In his 2016 book, Kapur also argued that Pakistan’s use of Islamist militancy is not a byproduct of instability but a deliberate state policy. Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies have actively nurtured these militant groups as a cost-effective means of challenging a much larger India and maintaining influence in Afghanistan, he submitted.
Kapur warned that this strategy has now spiraled out of control, with militant groups increasingly acting autonomously and sometimes even turning against the state.
“Pakistan thus suffers from a ‘jihad paradox’. Political and material weakness originally made Pakistan’s militant policy attractive and useful. Now, however, that same weakness makes Pakistan’s support for militancy extremely dangerous. Thus, despite its past benefits, the strategy has outlived its utility, and Pakistan will have to abandon it to avoid catastrophe”, he wrote.
He then warned other “weak states” who rely on non-state actors as strategic tools to take “the Pakistani case as a cautionary lesson”.
He also added that supporting militancy has been a key factor in advancing the personal and political interests of various Pakistani leaders
—figures like Zia-ul-Haq, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, and Pervez Musharraf, he argued, strengthened their domestic political standing by publicly backing militants, often referring to them as “freedom fighters” capable of waging “a thousand years of war” against India.
His views align with the US’s scepticism toward Pakistan’s counterterrorism claims, particularly when it comes to groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani Network.
Kapur believes that while Pakistan often presents itself as a victim of terrorism, its long-standing ties to such groups reveal a policy of supporting militant actors when it aligns with Pakistan’s strategic interests. “Solving Pakistan’s jihad problem will require more than just reforming the Army—or threats and promises from the US Congress. A solution can emerge only if Pakistan changes its national narrative, ensuring that opposing India is no longer the country’s central purpose,” he wrote in a
2017 opinion piece for ThePrint.
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