Revolt in RAW: Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
Revolt in RAW, emergency meeting called
Ian MacKinnon
First Published : 08 Sep 2009 04:57:26 PM IST
Last Updated : 08 Sep 2009 05:00:33 PM IST
NEW DELHI:Rattled by the protest leave of seven senior officials from
the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence
agency, on the grounds they were superseded has prompted the
government to hold an emergency meeting to consider their case.
However, highly placed sources pointed out that it would not be able
to bring them all on parity.
The genesis of the revolt was when Avdhesh Mathur, a 1975 batch Indian
Police Service (IPS) officer from Manipur cadre, was promoted as
Special Director General.
Mathur, who was transferred to RAW in 2007 from the Intelligence
Bureau (IB), superseded among others P.M. Hablikar, Sharad Kumar and
Chakru Sinha, who were all additional secretaries and from the 1973
batch of the RAW Allied Services (RAS) cadre.
Mathur was empanelled in June this year and picked up his rank.
"There were four other officers who were passed over and that upset
them and prompted them also to go on leave. The cabinet secretariat
will hold a Departmental Promotional Committee (DPC) meeting next
week, but I doubt if it will redress the grievances of everyone," said
a highly placed intelligence functionary.
Insiders within RAW see a pattern in this unusual move and feel
Mathur's elevation could clear the decks for him to be the next
secretary when the current chief, K.C. Verma, retires in January 2011.
"The officers will get a hearing but nobody knows how the crisis will
be resolved. Only one among the seven officers will get his
promotion," said a source.
...and I am Sid Harth
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Research and Analysis Wing [RAW]
The Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] is India's foreign intelligence
agency. RAW has become an effective instrument of Indian national
power, and has assumed a significant role in carrying out India's
domestic and foreign policies. RAW has engaged in espionage against
Pakistan and other neighboring countries. It has enjoyed the backing
of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly
under the Prime Minister, the structure and operations of the Research
& Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.
Founded in 1968, RAW focused largely on Pakistan. Its formation was
initially motivated by reports of Pakistan supplying weapons to Sikh
militants, and providing shelter and training to guerrillas in
Pakistan.
Numerous missions were assigned to RAW upon its creation. These
included monitoring political and military developments in neighboring
countries that affects Indian national security. Consequently,
considerable attention is paid by RAW to Pakistan and China, countries
that are traditional rivals of India.
RAW has evolved from its origins as a part of the Intelligence Bureau
to develop into India's predominant intelligence organization. In
1968, RAW had 250 agents and a budget of Rs. 2 crore. This has
expanded to a 2000 total of an estimated eight to ten thousand agents
and a budget that experts place at Rs. 1500 crore, alternately
estimated at $145 million.
Pakistan has accused the Research and Analysis Wing of sponsoring
sabotage in Punjab, where RAW is alleged to have supported the Seraiki
movement, providing financial support to promote its activities in
Pakistan and organizing an International Seraiki Conference in Delhi
in November-December 1993. RAW has an extensive network of agents and
anti-government elements within Pakistan, including dissident elements
from various sectarian and ethnic groups of Sindh and Punjab.
Published reports in Pakistan allege that as many as 35,000 RAW agents
entered Pakistan between 1983-93, with 12,000 working in Sindh, 10,000
in Punjab, 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5000 in
Balochistan.
RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh, supporting both
secular forces and the area's Hindu minority. The involvement of RAW
in East Pakistan is said to date from the 1960s, when RAW supported
Mujibur Rahman, leading up to his general election victory in 1970.
RAW also provided training and arms to the Bangladeshi freedom
fighters known as Mukti Bahini. RAW's aid was instrumental in
Bangladesh's gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971.
During the course of its investigation the Jain Commission received
testimony on the official Indian support to the various Sri Lankan
Tamil armed groups in Tamil Nadu. From 1981, RAW and the Intelligence
Bureau established a network of as many as 30 training bases for these
groups in India. Centers were also established at the high-security
military installation of Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and in the
Ramakrishna Puram area of New Delhi. This clandestine support to the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), some of whom were on the
payroll of RAW, was later suspended. Starting in late 1986 the
Research and Analysis Wing focused surveillance on the LTTE which was
expanding ties with Tamil Nadu separatist groups. Rajiv Gandhi sought
to establish good relations with the LTTE, even after the Indian Peace
Keeping Force [IPKF] experience in Sri Lanka. But the Indian
intelligence community failed to accurately assess the character of
the LTTE and its orientation India and its political leaders. The LTTE
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was apparently motivated by fears of a
possible re-induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri
Lanka and a crackdown on the LTTE network in Tamil Nadu.
