Beyond Pakistan: Trump’s open embrace of jihadist forces across Asia a new headache for India

For all his talk of non-interventionism, US President Donald Trump has made remarks signalling his intention to intervene in one area that India holds completely off-limits: the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

With his bubbling urge to meddle in Kashmir and the embrace of Islamists across West and South Asia, Trump has sounded alarms among strategists in New Delhi and beyond.

In Trump, New Delhi saw a partner who would share its view on Pakistan and terrorism. But, as Trump has heaped praises on Pakistan and sought deals with jihadists in West Asia, New Delhi is facing a new reality where its potential partner is propping up fresh challenges.

Trump has not just offered mediation on the Kashmir issue, but he has crossed a red line set by New Delhi.

For decades, US leaders have held talks with both India and Pakistan during crises, such as Bill Clinton’s talks during the Kargil War , but they were careful to not take the centrestage. Over the years, the Cold War hyphenation of India and Pakistan was dropped by the West, including the United States. The successive US presidents had been careful to not hyphenate India and Pakistan. In Trump’s latest remarks, many see an attempt to re-hyphenate India and Pakistan something Pakistani establishment and its influencer in China’s communist regime have been looking to do.

Undoing bipartisan US foreign policy positions, Trump has spoken of India and Pakistan in the same breath, declaring both nations as “great” and describing Pakistan as “brilliant people” who “make incredible products” — Pakistan’s incredible products killed 26 people in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam last month.

Trump went further and spoke about Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif in the same breath, saying the administration commends “Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on their wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship” — one is the third-time elected leader of the world’s largest democracy and the other is a leader holding a constitutional post as per a power-sharing understanding with the military-intelligence establishment in a disputed parliamentary election.

ALSO READ: Nuclear conflict to trade: What Donald Trump said on India-Pak ceasefire, why New Delhi dismissed it

With his stand on the India-Pakistan conflict this month and deal-making with terrorists in West Asia, such as the Houthis of Yemen and Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria, President Trump is hyphenating India and Pakistan and normalising jihad, says a specialist in counter-terrorism and Islamism involved in advising New Delhi.

“Such normalisation of jihad in West Asia is bound to affect India. Nearly all terrorist groups in the region have two common main enemies: Israel and India. In deals with Syrian and Yemeni leaders, President Trump sidelined Israel. In South Asia, he is rejecting India’s positions at every step. This is a concerning pattern,” says this counter-terrorism specialist.

Trump’s embrace of Islamists a concern for New Delhi

In what amounts to a diplomatic coup, Trump met Syrian leader Al-Sharaa during his tour of West Asia this month and announced the lifting of all sanctions .

Just weeks ago, Al-Sharaa was known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani and was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) , a US-designated terrorist organisation. He also carried a bounty of $10 million.

In March, groups aligned with Al-Sharaa’s interim regime attacked minority Shia Alawites in Western Syria and, by the time violence subsided, monitors said that more than 1,000 Alawites had been killed in several massacres. These were seen as a revenge killings as the ousted Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, was an Alawite.

The normalisation of ties with such a regime is not an isolated instance. In a break of decadeslong US policy where Israel was at the centre of US approach to West Asia, Trump struck a deal with Yemen’s Houthis bypassing Israel. As a result, while US interests appear to be secured, Houthis continue to attack Israel.

Similarly, Trump cut a deal with Hamas bypassing Israel and freed the last living US hostage. He also entered into direct talks with Hamas in a break of decadeslong policy of no direct official contact with the designated terrorist group.

ALSO READ: Shifting sands: Trump’s Gulf diplomacy redraws alliances, leaves Israel isolated

There is another Islamist regime that Trump is chummy with that is of concern for India as that regime has also emerged lately as the principal supporter of Pakistan. That regime is Turkey. For years, Trump has been close to Turkey’s longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish armed drones were reportedly a mainstay of Pakistan’s attacks on India in the conflict this month. Erdogan also extended to Pakistan unconditional support — whereas Trump did not even call out Pakistan for sheltering terrorists on its soil.

After India launched Operation Sindoor, Erdogan said that Turkey “took a very clear stance” on “missile strikes targeting Pakistan” and declared “open support” for “the brotherly people of Pakistan” and vowed to stand with them in times good and bad.

