NEW DELHI, May 12. /TASS/. The current unstable situation in Pakistan poses the threat of a major extremist attack occurring in India. Thus, New Delhi should take action to strengthen border security measures, an Indian political scientist told TASS on Friday.
"It is [an] utmost necessity for India to increase [the] safety of its borders, as well as [to] ramp up its intelligence in internal security to thwart any big terror attack inside India," Robinder Sachdev, president of Imagindia Institute, a New Delhi-based analytical center, said.
In his opinion, given the current unstable situation in Pakistan, there are "two big dangers" to India. The first one is "a false flag operation inside Pakistan, [which would be used to] blame India for it." "This will immediately divert public attention towards anger at India, and ratchet up support for the Pakistan[i] Army," the political scientist said. The second one, according to him, is "Pakistan[i] extremists in conjunction with sleeper cells in India, [who] can carry out some big terror attack on Indian soil." "A big terror attack in India, with links to Pakistan, will immediately draw a strong reaction, warning, and even a surgical strike by India at sources inside Pakistan that engineered the terror attack. A surgical strike by India will again divert attention of [the] Pakistan[i] public, as well as rally [the] people of Pakistan," Sachdev explained.
Earlier, the Times of India, citing sources in the Indian Defense Ministry, reported that the military has stepped up security measures on India’s border with Pakistan following the arrest of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. The Indian armed forces, according to the newspaper, are closely monitoring the situation in Pakistan due to recent developments there. They fear that the Pakistani army may resort to military provocations along the Line of Control to divert the Pakistani public’s attention away from the events in the country following Khan's arrest.
Mass street protests in Pakistan began after Khan was arrested on May 9 at the Islamabad High Court on an arrest warrant issued May 1. The grounds were charges of corruption and the alleged use of the former prime minister's Al-Qadir Trust for money laundering purposes. According to investigators, the politician legalized about $175.5 million from a real estate firm in the UK while serving as prime minister of the South Asian country.
On Thursday, the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled Khan's arrest illegal and ordered his release from custody. However, the former prime minister has not been allowed to return home. Instead, he has been ordered to check into a hotel near the court and spend the night there before appearing in court again on Friday.