Gone are the days when conventional methods of warfare were used as a

weapon against the enemy. In today’s world, the non-linear, non- traditional
and cyber strategies are being used against the enemy to encounter their target
and is termed as ‘hybrid warfare’. The emergence of nuclear weapons drove the
nations towards the hybrid warfare, intelligence agencies make use of its
unconventional and irregular stratagem to target the political, psychological,
economic, social and diplomatic domains of the adversary. Pakistan is cladding
threats from external as well as internal adversaries. India cannot afford a
direct war against Pakistan, so waging Pakistan with Hybrid warfare due to
which national security of Pakistan is being impacted.
While addressing the PMA Long-course, General Qamar Javaid Bajwa said that
our enemy is trying to slander and destabilize Pakistan through hybrid warfare.
So, Pakistan knows that India is trying to debilitate Pakistan through hybrid-
warfare. India has 3D- objectives that is to destabilize, demoralize and
disintegrate Pakistan.
India is executing information warfare propaganda against Pakistan by
spreading false information through social media. For instance, URI a Bollywood
movie portrays the surgical strikes of Indian intelligence in Pakistan. This was
done to demoralize Pakistan as a nation and its armed forces and to portray
that Pakistan army is incompetent of defending their borders. On the payroll of
BJP, republic TV and Indian news channel was projecting that the suicide
bomber and terrorists who are responsible for the Pulwama attack belongs to
Pakistan and Indian Defense ministry played its role in spreading the false news
after attack. It was done purposely to destabilize the image of Pakistan at
international level and representing Pakistan as a terrorist sponsoring state.
Cyber warfare is primary aspect of hybrid warfare. The escalation in February-
2019 during the post Pulwama-attack, India inflicted upon Pakistan a furtive
attack in which the government, commercial and military assets were being
targeted. India is also trying to weaken Pakistan through the development of
fake websites. Moreover, European agencies have revealed that India has
approximately 265 fake websites for propaganda against Pakistan.
Next, India is also waging economic and political warfare against Pakistan to
blend its rise and to weaken it to the extent that it even cannot be a regional
power. Our neighbor is inquisitive in making Pakistan stagnant and
uncompetitive. India has a great influence over world financial organizations. In
addition, India is making Pakistan weak by using water as weapon since
Pakistan was made as it is an agricultural country. For instance, water supply to
west Punjab had been cut off in 1947. Indus, Jhelum and Chenab were
designated as rivers of Pakistan and Ravi, Sutlej and Bias were given to India
according to treaty in 1960. But India was continuously violating this treaty by
taking the advantage that it is upper riparian. For example, construction of
Wullar barrage over River Jhelum, Bagliar dam over River Chenab and krishan-
Ganga dam due to which it can control supply of water and floods in Pakistan.
Consequently, Pakistan is becoming a water scarce country.
Another dimension of hybrid warfare is political warfare, which is basically a
mixture of lawfare, diplomatic warfare and political instrument which is being
used by India against Pakistan. Lobbying, containment, and global isolation are
weapons of India in this regard. India is working on the policies of containment
and lobbying to erode Pakistan and to globally isolate it from international
trade, international relations and technological development processes which is
devastating the national security of Pakistan. Pakistani Finance Minister, Assad
Umar in 2019 asked FATF to pull out India from the Asia pacific joint group co-
chair.
Furthermore, India is waging political warfare through CPEC by spreading
mendacious information about the route and by creating a trust deficit among
the provinces. Our adversary is also performing operations through special
forces and various groups for the purpose of political warfare and they are
impacting the national security of Pakistan. For instance, Hizbut-Tehrir as told
by Brigadier Ali- khan attempted to break the state structure and TTP which was
being evolved as a response to US-led war on terror. India tried to attack
Pakistan through TTP on both civilians and military spheres to destabilize
Pakistan.
Also, India through its offensive diplomatic strategies portraying Pakistan as a
hub of terrorism and trying to subvert Pakistan. In addition, India is also waging
war through Afghanistan as it pledged about 2 billion in the developmental
projects in Afghanistan. And BLF (Baloch Liberation Front) is also spoonful in
India’s hybrid warfare and considered as an example of separatists. Terrorists’
groups in Afghanistan who have hands in sabotage, blackmailing and promoting
insurgencies took the form of pressure groups. Insurgencies for the political and
financial objectives are being waged by BLA and responsible for terrorists’
activities in Pakistan under the Doval doctrine (aims at demoralizing,
disintegrating and destabilizing Pakistan) and it was revealed by an Indian spy
Kul Bhushan Jadhav who was a part of Indian research and analysis wing RAW
including the attack on Quaid Residency, Chinese Consulate in Karachi,
hijacking the PIA flight 544 in 1998, attack on Naval personnel at Bozi Top
Baluchistan and on PC hotel Gwadar, which had huge impact on the security
matrix of Pakistan. These proxies like BLF, BLA and TTP have their roots in
RAW.
Pakistan government and military leadership has taken steps to tackle Indian
hybrid warfare like for the security of Baluchistan and CPEC, Pakistan Army
deployed 31-brigade and 440-brigade in Gwadar and Akra Dam and 44-division
is also raised in Gwadar to provide security. India’s hybrid warfare has a
psychological, social, economic, political and security impacts on Pakistan.
However, Pakistan Army is also indulged in the activities to gain the confidence
and assurance of individuals and serving civil administration in maintenance of
law and taking several measures to unite the nation and making them aware of
tactics of hybrid warfare. Pakistan must develop the awareness of the threat,
security framework, proactive strategies, economic infrastructure to defend
against recessions, technological advancements and information control to
tackle India’s hybrid warfare and our country is successful in attenuating the
impacts of the hybrid warfare.