RAW was heavily criticized in 1999, following the Pakistani incursions
at Kargil. Critics accused RAW of failing to provide intelligence that
could have prevented the ensuing ten-week conflict that brought India
and Pakistan to the brink of full-scale war. While the army has been
critical of the lack of information they received, RAW has pointed the
finger at the politicians, claiming they had provided all the
necessary information. Most Indian officials believe that in order to
prevent another such occurrence, communication needs to be increased
between the intelligence agencies, which would require structural
reform.
Most recently, RAW has gained attention for providing the US with
intelligence on Al-Qaeda and Taliban targets for the war on terrorism
in Afghanistan. Maps and photographs of terrorist training camps in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with other evidence implicating Osama
bin Laden in terrorist attacks, were given to US intelligence
officials.
* * *
The objectives of RAW include:
To monitor the political and military developments in adjoining
countries, which have direct bearing on India's national security and
in the formulation of its foreign policy.
To seek the control and limitation of the supply of military hardware
to Pakistan, mostly from European countries, the USA and China.
The chief of the RAW is designated Secretary (Research) in the Cabinet
Secretariat, which is part of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Most
of the position's occupants have been experts on either Pakistan or
China. The head of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the external
intelligence agency, enjoys greater autonomy of functioning than their
counterparts in the UK and US and has the same privileged direct
access to the Prime Minister as their UK counterparts. The control of
the Cabinet Secretary over the RAW is limited to administrative and
financial matters, with very little say in operational and policy
matters.
They also have the benefit of training in either US or the UK, and
more recently in Israel. The Secretary (R) reports on an
administrative basis to the Cabinet Secretary, who reports to the
Prime Minister (PM). However, on a daily basis the Secretary (R)
reports to the National Security Advisor. Reporting to the Secretary
(R) are: Two Special Secretaries and one Special Director of the ARC,
the Aviation Research Centre; Four Additional Secretaries, responsible
for different geographical regions; A large number (above 40) Joint
Secretaries, who are the functional heads of various desks.
The structure of the RAW is a matter of speculation, but brief
overviews of the same are present in the public domain. Attached to
the HQ of RAW at Lodhi Road, New Delhi are different regional
headquarters, which have direct links to overseas stations and are
headed by a controlling officer who keeps records of different
projects assigned to field officers who are posted abroad.
Intelligence is usually collected from a variety of sources by field
officers and deputy field officers; it is either pre-processed
(vetted) by a senior field officer or by a desk officer. The desk
officer then passes the information to the Joint Secretary and then on
to the Additional Secretary and from there it is disseminated to the
concerned end user. The Director RAW is a member of the JIC Steering
Committee and is authorized to brief the Prime Minister should the
need arise.
Some officers of the RAW are members of a specialized service, the
Research and Analysis Service (RAS), but several officers also serve
on deputation from other services. The RAW has sub-organizations like
the Aviation Research Center (ARC), the Radio Research Center (RRC) or
the Electronics and Technical Service (ETS), which have considerable
capacity for technical intelligence gathering. Another important
branch under the operational control of the RAW is the Directorate
General of Security (DGS). This agency has oversight over
organizations like the Special Frontier Force (SFF), the Special
Services Bureau (SSB) etc... Liaison with the military is maintained
through the Military Intelligence Advisory Group and the Military
Advisor to the Director RAW.
Though the RAW is primarily intended for collecting intelligence
beyond India's national borders, it has over time come to have a
strong presence in all fields of intelligence gathering. The RAW was
brought into internal security issues during the Sikkim situation, it
played a role in the events of the emergency of 1977-79, it was asked
to operate in Punjab to counter-balance the presence of the ISI (and
so also in Kashmir), and the RAW has provided the security for the
India's nuclear program. Right from its formation in 18 September,
1968, R N Kao, the founding father of RAW, picked up the best men from
within government and from outside for RAW. A combination of military,
academicians, bureaucrats and policemen was a fine start for RAW which
modelled itself on the lines of CIA.
Sources and Methods
Thanks to Ajay Paul
Indians Hand Evidence on bin Laden to US, Herald Sun, September 17,
2001.
The Game Of Foxes: J-K Intelligence War, Manoj Joshi Times Of India,
July 16, 1994
'Prabhakaran said he did not trust either RAW or the ministry of
external affairs' N Dixit
India has established Terrorist Training Camp in Qadian by Farooq
Adil, Special Weekly Takbeer Report December 25, 1997
Embassy Pumped Money To US Political Race By MURALI RANGANATHAN The
Times of India [1996]
Indian Spy Agency's `Machinations' Viewed: FBIS-NES-96-245 Islamabad
THE MUSLIM, 18 Dec 96 p 6
Article Sees RAW Behind Bombings: FBIS-TOT-97-017-L Peshawar The
Frontier Post, 4 Feb 97 p 6
Studies Blame Indian Spies for `Terrorism': FBIS-NES-95-048 Islamabad
THE NEWS 12 Mar 95 p 11
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/india/index.html
India Intelligence and Security Agencies
The King "... should divide the day as well as the night into eight
parts . . . During the fifth, he should hold consultations with the
council of ministers through correspondence and also keep himself
informed of the secret reports brought by spies.... During the first
one-eighth part of the night, he should meet the officers of the
secret service.... During the seventh, he should hold consultations
and send out the officers of the secret service for their
operations."
