Slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had called for launching jihad against Pakistan and wanted to manipulate the tension between India and Pakistan to achieve this objective, according to newly declassified files seized from his hideout in Pakistan.
In a 42-page booklet originally in Arabic recovered from the Abbottabad compound of bin Laden during the raid by US commandoes in which he was killed, the Al Qaeda leader gives a detailed blueprint on how and where to launch the jihad against Pakistan and establish Islamic rule over the country.
In the booklet, which was released by the Office of Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday, bin Laden alleged that India was planning to attack Pakistan as part of the larger American game plan to divide Pakistan.
And then he sets his eyes on the entire of South Asia arguing that it is the British colonial rulers who divided the region, which in fact is one country.
“India plans to attack Pakistan,” is one of the chapters of the booklet ‘Jihad in Pakistan’.
In the booklet, bin Laden wrote, “India has embarked on many important initiatives, except that it is preparing for a decisive grand battle. Among those initiatives are India’s bid to purchase 134 fighter aircraft from all over the world, this will be the largest military deal in the history of the whole world.”
“India’s military training with Britain on the highest fighting fronts, in the mountainous Siachen region on the Pakistani border. America’s grand steps in nuclear cooperation with India, through the purchase of an Indian nuclear reactor on Indian soil. India’s convening the largest “Strategic War Games” in Hyderabad region.
The booklet referred to India’s launch of an Israeli satellite to spy on Pakistan and its alleged announcement of increasing its force size by a million, compared to its current 1,300,000 million soldier force.
“These giant steps predict an incoming storm. India has focused its attention on Pakistan’s internal situation. Military analysts interpreted these steps through their statements that India will attack Pakistan, sooner or later,” the booklet said.
Laying out his plan of action to wage a successful jihad against Pakistan, bin Laden proposed a four-prong action plan.
“We have to launch raids against the Pakistani army that is deployed on the Indian border, because these are vast desert battlefields areas and it will be easy to target them. By these operations, we will realise that these border armies will not come to the rescue of armies that are present in Sarhad and Baluchistan; on the contrary, they will focus their efforts on strengthening their positions in their areas, as they are sensitive areas from the point of view of Pakistan’s war with India,” he wrote.
Therefore, every attack in these areas will constitute “an anchoring nail” in the foot of the army, impeding it from movement to these areas, he argued.
Then bin Laden called for weakening “law and order” through the waging of attacks against selected targets in Punjab, in a manner that the army will be compelled to intervene and control the situation.
“This will be another important success for us because Punjab army units will be compelled to remain there and will be unable to free themselves and devote energies to Sarhad region,” he wrote.
“If we could achieve those two objectives, we will accelerate the departure of a large number of army in Punjab and Sindh. After that, we will have to focus on suffocating the army and isolating its eastern part from the western one. There are special passes that were used through the centuries, from Punjab and Sindh to Sarhad and Baluchistan, like Mianuwali Walih, and Khaddar and others,” he wrote.
“If we can make these passes -- which the government has shown no interest in maintaining -- difficult for the army to pass, and close them operationally, we will be isolating the two corps located in Sarhad and Baluchistan region from the remaining corps in the Eastern part.”
“After that, if we begin to pressure the remaining army in the western part by intensifying our Jihad and military call, we trust in God almighty, that this army which surrendered to India in Bengal when it was 90,000, will crumble in front of the Mujahidin for the sake of God in a much quicker manner; especially if they realise that they are besieged from all sides, and their link with Punjab and Sindh is severed,” bin Laden wrote.
In the booklet, the Al Qaeda leader appears to refuse to accept the partition of the sub-continent in 1947.
“Pakistan is not just Pakistan, but it is the Indian sub-continent,” he wrote.
“The other important point is that the British divided Pakistan and India in the same weird manner that they divided Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he wrote.
“Also, from the historical aspect, it is a given that a subcontinent is one contiguous region, and whatever happens on the western side (ie current Pakistan) echoes spontaneously in the eastern one (ie current India), and this echo does not stop except at the Bay of Bengal waves,” the booklet said.
“Therefore, Mujahid leadership must consider in their minds the subcontinent as a whole before planning any future programme; otherwise we will harm ourselves by any planning that is based on incomplete analysis,” he wrote.
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