To understand the intricate relationship between geopolitics, religion, and terrorism, it is essential to chronologically dissect Pakistan’s role, linking historical origins with contemporary geopolitical strategies. This narrative connects pivotal events, financial mechanisms, and geopolitical interests shaping Pakistan’s controversial position within the global terrorism network.
Early Colonial Period (Pre-World War I)
During colonial rule, the British systematically exploited religious divisions, using Abrahamic religions strategically to maintain control. The colonial “divide and rule” strategy embedded lasting sectarian tensions within the societal fabric of the Indian subcontinent.
Partition of India (1947)
The British withdrawal in 1947 led to India’s partition and the creation of Pakistan a state explicitly founded on religious lines, sowing seeds for future religiously motivated geopolitical conflicts.
Cold War Dynamics (1979 – 1989)
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 dramatically altered the strategic landscape of South and Central Asia. To counter Soviet expansionism, the United States initiated Operation Cyclone one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations in history. The U.S. channeled billions of dollars in funds, arms, and training to Afghan Mujahideen fighters via Pakistan’s Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI).
This support not only fueled resistance against the USSR but also inadvertently created a breeding ground for radical Islamic ideologies. Pakistan’s ISI, acting as a conduit, developed extensive ties with militant groups, hand-picking factions based on ideological alignment and strategic usefulness. One of the beneficiaries of this arrangement was Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi national who became a key financier and eventually a combat leader among the Mujahideen.
Formation of Al-Qaeda (1988)
By 1988, Osama bin Laden formalized Al-Qaeda (“The Base”) as an organization dedicated to continuing jihad beyond Afghanistan. Built on the logistics, networks, and training camps funded by the U.S. and facilitated by Pakistan, Al-Qaeda became the first truly transnational terrorist organization. It adopted a global agenda, aiming to expel Western influences from Islamic lands and replace secular governments with Islamic rule.
Why Osama bin Laden Turned Against the US
Following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia expecting to be honored as a hero. The Gulf War in 1990 and the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia home to Islam’s two holiest sites deeply offended his beliefs. Bin Laden publicly denounced the Saudi monarchy for allowing non-Muslim forces on sacred soil and condemned the U.S. for its military dominance in the Middle East.
The breaking point came when his offer to defend Saudi Arabia with his Mujahideen was rejected in favor of a U.S. led coalition. This humiliation and perceived betrayal radicalized bin Laden further, leading him to declare jihad against the United States. Al-Qaeda’s early attacks such as the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 USS Cole bombing were stepping stones toward its ultimate act of defiance.
Rise of the Taliban (1990s)
As Afghanistan descended into civil war, Pakistan once again became the principal backer of a new Islamist force the Taliban. Originating from radical madrassas in Pakistan, the Taliban took control of Kabul in 1996 with ISI’s direct assistance. The regime offered sanctuary to bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, allowing them to operate freely in Afghanistan. Simultaneously, Pakistan supported groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), focused on insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. These organizations launched multiple terror attacks, most infamously the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.
9/11 Attacks and the Global War on Terror (2001)
On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda executed the deadliest terrorist attack in history, hijacking four American planes and killing nearly 3,000 civilians. The attack, planned from Afghan soil under Taliban protection, reshaped global security policies.
In response, the U.S. launched Operation Enduring Freedom, targeting both the Taliban and Al- Qaeda. Despite Pakistan branding itself as a U.S. ally, many within the Pakistani military- intelligence complex maintained sympathetic links with these groups. This duality undermined global counter-terrorism efforts and deepened mistrust between Pakistan and the West. Even as the U.S. provided billions in military aid, Pakistan continued harboring fugitives, culminating in the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011.
Capture of Osama bin Laden (2011)
In May 2011, U.S. Navy SEALs executed Operation Neptune Spear, eliminating bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His proximity to Pakistan’s military academy exposed Pakistan’s complex and ambiguous role regarding terrorism.
IMF Funding and US-Pakistan Relations
Over the decades, Pakistan has received substantial financial assistance from international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with significant influence exerted by global superpowers particularly the United States. Although these funds are officially designated for economic stabilization and structural reforms, there is mounting evidence and international concern that portions of this aid have been diverted either directly or indirectly to support military infrastructure and extremist networks within the region.
