Pakistan and India sprang from the same subcontinent, sharing rivers, soil, and memory. Yet for 78 years since partition, these nuclear-armed neighbors have drifted to opposite shores, their estrangement deepening with each passing decade.

Skirmishes that could have swollen into a full-scale nuclear war after World War II were averted—often, we contend, because the United States stepped in. But another war has raged outside the headlines for over three decades: an unseen, lethal war of economic espionage. With a bleeding heart, we record this Op-Ed as a warning to the global community and a reckoning for those who still doubt that the battlefield is now the balance sheet, the factory floor, and the policy file.

The doctrine that frames this contest is not imagined. Consider the strategic thesis attributed to Indian spymasters and discussed under titles like Geo-Politics of South Asian Covert Action, overseen by figures such as B. Raman (former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat and former Deputy Chief of RAW). Its core argument is chillingly clear: India must move beyond defence and diplomacy and shake Pakistan from within—not by targeting its people, but by prying at the iron grip of its army, bureaucracy, but the target is the economy, the institutions said to anchor hostility.

The playbook is explicit: psychological warfare, disinformation campaigns, and precision operations against Pakistan’s soft underbelly—financial hubs like Karachi, ports, communication lines, and emblematic assets such as large dams.

The objective is not dismemberment, but to cripple the economy, rattle institutions, and force leaders into chaos and recalculation.

Executed well, this covert storm would stretch security forces thin, kindle paranoia at the........

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