Operation Tupac is the codename of a military-intelligence contingency program that was run in the 1980s by Pakistan's main intelligence agency

Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is the premier Pakistani Intelligence community, intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant t ...

(ISI). It has a three-part action plan to provide covert support to anti-

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

separatists and militants in the insurgency in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. The program was authorized and initiated in 1988 by the order of the then-

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 192417 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer and statesman who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until Death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also se ...

. It has since been diminished since the early 2000s by the later

Military Dictator A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a strongman, or by a council of mili ...

and

General Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and :Pakistan Army ...

Background

The codename of the program is derived from the name of

Túpac Amaru II Tupac Amaru II (born José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera, – 18 May 1781) was an Indigenous ''cacique'' who led a Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II, large Andean rebellion against the Viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish in Peru as Self-proclaimed monarc ...

, an 18th-century

Peruvian Peruvians (''/peruanas'') are the citizens of Peru. What is now Peru has been inhabited for several millennia by cultures such as the Caral before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Peruvian population decreased from an estimated 5–9 ...

revolutionary who led a large Andean uprising against Spanish colonial rule in Peru. The program is thought to be actively ongoing as the ISI has maintained its support for Kashmiri separatists,

Islamists Islamism is a range of Religion, religious and Politics, political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is su ...

and other ideological militants in their fight against the Indian administration in

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

. After the

Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

victory against the Soviet Union occupation in Afghanistan,

fighters, under the Operation Tupac with the aid of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, slowly infiltrated

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

with the goal of spreading radical Islamist ideology to wage

jihad ''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...

. While all Kashmiri separatist groups received funding and support, organizations that espoused an explicit pro-Pakistan stance in the

Kashmir conflict The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1 ...

were more heavily favoured by the Pakistani state. Under this program, the ISI helped create six separatist militant groups in Indian-administered Kashmir, including

Lashkar-e-Taiba Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a Pakistani Islamism, Islamist militant organization driven by a Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist ideology. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. It was founded in 19 ...

,. American intelligence officials have speculated that the ISI has continued to provide protection, support and intelligence to Lashkar-e-Taiba, among other militant groups in the region.

Scope and objectives of the program

The primary objectives of Pakistan's Operation Tupac upon its execution were: *to provide arms support and finance to separatists,

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...

s and

. *to trigger a

Balkanization Balkanization or Balkanisation is the process involving the fragmentation of an area, country, or region into multiple smaller and hostile units. It is usually caused by differences in ethnicity, culture, religion, and geopolitical interests. ...

. *to utilize the spy network to act as an instrument of sabotage. *to exploit porous borders with

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, and

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

to set up bases and

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

anti-Indian militants to conduct operations against

. *to install sleeper cells in

and its neighbour countries.

ISI role

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the intelligence agency of

, has been involved in running

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

programs in India, with one of the subsections of its Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB) department devoted to performing various operations in India. The Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB) department has also been involved in providing communications support to Pakistani agents operating in regions of the

Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir ( J&K) is a region administered by India as a union territory and consists of the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan sin ...

of India. The Joint Intelligence North section of the Joint Counter-Intelligence Bureau (JCIB) wing deals particularly with India. In the 1950s the ISI's Covert Action Division was allegedly supplying arms to insurgents in Northeast India. In 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees militancy in Kashmir. Former Pakistan President General

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

in Oct 2014 said during TV interview, "We have source (in Kashmir) besides the (Pakistan) army...People in Kashmir are fighting against (India). We just need to incite them." In 2019,

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Cabinet of Pakistan, cabinet, desp ...

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician, philanthropist, and former cricketer who served as the 19th prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He was the founder of the political party Pak ...

publicly discouraged Pakistani people from going to Kashmir to do a ''

''. People who went to Kashmir will do an "injustice to the Kashmiri people". Indian commentator Luv Puri claims most of the Pakistani militants who had crossed the border over the years and were caught by the Indian security forces were found to belong to the Punjab province of Pakistan. India has also accused the ISI of reinvigorating separatism and insurgencies in the country via support to pro-Khalistan militant groups such as the

International Sikh Youth Federation The International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) is a Khalistani militant organisation that aims to establish an independent homeland for the Sikhs called Khalistan from the Punjab state of India. It is banned as a terrorist organisation under ...

(ISYF), in order to destabilize India. A report by India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) indicated that ISI was "desperately trying to revive Sikh" militant activity in India. The ISI is also allegedly active in printing and supplying

counterfeit A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

Indian rupee The Indian rupee (symbol: ₹; code: INR) is the official currency of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 '' paise'' (Hindi plural; singular: ''paisa''). The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India. The Reserve ...

notes. In 2005, India’s Intelligence Bureau reported a resurgence of Sikh militancy in Punjab, noting that the ISI had tasked

and five other groups with training members of the ISYF and

Babbar Khalsa International Babbar Khalsa, officially Babbar Khalsa International (BKI, , ), is a Khalistani militant organisation that aims to create an independent nation-state of Khalistan in the Punjab region. It has used armed attacks, assassinations and bombings in ...

in weapons handling and infiltration techniques via Jammu and Kashmir. The revival reportedly began in 2001, when recruits underwent a month-long training program in Pakistan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tupac, Operation Military operations of the Kashmir conflict Inter-Services Intelligence operations India–Pakistan military relations Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir

Background

Scope and objectives of the program

ISI role

See also

References