ALSO READ: Why and how is Turkey doubling down on its support for Pakistan

In Trump’s dealings in West Asia, there is a clear consolidation of Islamist leaders and jihadist forces who are at worst opposed to India or at best sympathetic to India’s enemy Pakistan.

Consider this: Syria’s jihadist regime of Al-Sharaa that has now shaken hands with Trump has been propped by Erdogan, who is one of Trump’s closest partners and Pakistan’s patron; the Iran-sponsored Houthis, Hamas, and other jihadist groups are all opposed to India; and Hamas has known links to Pakistan-based, anti-India terrorist groups.

The counter-terrorism specialist mentioned above tells Firstpost that it is not a coincidence that the Pahalgam attack appears to have similarities with the October 7 attack.

“We are seeing a consolidation of jihadist forces and greater cooperation among them. With his deals with Syrians and the relationship with Turkey, President Trump is presiding over such a consolidation. As all Islamists and jihadists have a common target in India, he is emboldening anti-India forces across. His objective is an open question and the answer could range from seeking an irregular force like the 1980s’ Mujahideens to do the dirty job for the United States in the New Cold War or simply personal enrichment,” says the counter-terrorism specialist who wished to remain unidentified.

With Trump, the personal and official are never separate. When he gets cosy with Pakistan, his family’s business associates tour Pakistan, Turkey, and Bangladesh in search of deals. When he seeks to acquire Greenland, he seeks minerals deals for his friends. When he seeks Gaza Strip’s annexation, he seeks real estate projects — his family business. For obliging Qatar, he gets a luxury plane as a gift . Similarly, by joining hands with Islamists across West Asia, Trump essentially at his disposal a transnational irregular army.

‘Pahalgam attack can’t be seen in isolation with churn in West Asia’

The Pahalgam attack and the responses to it cannot be seen in isolation from the ongoing churn in West Asia, says the counter-terrorism specialist mentioned above.

While there were domestic reasons for Pakistani leaders to seek a conflict with India, such as the restoration of the military’s primacy and rallying people around the flag, there were external factors as well. While one was of course China, which would have benefited most from a full-scale India-Pakistan war, there is the West Asian churn at play as well.

ALSO READ: Why is Pakistan itching for war with India?

We do not have complete clarity about the Pahalgam attack, says the counter-terrorism specialist.

“It appears that both the Pahalgam and Oct 7 attacks were attempts to trigger a response. While Israel responded with a full-scale war that led to its alienation, India responded with a very calculated plan, Operation Sindoor, and achieved its objectives in a limited conflict. It appears that, just like the Oct 7 attack isolated Israel and brought the Palestinian issue in focus again, the Pahalgam attack also sought to corner India and internationalise the Kashmir issue by trapping India into a prolonged conflict. But India did not fall in that trap,” says the counter-terrorism specialist.

Trump has still done Pakistan’s bidding by hyphenating India and Pakistan and intervening in the Kashmir issue.

The counter-terrorism specialist says, “President Trump has not condemned Pakistan. Instead, he has treated Pakistan as India’s equal. At best, he has been neutral in the sense he has not provided material support to either side. At worst, he has been on Pakistan’s side as he has done everything to internationalise the Kashmir issue and hyphenating India and Pakistan in opposition to decades of India’s dehyphenation efforts.”

Trump’s stand is a complete turnaround from the takes of previous administrations, such as the Barack Obama administration when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Pakistan: “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours.”

The counter-terrorism specialist says that a new political Islam is in the making in West Asia that’s willing to set aside sectarian differences for the larger cause.

Such a churn is not just emboldening anti-India forces outside but is also preparing groundwork for the rise of pan-Islamism in India. As Firstpost has previously reported , pan-Islamist sentiment has picked up during Israel’s Gaza war, and has opened radicalisation opportunities. India has another reason to step up the vigil. Some brainwashed youths have reportedly joined groups such as the Islamic State in recent years, fitting the same brew of pan-Islamism.

A fresh headache, however, is that a potential foreign partner, Trump-led United States, is getting pally with such forces.