the clip at the end that had been omitted in the circulating video shows people rushing in to help the actor after the scene. Another version of the clip was shared on Instagram on January 3, 2025 with the caption, "Behind the scenes of the execution of the Bi Badan film" (archived link). Image Screenshot comparison of clip in the false posts (L) and the YouTube video The entertainment database IMDB says the Farsi-language film -- released in 2024 -- is an adaptation of a famous criminal case in the 1990s "which went back and forth several times until the execution stage" (archived link). The execution scene can be seen from a different angle between the movie's four to five-minute marks, an AFP journalist found. AFP has debunked more false claims related to the Iran-Israel war here.
Express Tribune
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
SCO flak for India
Listen to article Pakistan and India were found to be at odd ends as they failed to see from the same prism at the SCO's Qingdao moot. New Delhi was, however, caught in an embarrassing situation as member states refused to buy its theory on terrorism, and stopped short of pointing a finger at Pakistan. Perhaps for the first time, a joint communique was not signed as India hopelessly left the august gathering in desperation. It was a moment of flak for it. All that India wanted is to 'single out' Islamabad and 'blame' it for Pahalgam killings that led to the four-day war between both the countries in May. The sagacious attitude of the SCO members, including China, Russia, Central Asian Republics and Iran, to take a holistic and unbiased view of evolving geopolitics, and at the same time make a referral to an uptick in terrorism in Pakistan's Balochistan province was farsighted diplomacy. The SCO forum has long been a hard nut to crack for India, and its modus operandi was to overwhelm the forum with its clout at the expense of Pakistan. Previous summits too had seen a lot of estrangement, and few were skipped by either state for reasons of exigency. This time around it was India's vendetta to score a point at the multilateral forum and somehow convince the SCO that Pakistan is the 'pivot of terrorism' and it is on the receiving end. Whereas, the fact is that Indian proxies, its sleeper cells and its operatives have been active in Pakistan for long, especially in Balochistan, and the arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav is a case in point. The Jaffar Express hijacking and attacks on Pakistan's security forces in the desolate province have Indian footprints, and it's high time it was taken note of by the countries in the region and beyond. Pakistan's reiteration of its stance calling upon all member states to hold those accountable who "plan, finance and sponsor terrorism" is the way to go. Rather than beating about the bush on 'terrorism' and that too without any evidence, India should take some orientation in statesmanship and talk it out with Pakistan.
India.com
27-06-2025
- Politics
- India.com
SCO meet: Rajnath Singh's stance against terrorism and Pahalgam attack was countered by Pakistan and..., even THIS country didn't stand with India
SCO meet: Rajnath Singh's stance against terrorism and Pahalgam attack was countered by Pakistan and..., even THIS country didn't stand with India Not just at borders, but India also have to fight diplomatic battles with Pakistan and China. In the meeting of the Defence Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in China, both China and Pakistan tried to play with India. However, failed miserably. Surprisingly, a country which calls itself India's ally, also didn't stand up for New Delhi. India's stance against terrorism and Pakistan-backed terrorists was countered by Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's question on Kulbhushan Jadhav, Jaffar Express and Balochistan. Pakistan calls Kulbhushan Jadhav an Indian spy, while India says that the Pakistani intelligence agency kidnapped him from Iran and forcibly kept him in captivity. When Rajnath Singh wanted to respond to this baseless claim of Pakistan, SCO Chairman China did not approve it. Not only this, the Pahalgam attack was not mentioned in the joint statement but Balochistan was named. Understanding this trick of China and Pakistan, Rajnath Singh did not sign the joint statement. What was Russia's stance? Russia who has always termed itself as New Delhi's friend also did not come ahead in India's rescue. During this time, Russia also signed the joint statement and did not support India. What did Pakistan minister say? Khawaja Asif said, 'I gave my speech at number five where I raised the issue of Jaffar Express attack and Kulbhushan Jadhav.' Meanwhile, the Indian Defense Minister requested China, the chairman of the conference, to speak again. China rejected this request of India and cited the alleged tradition. He said that except India, the defense ministers of all other countries signed the joint statement. Rajnath meets Chinese counterpart Rajnath Singh held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Jun and stressed on border management and to have a permanent solution of border demarcation by rejuvenating the established mechanism on the issue.
Business Recorder
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
New Delhi actively using BLA to orchestrate terror attacks
ISLAMABAD: Indian state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan has once again come under the spotlight, with credible security sources revealing that New Delhi is actively using banned militant outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) to orchestrate terror attacks within Pakistani territory. According to security officials, the recent suicide bombing on a school bus in Khuzdar on May 21 — which martyred three children and two adults and left several others critically injured — is part of a broader Indian-sponsored campaign aimed at destabilising Balochistan. The attack has been described as 'a cowardly act by the BLA under Indian directives'. Security sources highlighted that after suffering major setbacks during Pakistan's successful Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, Indian-backed proxies have intensified efforts to spread chaos through social media threats and coordinated attacks. Following May 10, 2025, multiple known and anonymous Indian social media accounts began issuing threats of violence in Balochistan, further substantiating suspicions of cross-border orchestration. 'India is using groups like the banned BLA to execute terror plots in Pakistan in a desperate bid to divert public attention from its own internal failures,' the sources said. They pointed out that Indian intelligence is actively nurturing terrorism by maintaining at least 21 training camps in Rajasthan to prepare militants for infiltration into Pakistan. Evidence of Indian involvement in Pakistan's internal destabilisation has long been available, with the captured Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav having openly confessed to facilitating terror networks on Indian government's directives. Security sources also revealed that terrorists involved in the Jaffer Express train attack had maintained contact with Indian handlers via Afghanistan — another indication of regional destabilisation efforts coordinated by Indian intelligence. India's political leadership and media have been repeatedly found endorsing and amplifying narratives of groups like the BLA, which have been internationally condemned for terrorism. 'This clearly demonstrates India's state sponsorship of terrorism,' officials said. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
