Like China, LeT too encircling India in South Asia

China's all-out design to hit India takes us to the conclusion that Beijing has adopted a policy of encirclement against India in South Asia. It has a genuine advantage in this regard for the smaller neighbours of India in South Asia have always harboured a suspicious relation with the big brother India, except Bhutan. Beijing has looked to take into confidence countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh to create geo-strategic pressure on New Delhi.

China, as eminent Pakistani commentator Ahmed Rashid has rightly said, never showers cash or funds on any potential ally but rather build up projects in those countries. It not only helps in gaining a long-term allegiance of the underdeveloped states but also gives China a strategic advantage which it can utilise conveniently.

China has deliberately helped Myanmar upgrade its naval facilities and ports to gain access to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean areas to influence trade routes to South-east Asia. It has plans to build cross-border railway lines with Pakistan besides the strategic Karakoram Highway to gain from the Gwadar port which it had funded. Chinese presence in the Gilgit and Baltistan areas has also increased owing to the development in communication in these parts.

The Dragon has also tried to influence the Maoist establishment in Nepal ever since the fall of the monarchy in that country, which had created a dangerous vacuum. Policy paralysis of New Delhi has also annoyed quarters in Nepal which have time and again played the China card against India. Last year, a western newspaper had reported that a tape was found in Nepal which had shown a Chinese-speaker allegedly offering a bribe of $6.9 million to a Maoist leader to influence Nepali legislators to tilt in China's favour against India.

It also used its economic might to improve Nepal's infrastructure and ensure that the latter tightened its border to stall easy movement of Tibetan exiles. The fact that Nepal has been used for anti-India activities was vigorously exposed following the infamous IC-814 hijacking in 1999.

China has also shown interests in the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and Chittagong port in Bangladesh for strategic benefit. In Bangladesh, the anti-Indian establishment had looked to strengthen strategic and economic ties with China, which is gradually growing an interest in Maldives as well.

LeT too encircling India...

The anti-Indian terrorist groups, particularly the LeT has been spreading its tentacles in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Boosted by the local anti-Indian sentiment and backed by China, the LeT has been supervising training of Indian Maoists by the People's Liberation Army in Nepal. It has also been using Bangladeshi soil to promote fake-currency trade and recruit jihadis. 26/11 accused and LeT operative Faiyaz Kagzi is learnt to have trained Mirza Himayat Baig, accused in the Pune German Backery blast, in Colombo in 2008. LeT's charitable front, Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq, which became active in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in the name of humanitarian work and successfully influenced youths to join the so-called jihadi struggle in the Maldives.

In 2010, the Indian establishment gave Pakistan a dossier which featured the name of Rashid Abdullah alkias Rehan, a senior LeT commander entrusted with the responsibility to oversee the outfit's anti-India operations in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and the UAE. Rehan is one of the accused in the Bangalore blast case of 2008. Mohammad Omar Madni, Mufti Obaidullah and Maulana Habibullah are some of the other names related to LeT's designs of encircling India.

Ganging up...

Explosion of two Chinese containers filled with dynamites at Karadiyanaru in eastern Sri Lanka two years ago was initially thought to be an accident. But some quarters suspected that the containers, which belonged to a Chinese construction firm engaged in development work in Sri Lanka, were supposed to be taken to Pakistan via Oluvil port and ultimately to the LeT.