Warfare in the contemporary era emerged as hybrid warfare due to changing dynamics of war. Hybrid warfare is a combination of conventional warfare, unconventional warfare, irregular warfare, and cyber and information warfare, of a military strategy to target vulnerable points of the adversary. These vulnerable targets include economic, political, ethnoreligious and diplomatic, which are used to destabilize and disintegrate the adversary.
The rapid advancement in technology changes the way of thinking and also impacts social economic and political processes. With the changing global politics, and evolving geostrategic environment in the era of globalization waging war is not possible and also not costly benefit.
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India’s hybrid warfare is a major threat to the state of Pakistan
India and Pakistan’s rivalry started the day after the independence. Both fought two major wars and engages in different limited conflicts. The main reason for the conflict is the Kashmir dispute. After gaining nuclear capabilities from Pakistan, the Indian military thinkers realize that conventional war could not be feasible and cost-effective. So this thinking has given rise to the idea of hybrid warfare under the umbrella of Nuclear weapons.
The main idea behind the Indian hybrid war strategy against Pakistan is to isolate the state by using different means such as media, cyber warfare, proxy, subversion and Diplomatic relations. The main objective of that is to create its hegemony in the region and push Pakistan from its stance on Kashmir. India with the collaboration of other players funding and supporting separatist movements of Baluchistan and also creating threats from western borders through supporting TTP to conduct terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
India is using hybrid warfare techniques with a combination of conventional forces, cyber forces, media, information tools, and diplomacy to coerce the state of Pakistan under the nuclear threshold. India shows its hegemonic plans and aggressive intentions through military statements and threatening Pakistan to conduct surgical strikes and use if nuclear weapons. Pakistan always counters these threats through its supreme strategy. Indian PM Modi openly stated to isolate Pakistan and threat to conduct military operations within the state of Pakistan which clearly shows the intention of the Indian government against Pakistan.
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India conduct strikes in Balakot and due to Pakistan’s response, they could not achieve Pakistan captured its pilot and shot two jets of IAF. India also uses its fake news strategy to blame Pakistan and to sell the narrative of Terrorism against Pakistan which is impressively counters by Pakistan through its Diplomacy and use of deterrence against India. India also try to sabotage Pakistan’s cyber assets through cyberwarfare. India always blames Pakistan for terrorism but in reality, they are supporting terror organizations to sabotage Pakistan’s security through Terrorism operations. India support TTP, BLA and other separatist and political movement to threaten peace and security if Pakistan.
The arrest of kalbhusan Yadav, a RAW agent from the Baluchistan border clear proof of Indian involvement in Baluchistan. Yadav confesses in his statement about their support to BLA in Baluchistan and political wings in Karachi to sabotage the peace and security of Pakistan. Yadav tells how they are supporting different separatists and Specially BLA to conduct terrorist activity and attack security personnel. India also provides aid to TTP through Afghanistan for terror activities in the state of Pakistan. The former spokesperson of TTP Ehsanullahehsan gave the interview and confess about Indian funding and support to the TTP in Pakistan’s tribal areas to create insurgency.
These are the clear intentions of India how they want to sabotage Pakistan’s security and through different organizations. India also works with the Afghan government closely to gain political and diplomatic support against Pakistan and wants to open the front on a Western border. Pakistan faces Ethnic religious and political front of hybrid warfare because these are vulnerabilities to use against the within the state. PTM is an example of that which is a political movement for their rights but unfortunately, they are supported by Indians through different NGOs to use then against the state.
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India’s tactics against Pakistan
There is different evidence that shows the NDS and RAW nexus is working in Pakistan to support different groups against the within-state and threat of hybrid warfare. In 2017 a political analyst stated that India spend 7 billion rupees on exiled Baloch separatists to exploit the minds of Baloch against the state. Similarly, another example is at the time of the Aasia Bibi’s verdict about 160 tweets/ minute comes from the Indian side to exploit the religious sentiments against the state according to Shahryar Afridi.
Economic warfare or trade war through imposing sanctions and limiting export and imports of their country is also part of hybrid warfare. The US is an expert in this technique, by imposing sanctions on Iran and the policy of containment of China through a trade war. The US also shows their concerns over CPEC and India is threatening the security of CPEC by conducting proxies and terrorism activities through BLA. The attack on the Chinese consulate by BLA backed by Indian RAW is evidence of their involvement. In spite, if India also want to put a Blacklist of FATF to Pakistan through their Diplomatic relation depends on their strategic partnerships with major countries and want to isolate in every international forum by selling their narrative of Terrorism against Pakistan.
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To conclude, Pakistan is facing India’s hybrid war waged on all fronts. We need a comprehensive strategy to counter these threats. We should create national cohesion and practice good governance to resolve the issue and demands of oppressed communities. Moreover, we need to develop strong intelligence and coordination between different law and force agencies. We should also develop strong diplomatic relations in the region and globally to counter the narrative of a dysfunctional state. We should have developed technologies to protect against cyber threats such as Artificial intelligence, data and its technological assets. Pakistan needs to Comprehensive response that involve all the stakeholders to counter these complex phenomenon of hybrid warfare.
The writer is a student at National Defense University, Islamabad. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.