How Pak dodges charges of terror against India

There are two reasons why we should study Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry' s (ISI) March 14, 2025, allegation that India was the "mastermind" of the March 11 train hijack by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) together with German historian Hein G Kiessling's 2016 book, "Faith, Unity, Discipline: The ISI of Pakistan".

The first reason is because Kiessling's book is considered to be an "authorised" history of the ISI or "approved" by it since the author had to include in his book eight pages sent by the ISI. These pages comprise the two appendices titled "Realities Vs Misperceptions — Balochistan" and "Indian/RAW's involvement in Pakistan".

The second reason is that the book nearly confirms the first official admission by Hamid Gul, the then ISI chief, that Pakistan was deeply connected with terrorism against India.

This admission was made in 1988 during the secret Track-II meetings between Hamid Gul and his Indian counterpart, the late AK Verma, held in Amman and Geneva on the suggestion of the then Jordanian Crown Prince Hasan bin Talal. The meetings were approved by the top-level leaderships of both India and Pakistan. The purpose was to improve bilateral relations and reduce tensions. The topics discussed were Khalistan and Siachen.

I could reveal more on the Gul-Verma meetings, as I was Verma's Chief Staff Officer at that time. Although I did not attend those meetings, Verma had briefed me fully to draft his reports. He said that he was quite startled when Gul dramatically admitted, at the very first meeting, that they (ISI) were behind the violent Khalistan activities in India.

Gul further said that Pakistan was "scared" of India and its military strength as it was a much larger country and the only way it could defend itself was through 'non-state actors'. He offered to stop the activity if India reciprocated and instilled confidence that it had no territorial ambitions on Pakistan. This included the festering dispute over Siachen.

After putting the onus of creating a favourable atmosphere entirely on India, Gul offered, as a measure of goodwill, to release some Sikh regiment deserters who had taken refuge in Pakistan. He carried out the promise — some deserters were pushed back into India.

However, the talks fizzled out since the military leaderships of both countries did not accept Gul's plan of settling the Siachen dispute.

Kiessling also confirms in his book that Gul released four Sikh soldiers "to carry the talks forward." These soldier deserters came from the Indian army, had sought refuge in Pakistan and were in ISI custody.

Now, let's come back to the present situation. Appendix 2 "Indian/RAW's involvement in Pakistan" in Kiessling's book, authored by the ISI, uses the same language as Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has now used in his allegation — that India was the "mastermind" in fomenting "instability in Pakistan".

But the Appendix adds that this was in collusion with Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) by providing financial support, training and weapons to Balochistan sub-nationalists and others.

The Appendix criticised PM Narendra Modi and senior Indian officials for following the policy of "offensive defence" and a challenge "you do another 26/11, you lose Balochistan." It quoted former US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, while he was a senator, that "India was financing problems in Pakistan." It also referred to American writer Christine Fair's claim that Indian consulates in Afghanistan were "pumping money into Balochistan."

In 1993 and 1994, I had led the Indian intelligence teams for our annual dialogue with the US counterparts on terrorism facing both countries. I had then pointed out to my interlocutors about the danger of neglecting terrorism emanating from Pakistan and treating it as a human rights problem, as some unregistered lobbyists like Ghulam Nabi Fai and Gurmeet Singh Aulakh had been saying.

However, it was only in 2011 that Fai was arrested by the FBI for concealing a receipt of $3.5 million from the ISI, while pretending to be a lobbyist.

Also, America used to follow, especially prior to 9/11, a peculiar policy on terrorism originating from Pakistan. Its annual reports on terrorism ("Patterns of Global Terrorism") released by the US Coordinator for Counter Terrorism, which were then the most comprehensive compendium of terrorist organisations in the world, used to have a preamble (1996 Amendment to the Export Administration Act of 1979) listing the countries that had cooperated with the US government in apprehending, convicting and punishing terrorists responsible for attacking US citizens and interests.

That this stipulation used to cloud their final judgment on certain countries supporting terrorism was borne out by the report for 2000 in which Pakistan, which was criticised for supporting Kashmiri militants and the Taliban, earned high marks for its cooperation with the US to "enhance security for US facilities and personnel".

Thus, over the years, Pakistan found an easy way to please America and escape the adverse list. The first was the arrest in Pakistan in 1997 of Pakistani national Mir Aimal Kansi, who had fired at and killed two CIA employees on January 25, 1993 outside the CIA headquarters in Langley and escaped to Pakistan.

The second was Ramzi Yousef of al-Qaida, who was responsible for the February 26, 1993 New York World Trade Center basement truck bombing which had killed six and injured 1,042. He was arrested by the ISI in Islamabad in 1995.

In December 2018, President Donald Trump requested the then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to give logistic help to US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad for the Afghan peace talks, warning that Islamabad's assistance was "fundamental" to the health of the two countries' strained relationship.

Similarly, on March 4, 2025, President Trump lauded Pakistan's help in capturing Mohammad Sharifullah, the top Afghan Islamic State terrorist responsible for the August 2021 bombing at Kabul airport which had killed several American soldiers. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for "appreciating Pakistan's role and support in counterterrorism efforts across the region."

Views are personal