In a tit for tat move, the Pakistani government has started preparations to provide proof of US and Indian intervention in Balochistan to the Parliament House and parliamentary committees following the introduction of a resolution on Balochistan in the Untied States Congress.
Highly reliable sources privy to the development say the US has been active for a long time to encourage Baloch separatist elements gain independence from Pakistan through the help of India, which is playing the lead role.
Sources said the government, in order to avoid further tensions in relations with the US and India, kept silent in the past over the interference of the two countries in Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), but that now it has decided to take the parliament into confidence with solid proof. For this purpose, sources said, special briefings would be given to the relevant parliamentary committees.
Sources said the government was also mulling the option of launching a diplomatic offensive by raising the issue of foreign intervention in Balochistan at various international forums.
They said the United States had been encouraging India to strengthen its spy network in Afghanistan by helping it open consulates along the Afghan border with Pakistan. Sources said the consulates were being used as bases of Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
“Through these centres, RAW is openly extending financial and material support to the anti-state elements in Balochistan,” sources said, adding that the US government was also partly financing some militant groups.
The US has been pressing Pakistan to allow it to open a consulate in Quetta and deploy CIA staff there under the pretext that Washington needs to keep an eye on the so-called Taliban-linked Quetta Shoora. However, the government, fully aware of the US intentions, did not allow the US to open a consulate in Quetta, sources said.
They pointed out that when Shahzain Bugti, the grandson of slain Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, was arrested by the Frontier Constabulary in Quetta, he first of all contacted the US Embassy in Islamabad. They said the incident was a clear proof that the Americans were in league with the separatist elements in Balochistan and were providing them arms and finances to achieve their nefarious designs against Pakistan.