Operation Tupac

Operation Tupac is the codename of an ongoing military-intelligence contingency program that has been active since the 1980s and run by Pakistan's main intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). It has a three-part action plan to provide covert support to anti-India separatists and militants in Indian-administered Kashmir. The program was authorized and initiated in 1988 by the order of the then-President of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.[2][9][8]

Operation Tupac
Part of the Kashmir conflict and the wider India–Pakistan conflict
Operational scope
Location
Kashmir Valley[2][1]
Planned by Pakistan
Target India[1]
Date1989–present
Executed byInter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
Outcome

The codename of the program is derived from the name of Túpac Amaru II, an 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary who led a large Andean uprising against Spanish colonial rule in Peru.[10] The program is thought to be actively ongoing as the ISI has maintained its support for Kashmiri separatists, Islamists and other ideological militants in their fight against the Indian administration in Jammu and Kashmir.[10]

While all Kashmiri separatist groups received funding and support, organizations that espoused an explicit pro-Pakistan stance in the Kashmir conflict were more heavily favoured by the Pakistani state.[2] Under this program, the ISI helped create six separatist militant groups in Indian-administered Kashmir, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, which notoriously perpetrated the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India.[9][11] American intelligence officials have speculated that the ISI has continued to provide protection, support and intelligence to Lashkar-e-Taiba, among other militant groups in the region.[11]

ISI role

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), intelligence agency of Pakistan has been involved in running military intelligence programs in India, with one of the subsections of its Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB) department devoted to perform various operations in India.[12] The Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB) department has also been involved in providing communications support to Pakistani agents operating in regions of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir of India.[12] The Joint Intelligence North section of the Joint Counter-Intelligence Bureau (JCIB) wing deals particularly with India.[13] In the 1950s the ISI's Covert Action Division was alleged for supplied arms to insurgents in Northeast India.[12][14]

The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence has encouraged and aided the Kashmir independence movement through an insurgency due to its dispute on the legitimacy of Indian rule in Kashmir, with the insurgency as an easy way to keep Indian troops distracted and cause international condemnation of India.

Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf in Oct 2014 said during TV interview, "We have source (in Kashmir) besides the (Pakistan) army...People in Kashmir are fighting against (India). We just need to incite them."[15]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in their first ever open acknowledgement in 2011 in US Court, said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors terrorism in Kashmir and it oversees terrorist separatist groups in Kashmir.[16][17][18][19]

In 2019, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan publicly discouraged Pakistani people from going to Kashmir to do a jihad. People who went to Kashmir will do an "injustice to the Kashmiri people".[20][21] Most of the Pakistani militants who had crossed the border over the years and were caught by the Indian security forces were found to belong to the Punjab province of Pakistan.[21]

India has also accused the ISI of reinvigorating separatism and insurgencies in the country via support to pro-Khalistan militant groups such as the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), in order to destabilize India.[5][6] A report by India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) indicated that ISI was "desperately trying to revive Sikh" militant activity in India.[7] The ISI is also allegedly active in printing and supplying counterfeit Indian rupee notes.[22]

Scope and objectives of the program

The primary objectives of Pakistan's Operation Tupac upon its execution were:[2][1]

Operation Tupac & Insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir

After the Mujahideen victory against the Soviet Union occupation in Afghanistan, Mujahideen fighters, under the Operation Tupac with the aid of Pakistan, slowly infiltrated Kashmir with the goal of spreading radical Islamist ideology to wage jihad in Jammu and Kashmir.[23]

See also

References
  1. Winchell, Sean P. (2003), "Pakistan's ISI: The Invisible Government", International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 16 (3): 374–388, doi:10.1080/713830449, S2CID 154924792
  2. John Pike (25 July 2002). "Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence". Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008.
  3. Rashid (2013), p. 48.
  4. Ghosh 2000 pg.8
  5. "International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) South Asia Terrorism Portal article". The Institute for Conflict Management. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  6. Mehtab Ali Shah (1997). The foreign policy of Pakistan: ethnic impacts on diplomacy, 1971-1994. I.B.Tauris. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-86064-169-5.
  7. Nanjappa, Vicky (10 June 2008). "200 Pak organisations raise funds for terror: IB". Rediff.com. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  8. Mukhtar Khan (9 January 2009). "India's Sikh Militants Forming Ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani Intelligence" (PDF). The Jamestown Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 August 2012.
  9. Juan Cole (12 December 2008), "Does Obama understand his biggest foreign-policy challenge?", Salon, archived from the original on 15 February 2009
  10. "Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence". GlobalSecurity.org. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  11. Richard A. Oppel Jr.; Salman Masood (1 January 2009), "Pakistani Militants Admit Role in Siege, Official Says", The New York Times, archived from the original on 15 December 2018
  12. Pike, John (25 July 2002). "Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence". Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  13. "Daily Describes Activities of ISI in India". The Pioneer. Federation of American Scientists. 30 June 1999. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  14. Raman, B. "PAKISTAN'S INTER-SERVICES INTELLIGENCE (ISI)". Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  15. "Pakistan needs to incite those fighting in Kashmir: Musharraf". India Today. 16 October 2014. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  16. "ISI sponsors terror activities in Kashmir, FBI tells US court". Firstpost. 21 July 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  17. Rajghatta, Chidanand (20 July 2011). "US exposes ISI subversion of Kashmir issue; FBI arrests US-based lobbyist". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  18. Kumar, Himani (7 June 2011). "ISI gives arms to Kashmir terrorists: Rana to FBI". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  19. Agencies (20 July 2011). "ISI funneled millions to influence US policy on Kashmir: FBI". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  20. "'Historic day': PM Imran inaugurates 24/7 border crossing at Torkham". DAWN.COM. 18 September 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  21. Puri, Luv (27 November 2019). "The many faces of Pakistani Punjab's militancy". The Hindu. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  22. M. G. Chitkara (2003). Combating Terrorism. APH Publishing. p. 296. ISBN 978-81-7648-415-2.
  23. Arif, Jamal (2009). Shadow War: The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir. Melville House. ISBN 9781933633596.
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