New Delhi: Former RAW chief Vikram Sood believes that Kashmir is a mere ‘excuse’ for Pakistan’s Army to keep themselves in power.
Speaking at the launch of his book "The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chief's Insights into Espionage," Sood described the neighbouring country’s army as the largest corporate sector, “that owns land, properties, runs fertiliser factories, runs bread factories, runs atta (wheat flour) factories,” and further blamed the institution for supplying criminals all over the country.
Even though Sood said that talks of peace with Pakistan are noble thoughts, and “we should all have them,” he believes that the prospect of peaceful coexistence between Indian and Pakistan is bleak.
“I see very little hope that Pakistan's mindset will change in foreseeable future,” he said.
In strong tones, Sood underlined the differences between Pakistan’s ISI and RAW, that according to him lie in the policy formation. “ISI decides policy while the RAW is a service provider with a covert option,” he said, calling ISI the ‘clandestine core’ of the Pakistan Army that wields the decision-making power when it comes to the country’s foreign policy.
Pakistan Based LeT And Hafiz Saeed’s JuD Stronger than Al Qaeda, IS
In an interesting observation made in his book, Sood draws parallels and said that the combination of the Laskar-e-Taiba and Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-d-Dawa is stronger than Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
The former RAW chief says, that the latter was conceived as an organization that is capable of running a modern state unlike Al Qaeda.
“Al Qaeda and Islamic State may talk of a global agenda and plan to replace existing systems with an Islamic system but neither of them can hold territory, nor do they have the expertise and experienced workers to do so,” he writes.
JuD, he added, has professional staff trained in statecraft which has managed to infiltrate virtually all government departments, including armed forces, at different levels and has influenced municipal workers.
“JuD is resilient enough to bounce back after any adversity and in the eyes of the people, it as a social welfare organization,” he further wrote.
Sood writes, that the ability for it to regroup exists because of the “coddling of secretarian, militant and terrorist groups prevalent in Pakistan.” The army, he added, does it for strategic options, and politicians on the other hand, for political survival.
“LeT remains an invaluable asset to the ISI and the Pakistani establishment as it enables them to keep the Kashmir option open while supporting the US campaign in Afghanistan,” he further noted.
The former RAW chief was also of the opinion that given the current state of relations between India and Pakistan, the latter would not cooperate to control or eradicate terror.
The RAW chief condemned Pakistan for attacking India with terror attacks in 20016 and 2008, even though Pakistan was provided with intelligence on a likely attack on then PM Parez Musharraf
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