The deepening strategic interests of China in Pakistan and the expanding military ties between the two countries appear to be spilling over the border, facilitating terrorist activities in India. A recent report by Press Trust of India, citing Indian security officials, revealed that following encounters with terrorists in Jammu’s Poonch district in July last year and Kashmir’s Baramulla district in April this year, the Indian Army had recovered specialised Chinese communication handsets from slain terrorists. These communication sets were exclusively designed and provided by the Chinese for the Pakistan Army’s use. This device, called ‘Ultra-set’, combines mobile phone properties with radio wave technology, allowing it to bypass traditional mobile operating systems such as the Global System for Mobile (GSM) and Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA).
Last year, a report citing Indian intelligence sources highlighted the active utilisation of Chinese weapons and equipment by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). This was confirmed when terrorists released images of three attacks on Indian security forces. These images were distinctly captured using Chinese body cameras. Additionally, a sniper rifle employing Chinese technology was recovered from a terrorist intercepted during an attempted incursion into India along the Jammu border.
Various reports indicate that over the past three years, China has been actively supporting and enhancing Pakistan’s defence capabilities along the Line of Control (LoC) through various means, including the construction of reinforced bunkers, secure communication towers, laying of underground fibre-optic cables, supplying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Combat Aerial Vehicles (CAVs). Reports based on Indian intelligence sources have also disclosed that Pakistani security forces have deployed Chinese radar systems along the LoC, having medium to low altitude target detection capabilities crucial for intelligence gathering. Additionally, several units of Chinese-manufactured SH-15, a 155-mm truck-mounted howitzer gun, have also been deployed at multiple locations along the LoC.
China’s interest in Pakistan’s defence capabilities stems from its desire to safeguard its expanding enclaves in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK), tied to the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). India has strongly opposed these initiatives citing it as an infringement of its territory and sovereignty. The Chinese experts are also overseeing the construction of a tunnel connecting Leepa Valley in PoJK to the Karakoram Highway, thus facilitating an alternate route between Pakistan’s Gwadar Port and China’s Xinjiang province. This tunnel is likely to be used by Pakistan-based terrorists to infiltrate inside Indian territory through alternate routes.
The recovery of Chinese weapons and communication devices from Pakistani terrorists has raised concerns about a covert Pakistan-China nexus that would be keen to disrupt peace in India by supporting terrorism. The Chinese involvement in fomenting unrest in India extends beyond Jammu and Kashmir. For decades, China has directly or indirectly supported insurgent groups in India’s Northeast region. China’s direct involvement in supporting insurgency in India began in the 1960s, when a faction of the Naga National Council (NNC), led by Thuingaleng Muivah and Thinoselie M Keyho, travelled to China’s Yunnan province via Myanmar for arms training and gaining Chinese support.
Since then, China has provided training, arms, finance, and logistical support to various insurgent groups including the NNC, Mizo National Front (MNF), and a segment of the People’s Liberation Army of Manipur. In the 1980s, China trained the Manipur PLA through the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Myanmar, which also assisted the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). However, the arrangement was disrupted by India’s security agencies after it secured an agreement with the KIA in 1989, restricting insurgents’ access to the Kachin region.
Due to various government initiatives and successful operations of Indian security forces in the past decade, insurgency-related violence in the Northeast region has witnessed a significant drop, prompting the partial revocation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958, from certain areas. However, covert Chinese interference along the India-Myanmar border has remained a major challenge to Indian security forces in the region. Recent reports indicate that several rebel groups, including ULFA (Independent), are regrouping in Myanmar and receiving support in terms of arms and safe havens from the United Wa State Army, Myanmar’s largest ethnic armed group, and the Arakan Army, at the direction of China.
China’s involvement in pushing insurgency in the Northeast has been driven by two main factors. First, it aims to divert India’s military focus away from the Himalayan borders by entangling Indian forces in counter-insurgency operations. This way China seeks to create an additional front that could benefit its strategic interests. Second, due to the Northeast’s strategic location as a gateway to Southeast Asia, it holds significant importance in India’s Act East policy for securing connectivity and influence in the region. China, which has its own interests related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Myanmar, aims to counter India’s initiatives and prevent it from consolidating its position in the politically unstable Myanmar.
China’s covert actions in supporting terrorism in J&K and northeast regions are aimed at disturbing India’s internal stability and security. However, Chinese authorities need to remember that supporting terrorism often has its own unintended consequences for its proponents. Its close ally Pakistan is the most appropriate case study in this regard. In recent years, China itself has witnessed multiple Chinese casualties in Pakistan. In March this year, five Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It would be prudent for China to learn from Pakistani experiences and shun its support for terror activities both directly and indirectly. China should better focus its efforts on fostering better bilateral relations with India. Chinese support to terrorism would destabilise regional peace and security also.
The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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