The Duties of a King The Arthasastra
Kautilya - Prime Minister to Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (4th Century
BCE)
Security Threat Environment
Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC)
Research and Analysis Wing [RAW]
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Army
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Special Protection Group (SPG)
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Home Guards
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Economic Intelligence Council
Department of Revenue
Central Economic Intelligence Bureau
Directorate General of Revenue Intelligence (DGRI)
Directorate of Enforcement
Directorate General of Anti-Evasion
Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)
Collection Systems
Laws and Regulations
Sources and Resources
Assessment of India's Research Literature by Ronald N. Kostoff, et al,
Office of Naval Research, U.S. Department of the Navy, January 2006
BHARAT RAKSHAK Indian Armed Forces
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/index.html
World Intelligence and Security Agencies
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[thugs, drugs &
other outlaws]
Sources and Resources
Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security
Country Studies / Area Handbooks Library of Congress Federal Research
Division
Brassey's International Intelligence Yearbook by Robert D'A.
Henderson, Brassey's Inc.
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/india/raw/
Maintained by Steven Aftergood
Created by John Pike
Updated July 26, 2002
bademiyansubhanallah
Research and Analysis Wing [RAW]
The Cabinet Secretariat Research and Analysis Wing [RAW], India's most
powerful intelligence agency, is India’s external intelligence agency.
RAW has become an effective instrument of India's national power, and
has assumed a significant role in formulating India's domestic and
foreign policies. RAW has engaged in disinformation campaigns,
espionage and sabotage against Pakistan and other neighboring
countries. RAW has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian
governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime
Minister, the structure, rank, pay and perks of the Research &
Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.
Current policy debates in India have generally failed to focus on the
relative priority given by RAW to activities directed against India's
neighbors versus attention to domestic affairs to safeguard India's
security and territorial integrity. The RAW has had limited success in
dealing with separatist movements in Manipur and Tripura in the
northeast, Tamil Nadu in the south, and Punjab and Kashmir in the
northwestern part of the country. Indian sources allege the CIA has
penetrated freedom fighters in Kashmir and started activities in
Kerala, Karnataka, and other places, along with conducting economic
and industrial espionage activities in New Delhi.
In 1968 India established this special branch of its intelligence
service specifically targeted on Pakistan. The formation of RAW was
based on the belief that Pakistan was supplying weapons to Sikh
terrorists, and providing shelter and training to the guerrillas in
Pakistan. Pakistan has accused the Research and Analysis Wing of
sponsoring sabotage in Punjab, where RAW is alleged to have supported
the Seraiki movement, providing financial support to promote its
activities in Pakistan and organizing an International Seraiki
Conference in Delhi in November-December 1993. RAW has an extensive
network of agents and anti-government elements within Pakistan,
including dissident elements from various sectarian and ethnic groups
of Sindh and Punjab. Published reports allege that as many as 35,000
RAW agents have entered Pakistan between 1983-93, with 12,000 are
working in Sindh, 10000 in Punjab 8000 in North West Frontier Province
and 5000 in Balochistan. As many as 40 terrorist training camps at
Rajasthan, East Punjab, Held Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of
India are run by the RAW's Special Service Bureau (SSB).
Throughout the Afghan War RAW was responsible for the planning and
execution of terrorist activities in Pakistan to deter Pakistan from
support of Afghan liberation movement against India's ally, the Soviet
Union. The assistance provided to RAW by the KGB enabled RAW to
arrange terrorist attacks in Pakistani cities throughout the Afghan
War. The defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan did not end the
role of RAW in Pakistan, with reports that suggest that India has
established a training camp in the town of Qadian, in East Punjab,
where non-Muslim Pakistanis are trained for terrorist activities.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has blamed India for funding the
current upsurge of terrorism in Pakistan, and senior ministers have
blamed the Research and Analysis Wing for the sectarian violence
between Shias and Sunnis which has resulted in thousands of deaths
every year.
The Government of Pakistan frequently assigns responsibility for
terrorist activity to the Indian Government, even when no evidence can
be verified. It is evidently in the interest of the Pakistani
government to blame terrorist actions on external rather than internal
sources, just as it would be in the interest of Indian services to
obscure their hand in such actions. Terrorist activities in Pakistan
attributed to the clandestine activities of Indian and Afghan
intelligence agencies include:
■A car bomb explosion in Saddar area of Peshawar on 21 December 1995
caused the deaths of 37 persons and injured over 50 others.
