THY HAND GREAT NEIGHBOR - PART 1

The division of Pakistan in 1971 giving rise to Bangladesh led to Pakistan's policy being guided by a predominant anti India bias. Throughout the history of Pakistan this anti India lobby always remained strong. And especially in the '80s anti India feeling in Pakistan was at its best. Because during the 80's a very charismatic and satanically shrewd man was at the helm of Pakistan's administration. He was General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. In 1977 Zia overthrew Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a military coup d'etat and ensured his authority by hanging Bhutto in a mock courtroom drama. And then for nearly 11 years he ruled Pakistan in an iron hand.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Islamisation of Pakistan let him in possession of a huge cache of arms courtesy the United States and a huge amount of cash courtesy the Arab world. These bolstered his position in the international arena and he started to design a long expected REVENGE on India.Gen Zia thought meticulously. It was quite obvious to him especially after the post '71 that a direct war against India will be both disastrous and costly. He needed an alternative.
Then his genius identified the chink in the armor of India - its religiously divided people, its leadership, its fractured society. He made a grand design outlining Pakistan's strategy to balkanize India by employing a low cost option which was expected, with assistance from the ISI, to snowball into a civil war. Considering the inherent contradictions of the Indian polity, Gen Zia strongly believed this to be a practicable option and the ISI was tasked to execute this operation.Specialists were employed to identity the various contradictions inherent in the Indian society which could be converted into major conflicts. Task forces were then instituted to go into the details of each. These task forces were asked to make detailed plans which were finalized between 1984 - 85.
Then in the April of 1988 Gen Zia presented before a secret gathering of ISI think-tank the outcome of his grand design - OPERATION TOPAC.