US in a position to stop Indian subversive activities in Pakistan: envoy

Ambassador Khan says India responsible for resurgence of attacks in Pakistan

The United States is perhaps the only country in the world that is in a position to play an important and critical role on the issue of Indian subversive activities in Pakistan, said Islam­abad’s envoy in Washington, Asad Majeed Khan.

Asad Majeed Khan and former US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins, in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor, discussed India's involvement in terrorist activities in Pakistan.

“We see the US as perhaps the only country in the world that is in a position to play an important and critical role on this issue,” said the country's envoy. 

Khan observed that Pakistan has managed to significantly reduce the number of attacks in the country over the last decade. However, he blamed India for the resurgence of attacks in the country. "Unfortunately we see the Indian footprint and Indian fingerprints all over the place."

The country's top diplomat, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and the military spokesperson, Major General Babar Iftikhar, had presented a dossier earlier in November detailing India's involvement in terror attacks in Pakistan during the media conference.

Multiple video clips and audio clips, along with documents, were presented during the media conference of Indian handlers and terrorists communicating with each other and Indian intelligence handlers passing on instructions to terrorists in Pakistan.

The ambassador expressed hope that the engagement of the US could support peace and stability in the South Asian region. He added that India has successfully painted itself as the innocent target of terrorism.

“A certain narrative has been built around Indian victimhood – how India has suffered at the hand of terrorists – and much of that blame has been thrown at us."

Khan said that it is time that the world understood not just India’s destabilizing activities in the region but also its attacks on democratic governance and human rights at home under the current Hindu nationalist government.

Referring to the human rights violation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K), the envoy said Pakistan would like to see the US pressure India over the revocation of the disputed region's special status and the repressive measures Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to enforce.

However, Dobbins said: "We may see the US taking a little tougher stance toward India over its human rights record, but basically we'll continue to court India as a counterweight to China. Overall, I don't think we'll see the Biden administration taking a very different approach to Pakistan than the Trump administration did."

Dobbins maintained that allegations of Indian support for separaists in the Balochistan region might have merit since India has been suspected of such activity in the past. However, he added that Washington is more concerned about Islamabad's influence in Kabul and with the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan has also presented the dossier of Indian involvement in terrorism to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres among other diplomats. The country seeks to highlight Indian aggression against Pakistan and hopes the world community will hold New Delhi responsible for its destabilising presence in the region. 

India has also been targeting Pakistan using other means. EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based disinformation watchdog, cracked open a massive 15-year-old Indian disinformation operation targeting international institutions including the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) with over 750 fake local media outlets and more than 10 dead NGOs to serve Indian interests and amplify content to undermine Pakistan and China.

The report stated that the operation led by the Srivastava Group and amplified by ANI — an Indian news agency based in New Delhi — under the banner of "Indian Chronicles" began in 2005 and is still underway. It's mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular, Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent.