Pakistan nurtured extremist groups to fight “proxy irregular” war against India, while its military benefited from presenting New Delhi as a threat, a top Pentagon official told US lawmakers.
“Pakistan has viewed India itself and Indian (or any other nation’s) domination of Afghanistan as
an existential threat, and has taken steps it believes are necessary to counter this threat, including developing nuclear weapons and nurturing extremist groups to fight proxy irregular warfare,” Admiral James A Winnefeld, the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a written reply to lawmakers’ query.
“That the Pakistani military benefits from presenting India as a threat, and that there are many in the military who sympathise with the extremist views of these groups, only reinforces this tendency,” he said.