China-Pakistan alliance a threat, says veteran US Army Colonel Lawrence Sellin

Veteran U.S. Army Colonel, Lawrence Sellin, has expressed concerns over growing ecomic and military alliance between Pakistan and China.

Sellin, who has served in Afghanistan, Iraq and West Africa, said that Americans need to recognise that Pakistan is t a friend of United States, but a staunch ally of China.

" threat is from China in form of Pakistani-Chinese alliance. China's aim is to dominate South Asia, first ecomically based on China-Pakistan Ecomic Corridor and n militarily using its alliance with Pakistan to establish military bases on Balochistan coast. Those bases would provide a critical link between China's military facilities in South China Sea and its naval base in Djibouti at entrance of Red Sea and Suez Canal" Sellin told ANI.

"Chinese naval and air bases on Balochistan coast would control vital sea lanes of Arabian Sea and rrn Indian Ocean and threaten ar strategic chokepoint, Strait of Hormuz. A successful implementation of Chinese-Pakistani plan would mean isolation of India, which is t at all advantous to international order," he added.

Sellin believes Pakistan's target is to make CPEC project, flagship of China's Belt and Road Initiative, as successful, which is why Balochistan is a strategic centre of gravity.
Since launch of multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Ecomic Corridor, re has been a sudden rise in human rights violations in Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

" human rights violations against Baloch are a global-scale abomination. It originates from official Pakistani state policy to suppress ethnic self-determination. Pakistan is Yugoslavia of South Asia, a collection of ethnic areas that never significantly interacted, cobbled toger after partition of British India to form a state using religion as a basis of national identity", said U.S. Army veteran.

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" policy for societal cohesion, largely promoted by Pakistani military, has been opposition to India and additional "Islamization," latter being accelerated by Zia ul Haq starting in late 1970s and fueled by Iranian Revolution of 1979," he added.

"Ethnic suppression has been conducted eir directly by Pakistani military and intelligence service, ISI, or through proxies, mainly Islamic extremist groups and common criminals. campaign of oppression has been widely used against Baloch, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Muharjirs, Hazaras and religious mirities", said Sellin.

He strongly criticized Pakistan for targeting ethnic mirities and providing safe haven to dreaded terrorists.

" Taliban and Haqqani Network are multinational proxies of Pakistan employed to w war against Afghanistan in order to make it a client state of Pakistan. Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba are terrorist groups given safe haven in Pakistan and used as instruments of Pakistani foreign policy".

Sellin believes that instability in Afghanistan is creation of Pakistan.

"Former chiefs of Pakistani intelligence ncy, ISI, and some Pakistani politicians have admitted and sometimes bragged that y created Taliban. After U.S. and NATO invasion of Afghanistan, most of Taliban fled and were given safe haven in Pakistan. Taliban are t solely Afghan or Pashtun. At time of invasion, it was reported that most of Taliban were Pakistani nationals. Since n, Taliban have maintained a huge support infrastructure inside Pakistan for housing, training, command and control, financing and medical treatment, for example, reportedly in Quetta Civil Hospital and private clinics", said Afghan war veteran.

"It has been a tough and inconclusive fight for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan for reasons including Pakistani support for Taliban; Pakistani control of supply routes to Afghanistan; and U.S. and NATO mistakenly conducting a counter insurgency operation in Afghanistan when it was actually a proxy war wd by Pakistan", said Sellin. 

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