The Pakistani Army and terror outfits need jihad against India not for Islam, but to maintain their high-profile lifestyle and sponsor the education of their children abroad, according to intelligence sources from India.
“Jihad and non-state actors complement each other. Generals need jihadis and jihadis need Generals for their lifestyle. The lifestyle of the so-called terror group chiefs show they are doing it for their personal good. Islam has nothing to do with it,” said sources.
Taking note of this, even those from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan want the Indian government to merge them, they added.
“The day a poor man from south Punjab hands over his son to a religious leader, he knows he will never be able to meet him. A child is sold to a jihadi for Rs30,000-40,000. Imagine the business return to these jihadi groups and Army,” sources added.
RELIGION WITH NATIONALISM, KASHMIR ANGLE
Sources say Pakistan has serious foundation problems as a state, and to overcome those, they needed an easily saleable concept, which started with Kashmir. “From day one, soldiers are told that Indian forces are kafirs (traitors), mixing religion with nationalism.”
All prominent Pakistan Army Generals, from Muhammad Ayub Khan and Tikka Khan to Yahya Khan, exploited the religious element in their rhetoric against India and Indian soldiers. Zia ul Haq created an Army close to West, but Islamist in ideology. Haq wanted civilians to be involved in the jihad and that started mix of army and civilian non-state actors.
“They needed each other. A percentage is recruited to the army in one form or another. To show they have control, the top leadership of the army pushes these cadres to different areas. One prominent area is Kashmir where they push through the Line of Control (LoC),” said sources.
MANI-FOLD RETURNS: MORE FREE CADRE & FOREIGN MONEY
In this case, the returns are multi-fold. “If they are able to push 10 people and all of them die, they become martyrs and big events take place back home. This attracts more free cadre to carry out more attacks or works in other parts of the world. Against this, they get more zakat (donations) during Ramazan and that money is for the personal use of top leadership of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hizbul in Pakistan,” they said.
Lashkar has almost 70 big properties in the name of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in South Punjab and similar is the case with JeM.
“Reports published in the past about killing of Chinese workers in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are nothing, but a work of Pakistani Generals. They then get more money from the Chinese for security,” sources said.
TERROR TO ARMY CHIEFS: CARS, BUNGALOWS AND THE DREAM LIFE
No Pakistani General has stayed in the country for long, be it Parvez Musharraf, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha or Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa.
Bajwa’s immediate and extended family members, in a matter of few years, started a new business, and became owners of farmhouses in prominent Pakistani cities and bought foreign properties, making billions of dollars in the process.
Pasha was questioned for investments abroad. Musharraf and Kayani are staying abroad, while Bajwa is hardly seen in Pakistan after retirement.
For instance, Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed’s son-in-law is a known property grabber from South Punjab and any property which goes for renovation is captured by him or he demands a cut. In good times, Saeed used to make 30 million USD per year from donations and a huge chunk used to go to many Army officials to help him out. “Lashkar’s Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Sajid Mir and JeM’s Rauf Asghar are living comfortably in Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur. Their cars are worth Rs 4-5 crore in Pakistani rupees with a convoy of 20 cars in their cadre. The Pakistani Army knows that unless they have a cult figure, they can’t get fighters and money for jihad,” sources added.
