The MEMRI Baluchistan Studies Project and the India-Israel Nexus

The fact that the latter (Middle East Media Research Institute, MEMRI) has recently launched the so called “Baluchistan Studies Project” is a more troubling pointer to an upshot of the hybrid warfare against Pakistan which is ongoing. The MEMRI Baluchistan Studies Project This evil project is not just an academic undertaking as claimed but the projection of a bigger well-planned campaign which is intended to work towards destabilizing Pakistan territorial integrity, internal peace and even national unity. Allegation made in the appointment as Special Advisor to this project by one Mir Yar Baloch, a proven propagandist acting in the Indian interest, exposes the unholy alliance between India and Israel in their never-ending efforts to destabilized Pakistan. India and Israel both have had a history of being unswerving in their deployment of techniques that are not contemporary and actually subversive to undermine states that they find that do not suit their aspirations to achieve their goals in the region.
The bad intentions of India towards Baluchistan are not new neither secret. RAW, the intelligence agency of India has been well reported to have assisted terrorist proxies and separatist groups in Baluchistan in the past several decades. The supposed confession of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav forms absolute pieces of evidence of Indian support to terrorism activities within the Pakistani soil. The purpose of these undercover activities was to fuel the tensions and infuriate the process of stability and prosperity of the province, which was gradually moving towards stability. The Baluchistan Studies Project is thus nothing but an academic variant of these aggressive plans which acts as a civilian face of this plan to continue with psychological and informational warfare against Pakistan. The project gives a mouthpiece to already known separatists and anti-state elements whose rap sheet fits well with long term strategic interests of India to disintegrate Pakistan internally. The project such as voices ignores the democratic processes taking place in Baluchistan, as well as the real socio-economic up lift activity which the state is engaged in trying to achieve. The fact that Israel is involved in this project brings another dimension to this conspiracy and that dimension is highly alarming. The Parliament of Pakistan has made official declaration of Israel as a terrorist state considering the non-human policies of this regime in Palestine where war crimes, Genocide, and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people have been reported by the reputed international organizations. Israel interest in Pakistan especially in Baluchistan is highly geopolitical and not academic in nature as its interest is to destabilize the only nuclear armed state in the Muslim world. This efforts in Baluchistan Studies Project with India demonstrates a mutual interest between two regimes known to be the most oppressive to indigenous people in Kashmir and Gaza a like and interested in bringing instabilities to their respective regions as a way to establishing their own regional hegemonies. It is not an innocent academic quest of the MEMRI project but part and parcel of dark geopolitical game book or scenario, which is the service to Israeli and Indian interests on the cost of the peace and sovereignty of Pakistan.
It is one of the most hazardous elements of this research project that it misuses the very notion of academic freedom. Presenting the exhibits of the Baluchistan Studies Project as a scientific work, the organizers are seeking to disguise the disinformation and anti-Pakistan propaganda in the form of academic speech. The true objective is to give more power to peripheral and extremist opinion that promotes the idea of separatism, insurgency and a terrorist agenda on the one hand and belittling or at least depreciating the democratic process within Baloch people, advancement of government-initiated development projects and creation of political amalgamation of the province with the rest of Pakistan on the other. There have been transformational projects like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that have fueled unprecedented investment and development in the region including providing employment, existing infrastructure, education and healthcare in previously underserved regions. These positive trends however are intentionally overlooked by the MEMRI headed project that prefers to dwell upon isolated complaints and discontents that are engineered to reflect an image of a province in the verge of rebellion.
MEMRI Baluchistan Studies Project is also to be regarded as one of the many segments of an extra-large disinformation network aimed at destabilizing the internal cohesiveness of Pakistan. Over the past years, hybrid war against Pakistan has become much more pronounced with adversaries resorting to the use of cyber networks, international press, lobby organizations and even think tanks in conduct of its psychological operations aimed at demoralizing the citizens, criminalizing state institutions and weakening national solidarity. The gain of timely momentum created with the launch of CPEC, new energy projects and the bestowment of better security conditions to the once volatile regions is a direct challenge to the strategic plans of those who want Pakistan to remain weak, divided and under its dependency. The Baloch have on numerous occasions shown their desire to continue to be part of the federation of Pakistan by taking part in elections, have engaged themselves in nation building exercises, and have given massive backing to developmental activities that have a brighter future to offer. Such amplification of the extremist narratives by MEMRI project does not only distort these realities, puts the lives and wellbeing of regular Baloch citizens opposed to militancy and who want to have peace, under direct threat.
Even the time at which this project had to be launched is questionable. It corresponds to a second wave of efforts by Pakistan to solidify its economic position by exploiting minerals in Reko did, energy corridor redevelopment through Gwadar, and a spread of regional connectivity. Such projects have the possibilities of making Baluchistan a center of richness and development and they would further place it more systematically in the national set up. Such good news is obviously not desirable to those who had vested interest in instability in Pakistan. In reviving worn out and discredited myths of victimhood and struggle, the MEMRI initiative aims to rekindle secessionist interests when the province is at long last emerging out of the shadow of war into an era of peace and progress.
The so-called Baluchistan Studies Project by MEMRI can be identified as a hidden instrument of hybrid warfare, which has been applied by the India-Israeli nexus in its operations against Pakistan sovereignty and development under the guise of research study. Pakistan has to be cautious of such malicious intentions and carry on its combating of the disinformation involving facts, success stories of development and commitment to the unity and prosperity of the people with the determination not to give up. Serious academic and human rights institutions of the world need to see through this project, as well, and be aware of the true intent of this project which is a perilous effort to use the noble vessel of education to pursue the ignoble interests of destabilization and deceit.