Now the same Imran Khan, during his three-day US visit last week, has admitted that about 30,000-40,000 "armed people", who have been trained and fought in some part of Afghanistan or Kashmir, were in Pakistan and accused the previous governments of not telling the truth to the US about the militant groups operating in the country.
Was the Pak Army taken into confidence before issuing such a blatant statement which lowers the dignity of politics in Pakistan to a new low? There are several such questions jolting the minds of every one of us.
Mr Imran Khan was playing 1st class cricket during the early 80's in the times of late Gen Zia ul Haq when Pakistan had begun aiding and abetting terrorism in our side of Punjab and it took entire decade to subside extremism with India spending heavily in taking countermeasures such as - erection of power fence along the western borders, pumping in more Security forces, etc, but not before its culmination into thousands of deaths during Hindu Sikh riots after the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the then PM, Mr Beant Singh, the then CM of Punjab and many more.
In the late 80's turbulence in J&K began with a mass exodus of Kashmiri youths exfiltrating into POK and the bus conductors in buses leaving Kashmir valley towards Baramulla, Kupwara shouting 'Sopore, Kopore, Opore' ( Going across via Sopore and Kupwara).
But with the beginning of the '90s the ISI sponsored pro -Pakistani militant outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkatul Mujahideen, etc had already swung into action with more than 100 such groups operating in the Kashmir valley by 1994.
However, most of those groups were eliminated by brave Indian security forces but Pakistan ISI kept on rejuvenating the extremism through a deep-rooted upper ground network with financial support by spearheading Narco-Terrorism and pumping in counterfeit currency at the cost of thousands of human losses and that process is still continuing.
It is true that the snakes nurtured by the Pakistan Army/ISI have been turning towards the charmers and biting them profusely thus acutely impacting their own growth.
In the foregoing fact, Imran Khan and his propagators did not have any other alternative to win support from the US as this visit appears to have been stage-managed perhaps based on the preplanned agenda to again rake up Kashmir issue by Pakistan. Image courtesy - Google
(Author Avinash Sharma, after having worked in the two Indian missions in our neighboring Pakistan and China in the 80s, remained connected with the Indian Intelligence for about 13 years and closely monitored activities on the Western and Eastern borders as well as Industrial Security. He had been witness to the onslaught of Kashmir militancy in the nineties and saw the uprising and subsequent waning of several Pakistan sponsored militant outfits vis a vis analysing role of Pak intelligence agencies. The views expressed in this article are his personal.)
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