Pakistani Defense Minister’s Revelations (2025)
In a landmark interview with Sky News in 2025, Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khawaja Asif, openly admitted that Pakistan had long been engaged in carrying out covert “dirty work” for powerful international actors, specifically naming the United States and the United Kingdom. His statement provided rare confirmation of Pakistan’s historical role in facilitating proxy operations under the guise of strategic alliances.
This admission brought global attention to how Pakistan has strategically leveraged its geopolitical position to secure continued funding from institutions like the IMF an entity predominantly funded and influenced by Western superpowers. The revelation underscores a concerning nexus: global superpowers channel financial and strategic support under the pretext of development and diplomacy, while Pakistan utilizes this backing to perpetuate state-sponsored terrorism, thereby contributing to a broader framework of global geopolitical manipulation.
Trump’s Controversial Middle East Engagement (2025)
Further complicating global politics, former U.S. President Donald Trump controversially met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former affiliate of Al-Qaeda, illustrating the complexities inherent in geopolitical maneuvers involving terrorism.
Role of Other Nations: Turkey and China
The geopolitical alliances of Pakistan are significantly shaped by its strategic partnerships with nations like Turkey and China, both of which have their own calculated motivations for supporting Pakistan despite its controversial record on terrorism.
Turkey: Ideological Alignment and Strategic Calculus
Turkey, under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has increasingly positioned itself as a global patron of political Islam. This ideological stance aligns with Pakistan’s narrative on Kashmir and its support for Islamist causes. Turkey has repeatedly vocalized support for Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, often criticizing India’s position at international forums such as the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Beyond ideology, Turkey sees Pakistan as a critical partner in its broader ambition to expand influence across South and Central Asia, challenging Western dominance and forming an alternative power bloc that includes Qatar, Malaysia, and other sympathetic states. Turkey has also been accused of turning a blind eye or in some instances, providing indirect support to extremist groups that align with its foreign policy goals, such as in Syria and Libya. Its relationship with Pakistan fits into this pattern of selectively supporting non-state actors to advance geopolitical leverage.
China: Economic Investments and Strategic Depth
China’s support for Pakistan is driven primarily by its economic and strategic interests. The crown jewel of this relationship is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), involving more than $60 billion in infrastructure investments. CPEC gives China direct access to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan’s Gwadar Port, reducing dependence on maritime routes controlled by the U.S. and its allies.
China views Pakistan as a crucial counterbalance to India, its primary strategic rival in Asia. By maintaining Pakistan as a militarily capable and diplomatically aligned partner, China seeks to contain Indian influence in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. While China publicly denounces terrorism, it has consistently blocked efforts at the United Nations Security Council to designate Pakistani-based terrorists like Masood Azhar as global terrorists, protecting Pakistan from international isolation.
China’s own internal security concerns, particularly related to Islamist separatism in Xinjiang, have led it to form a pragmatic understanding with Pakistan: in exchange for economic and military support, Pakistan ensures that Uyghur militants do not receive safe haven or support from its territory.
The Individual Terrorist Mindset
Terrorism often begins at the micro level through individuals radicalized by extremist interpretations of religious doctrine. These individuals are conditioned through selective indoctrination in schools, madrassas, and religious gatherings, turning them into instruments of broader geopolitical agendas. Many are unaware that their violent actions serve the strategic objectives of powerful nations.
Rather than religious salvation, these acts serve superpowers’ geopolitical objectives destabilizing regions, crippling economies, and justifying military interventions. No religion, when examined in its true essence, condones terrorism. Instead, religion becomes a manipulated tool, distorted to create obedient militants who are sacrificed in a larger geopolitical chess game.
Weaponizing Terrorism for Economic Control
Terrorism, beyond ideology, has become a global business model. Arms manufacturers, intelligence networks, and defense contractors profit immensely from ongoing conflict. The more prolonged and complex the war, the greater the financial incentive to sustain it. Nations justify increased defense budgets, surveillance infrastructure, and interventionist foreign policies by fueling instability in regions like the Middle East and South Asia.
The Vatican and the religious establishment in Mecca have also been scrutinized for their indirect roles. In many cases, silence or selective condemnation has enabled the spread of extremist ideologies. Religious centers that should have promoted interfaith harmony have at times allowed extremist clerics to flourish, especially when aligned with geopolitical alliances or funding priorities. Petro-dollar influence from Gulf nations has flowed into radical religious institutions globally, enabling an ideological export of extremism masked as religious revivalism.
The British Monarchy and Global Power Influence
While often perceived as symbolic, the British royal family wields considerable influence through its deep-rooted connections to global financial systems, media empires, and diplomatic networks. Historical alliances with Middle Eastern monarchies and involvement in post-colonial military pacts have kept Britain relevant in shaping global narratives. Through the Commonwealth, intelligence partnerships like Five Eyes, and relationships with Gulf monarchies, the British elite continue to influence global geopolitics subtly. Declassified documents and investigative reports have occasionally hinted at secret diplomatic roles played by royals in backchannel negotiations and foreign interventions.
In essence, terrorism is sustained not by lone actors but by a complex web of ideologies, power struggles, economic interests, and manipulated belief systems. Recognizing this web is the first step toward dismantling it.
Humanitarian Crisis in Balochistan and Sindh
Regions such as Balochistan and Sindh represent some of the most volatile and underreported humanitarian zones within Pakistan. Despite being rich in natural resources, both regions suffer from decades of systemic neglect, military exploitation, and political marginalization, creating fertile ground for unrest and insurgency.
Balochistan: Exploitation Under the Guise of National Interest
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area, holds immense strategic and economic significance due to its natural gas reserves, mineral wealth, and coastline access, particularly the Gwadar Port, a cornerstone of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
However, the Baloch people have seen little benefit from this economic exploitation. Instead, the region has been subjected to:
- Massive militarization, with over 60,000 troops deployed at various times.
- Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of activists, students, and intellectuals, as documented by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Amnesty International.
- Restriction of press and humanitarian access, with journalists facing threats or bans from entering the province.
The Pakistani establishment labels Baloch activists as “terrorists” or “separatists,” while international human rights organizations recognize many of them as freedom fighters demanding autonomy and basic rights. The state’s use of brute force and collective punishment has only worsened alienation and intensified the local insurgency.
Sindh: Cultural Suppression and Political Targeting
In Sindh, especially in areas like Karachi and interior Sindh, the humanitarian crisis is more nuanced but equally severe. While Sindh is home to Pakistan’s largest city and economic capital, the indigenous Sindhi population often feels culturally and politically suppressed.
Key issues include:
- Land and resource marginalization: Major infrastructure projects funded by federal and Chinese interests often exclude local stakeholders, leading to displacement.
- Systematic targeting of Sindhi nationalist voices: Activists and journalists have been abducted or silenced under anti-terror laws.
- Religious persecution: The Hindu minority in Sindh faces regular instances of forced conversions, temple desecrations, and systemic discrimination, further adding to the province’s instability.
The continued military oppression in both regions not only destabilizes Pakistan internally but also plays directly into the hands of extremist groups. Injustice and state brutality fuel narratives of victimhood, which are then exploited by both Islamist groups and foreign geopolitical interests. Pakistan’s establishment often uses this instability as a justification to extract more financial aid and military support from global powers under the guise of “counter-insurgency.”
At the same time, international silence on the suffering of Baloch and Sindhi civilians reveals a double standard in global human rights discourse, where strategic alliances often outweigh ethical concerns.
India’s Moral Stand Against Terrorism
India’s counter-terrorism doctrine is rooted in dharma the ancient Indic principle of righteous conduct, justice, and harmony. Unlike many global powers that have used terrorism and insurgency as strategic assets in proxy wars, India has consistently rejected state-sponsored or ideologically fueled violence as a tool of foreign policy. Instead, India has stood as a civilizational force advocating ethical governance, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.
India has faced persistent terrorism emanating from across its western border ranging from the 1989 Kashmir insurgency, the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, to the 2016 Uri and Pathankot attacks. Each time, India responded with a mix of restraint, international diplomacy, and precise military operations, avoiding large-scale wars while ensuring national security.
