LAHORE - Afghan intelligence has planned to increase its offensive operations at Durand Line, using TTP groups to engage Pakistan in an aggressive covert warfare to fail the border management arrangement, security agencies’ officials told The Nation yesterday.

National Directorate of Security (NDS), the premier security service of Afghanistan, has the aid and assistance of Indian secret service, RAW, for launching covert offensive on Pakistani soil, they added.

Intelligence inputs strongly suggest that NDS would launch a new wave of covert war to fail the border management after failure of Kabul’s direct confrontation at Torkham Border.

Several TTP groups which are now operating under the patronage of Afghan intelligence have been assigned fresh tasks. Some high-ranking TTP commanders managed to slip into Afghanistan when the army hit them hard while pursuing operation Zarb-e-Azb.

Mullah Fazalullah, head of outlawed TTP, is enjoying the hospitality of the Afghan intelligence and he was spotted in some of NDS safe houses in Kabul.

TTP Geedar Group, controlled by Umar Naray, TTP Mohmand Group, headed by Khan Said Sajna; and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, led by Omar Khalid Khorasani, all operating from Afghan soil, would be among the main terror groups used by the NDS, said the intelligence inputs.

Communication interceptions and intelligence informants’ network’s information strongly suggests proxy warfare at Durand Line and possible acts of terror in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of the country with accelerating separatists’ trouble in Balochistan, they added.

Indian intelligence RAW would provide financial and planning assistance to NDS and also suggest certain targets along the Pak-Afghan border (Durand Line).

Extraordinary movements have been reported by the intelligence agencies’ informants at NDS stations in Nangarhar, Kunar, Nooristan, Paktia, Paktika, Helmand and Kandahar.

Nangarhar, Kunar, Nooristan, Paktia and Paktika situated at Pak-Afghan border are also known as Durand Line with tribal areas. The mentioned border regions are known for anti-Pakistan activities by the TTP groups.

Helmand and Kandahar are known among the intelligence community as preliminary and forward bases of the NDS for operating its network in Balochistan.

The movements reported by the intelligence agencies’ informants at seven stations of the NDS point towards aggressive offensive strategy on Pakistani soil, said the security agencies’ officials.

In addition to this activity, informants have also reported meetings among NDS operatives, TTP commanders and RAW advisers, they added.

Three major generals of Afghan Army, Naeem Baloch, Momin and Sayed Mallok, were found involved in running an extensive NDS network in Balochistan.

Six operatives of Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS), including a serving army lieutenant, had been captured by the country’s premier security service, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in different catch operations in Balochistan last month.

In a press conference, addressed by Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti, confessional video statements of the six had also been aired in which the captured admitted getting instructions from two serving major generals of Afghan Army and a retired major general.

The three operated from Helmand and Kandahar with the assistance of Maj-Gen Abdul Raziq Achakzai, the police chief of Kandahar province, who worked in the NDS as regional commander.

Meanwhile, Footprints of Indian special security units have been spotted by the intelligence agencies during the recent Afghan security forces’ offensive against Pakistan at Torkham skirmishes.

Apparently, well-trained fighters in the guise of Afghan security forces took part in an attack on Frontier Corps at Pak-Afghan Border, Torkham, but they were believed to be members of Indian forces special units.

Intelligence services are trying to collect concrete evidence on the undercover involvement of Indian special units in Afghan forces’ offensive against Pakistan at Torkham, said security agencies’ officials.

They are probing the possibilities of a new tactical support division (TSD) in the military apparatus of Indian Army to take part in cross-border covert operations as RAW and Indian military in some areas launch joint operations.

Indian army had set up a dirty business unit in its Military Intelligence Corps in 2010 under the title of TSD to launch its soldiers in cross-border covert operations and to deal with Kashmir freedom struggle. The unit was closed down in December 2012, according to the Indian authorities. The intelligence agencies at home, however, believe the Indian security establishment did it to make the TSD completely covert, which does not exist on papers, but is still operational.

TSD was launched with six officers, five JCOs and 30 men with its office at unmarked two-storey building within the Delhi Cantonment, dubbed as ‘Butchery’, that was a renovated slaughterhouse of colonial times. The division was headed by Colonel Munishwar Nath Bakhshi, an Indian MI officer also known among his colleagues with the nickname of ‘Hunny’.