India’s Covert Offensive Unmasked…Coastal, Proxy, and Hybrid Fronts

By Dr Ashraf Chohan
Chairman PMLN UK
Chief Editor Daily Rapid Lahore

Pakistan foiled an Indian intelligence plot that recruited a Thatta fisherman, Ijaz (Mallah, to procure authentic Pakistan military uniforms. RAW wanted the uniforms for two purposes:

(1) to stage a false-flag operation
(2) to film Indian actors in Pakistani uniforms to create maligning propaganda. These claims sit inside a wider pattern of proxy and hybrid operations.

Punchlines

1. The Indian operation was a coastal extension of a wider Indian strategy that uses proxies, media and covert action to undermine Pakistan’s security and image.
2. The arrested fisherman was handled by an Indian officer named Ashok Kumar, who promised release or payment in return for procuring PakArmy, Navy, Air Force and Rangers uniforms to be smuggled out.
3. Sources say RAW wanted the uniforms for two complementary aims: to execute a false-flag in LoC, Arabian Sea or both, designed to be blamed on Pakistan and to film staged videos with paid actors wearing Pakistani uniforms to discredit the country and its armed forces.
4. The episode, shows how Indian hybrid warfare now blends maritime infiltration, covert recruitment, proxy actors, and disinformation campaigns to achieve political effects.
5. It links the method and playbook to other Indian theatres where an Indo-Afghan axis and local proxy groups (including BLA and TTP-linked networks) have been cooperating to destabilize border regions.
6. Social-media amplification was central to the plan: staged videos in Pakistani uniform would be seeded across platforms to manufacture a narrative and sway domestic and international opinion a tactic governments and non-state actors increasingly use.
7. Security analysts warn that exploiting vulnerable coastal communities (fisherfolk, smugglers) creates low-visibility channels for hybrid operations that are hard to trace until exposed.
8. Pakistan intercepted the network before uniforms or footage were transferred; the confession builds a case of coordinated psychological and proxy warfare.
9. Such calculated manipulation not only endangers Pakistan’s sovereignty but also risks igniting regional instability and potential nuclear confrontation. The world must recognize this pattern of Indian deception and manufactured crises before it once again pushes South Asia to the brink of conflict.