Post Balakot airstrikes, Pakistan changing its strategy: Intelligence report

Pakistan's notorious spy agency ISI and its armed forces have been deliberating for several months as to what should be their response to India in case a Balakot-like strike takes place in future.

NEW DELHI: Months after the Indian Air Force (IAF) launched a major airstrike inside Pakistan's Balakot targeting terror training camps linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the inputs gathered by the intelligence agencies have indicated a shift in Islamabad's strategy against India.

Fearing an attack of greater intensity from India in the future, Pakistan is now strengthening the security of its military installations and has increased surveillance along the border.

The IAF's sudden and precise attack on terror camps had caught Pakistan completely unaware and increased pressure on its armed forces to retaliate, especially after its Air Force failed to carry on its mission successfully inside India following the Balakot airstrikes.

Pakistan's notorious spy agency ISI and its armed forces have been deliberating for several months as to what should be their response to India in case New Delhi decides to carry out similar strikes in future.

With the Balakot airstrike, India has indicated a strategic shift in its long-standing ''doctrine of restraint'' which also opened up space for tougher Indian retaliation against Pulwama-like terror attacks, which resulted in the martrydom of at least 40 CRPF personnel.

According to intelligence reports, which are also accessed by Zee Media, Pakistan has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to foil any retaliatory attack by the Indian armed forces in future. Pakistan has also fast-tracked the long-delayed acquisition of modern warfare systems and advanced radars, which it wants to install along the border for better surveillance.

This assumes significance since the Pakistan Air Force had miserably failed to detect the presence of the Indian fighter jets as their surveillance system had been jammed by the IAF during the Balakot airstrikes.

Ahead of the Balakot airstrikes, the IAF jets, mounted with electronic warfare (EW) system, had jammed the Pakistani radars.

Sources told Zee Media that Pakistan has now decided to increase the number of drones in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) so that they can increase the surveillance on the international border including the Line of Control and monitor situation in real time. Among other measures, the ISI has instructed the terror camps active in PoK to avoid open display of weapons and stay away from the Line of Control (LoC) in order to avoid detection by the Indian agencies.

Several pro-Pakistan terror outfits have been clearly ordered to tell their cadres to wear Pakistani Army fatigues and not to venture out of their training camps without wearing them. This has been done to avoid detection by the Indian drones and the satellite imagery being used to keep a hawk's eye on the border movement.

In view of rising international pressure, especially after the UN declared Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, the Pakistan Army has asked the terror operators to keep a low profile for some time.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's ISI is also facilitating meetings between various terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Haqqani Network, Taliban and the ISIS militia fighters so as to build a consortium of terrorists, which can be used for launching terrorist attacks in India.

As per the latest intelligence reports, Pakistan has decided to deploy Chinese made medium range surface to air missile LY-80 and has also inked a deal with Beijing to procure long-range technically-advanced drones 'Rainbow'. Pakistan has also decided to procure Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Rainbow CH-4 and CH5 to further strengthen its border defence mechanism.