In 2019, India conducted the Balakot airstrikes in response to the Pulwama terror attack orchestrated by Jaish-e-Mohammed. This marked a paradigm shift, demonstrating that India would no longer tolerate proxy terror under the nuclear umbrella. The operation was targeted, brief, and meant to minimize civilian casualties upholding dharmic ideals even in warfare.
In 2025, Operation Sindoor emerged as another key example of India’s calibrated approach. The operation successfully neutralized multiple terror camps operating in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Despite intelligence-based planning, minimum collateral damage, and strategic precision, the operation was deliberately underreported in Western media, revealing biases that favor certain geopolitical narratives.
Internationally, India has consistently advocated for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) a draft proposal that calls for a globally accepted definition of terrorism and a commitment to prosecute its perpetrators. For over two decades, India has pushed this framework without aligning itself with religious blocs or Western military alliances, reflecting an independent and morally consistent position.
India’s policy toward terrorism is informed by its civilizational ethos: unity in diversity, peaceful conflict resolution, and a profound respect for life and liberty. It is perhaps the only major nation confronting terrorism on multiple fronts state-sponsored, cross-border, ideological without becoming a destabilizing force in its region or beyond.
India also leads the International Solar Alliance, supports global peacekeeping missions, and hosts major interfaith dialogues through institutions like the Vivekananda International Foundation, promoting a global vision rooted in dharma.
Through its actions, India reminds the world that true power lies not in domination but in restraint, not in exploitation but in ethics. At a time when global powers are consumed by trade wars, resource extraction, and manipulative diplomacy, India’s dharmic approach offers a compelling alternative—one where security and morality need not be at odds, and where nations can rise through values, not violence.
Unveiling the True Face of Reality
A deep and honest investigation into the last two centuries of global history reveals a disturbing but undeniable truth: terrorism is not a spontaneous phenomenon, but a meticulously cultivated by-product of imperialism, religious exploitation, Cold War rivalries, and modern economic greed. Colonial empires used religion as a wedge; global superpowers used ideology as a weapon. The result has been a long and bloody trail of manipulated societies, radicalized youth, and destroyed nations.
From the British Empire’s manipulation of sectarian divides in South Asia and the Middle East, to the U.S. funding of Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan under the guise of anti-communism, and the modern-day IMF-backed military regimes in fragile states like Pakistan history is replete with examples of how power-hungry elites have sacrificed morality at the altar of geopolitics.
The 9/11 attacks serve as the most iconic modern example of this blowback. Trained, funded, and radicalized during the Cold War with U.S. support, Osama bin Laden turned against his patrons and struck the heart of the West exposing the consequences of using terrorism as a foreign policy instrument. That same model has since metastasized in different forms, from Syria to Yemen, from Libya to Nigeria, leaving in its wake global instability, refugee crises, and endless conflict.
Today, superpowers continue to fund or shield proxy groups in various regions arming them when convenient and condemning them when the narrative demands it. This duplicity has eroded trust in international law, diminished the credibility of global institutions, and left billions of innocent people to suffer in silence. Meanwhile, arms manufacturers, intelligence contractors, and political elites thrive in this chaos.
India, by contrast, presents an alternative rooted in dharma a philosophy of balance, righteousness, and sustainability. Through its commitment to restraint, diplomacy, and ethics, India has shown that security need not come at the cost of humanity. From its contributions to UN peacekeeping missions, to its calls for a UN Convention on Terrorism, to its efforts in humanitarian support and interfaith harmony, India consistently demonstrates that global leadership can coexist with moral clarity.
This is not merely about India’s rise it is about humanity’s survival. If global powers continue to play their double games, they too will bleed, just as they have bled before. The consequences of nurturing extremism cannot be contained by borders, nor can the economic gains of warfare be enjoyed without spiritual bankruptcy.
It is time for the world to awaken not just politically, but morally. The future must not be defined by drone strikes and financial manipulation, but by dharma, by a shared sense of duty toward peace, justice, and collective upliftment. Only then can we dismantle this global terror nexus and build a world truly free not just from violence, but from the very ideologies that justify it.
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