■An explosion at Shaukat Khanum Hospital on 14 April 1996, claimed the
lives of seven persons and injured to over 34 others.
■A bus traveling from Lahore to Sahiwal was blown up at Bhai Pheru on
28 April 1996, causing the deaths of 44 persons on the spot and
injuring 30 others.
■An explosion in a bus near the Sheikhupura hospital killed 9 persons
and injured 29 others on 08 May 1996.
■An explosion near Alam chowk, Gujranwala on 10 June 1996 killed 3
persons and injured 11 others.
■A bomb exploded on a bus on GT Road near Kharian on 10 June 1996,
killing 2 persons and injuring 10 others.
■On 27 June 1996, an explosion opposite Madrassah Faizul Islam,
Faizabad, Rawalpindi, killed 5 persons and injured over 50 others.
■A bomb explosion in the Faisalabad railway station passenger lounge
on 08 July 1996 killed 3 persons and injured 20 others.
RAW has responded to Pakistani arms and training for Muslim militants
in the disputed region of Kashmir state. RAW allegedly executed a
hijacking of an Indian Airliner to Lahore in 1971 which was attributed
to the Kashmiris, to give a terrorist dimension to the Kashmiri
national movement. However soon the extent of RAW's involvement was
made public.
RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh, supporting both
secular forces and the area's Hindu minority. The involvement of RAW
in East Pakistan is said to date from the 1960s, when RAW promoted
dissatisfaction against Pakistan in East Pakistan, including funding
Mujibur Rahmanh's general election in 1970 and providing training and
arming the Mukti Bahini.
During the course of its investigation the Jain Commission received
testimony on the official Indian support to the various Sri Lankan
Tamil armed groups in Tamil Nadu. From 1981, RAW and the Intelligence
Bureau established a network of as many as 30 training bases for these
groups in India. Centers were also established at the high-security
military installation of Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and in the
Ramakrishna Puram area of New Delhi. This clandestine support to the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), some of whom were on the
payroll of RAW, was later suspended. Starting in late 1986 the
Research and Analysis Wing focused surveillance on the LTTE which was
expanding ties with Tamil Nadu separatist groups. Rajiv Gandhi sought
to establish good relations with the LTTE, even after the Indian Peace
Keeping Force [IPKF] experience in Sri Lanka. But the Indian
intelligence community failed to accurately assess the character of
the LTTE and its orientation India and its political leaders. The LTTE
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was apparently motivated by fears of a
possible re-induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri
Lanka and a crackdown on the LTTE network in Tamil Nadu.
The RAW and the Ministry of External Affairs are provided Rs 25 crore
annually as "discretionary grants" for foreign influence operations.
These funds have supported organisations fighting Sikh and Kashmiri
separatists in the UK, Canada and the US. An extensive network of
Indian operatives is controlled by the Indian Embassy in Washington
DC. The Indian embassy's covert activities are reported to include the
infitration of US long distance telephone carriers by Indian
operatives, with access to all kinds of information, to r blackmail
relatives of US residents living in India. In 1996 an Indian diplomat
was implicated in a scandal over illegal funding of political
candidates in the US. Under US law foreign nationals are prohibited
from contributing to federal elections. The US District Court in
Baltimore sentenced Lalit H Gadhia, a naturalised US citizen of Indian
origin, to three months imprisonment. Gadhia had confessed that he
worked as a conduit between the Indian Embassy and various Indian-
American organisations for funnelling campaign contributions to
influence US lawmakers. Over $46,000 from the Indian Embassy was
distributed among 20 Congressional candidates. The source of the cash
used by Gadhia was Devendra Singh, a RAW official assigned to the
Indian Embassy in Washington. Illicit campaign money received in 1995
went to Democratic candidates including Sens. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.),
Paul S. Sarbanes (D -Md.) and Reps. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) and
Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.).
Discuss this article in our forum.
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RAW: India's External Intelligence Agency
Author: Jayshree Bajoria, Staff Writer
November 7, 2008
Introduction
India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing
(RAW), has long faced allegations of meddling in its neighbors'
affairs. Founded in 1968, primarily to counter China's influence, over
time it has shifted its focus to India's other traditional rival,
Pakistan. RAW and Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), have been engaged in covert operations against one
other for over three decades. The ongoing dispute in Kashmir continues
to fuel these clashes, but experts say Afghanistan may be emerging as
the new battleground. Islamabad sees India's growing diplomatic
initiatives in Afghanistan as a cover for RAW agents working to
destabilize Pakistan. It accuses RAW of training and arming
separatists in Pakistan's Balochistan Province along the Afghan
border. RAW denies these charges, and in turn, accuses the ISI of the
July 2008 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.
The History of RAW
Until 1968, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which is responsible for
India's internal intelligence, also handled external intelligence. But
after India's miserable performance in a 1962 border war with China,
the need for a separate external intelligence agency was clear. During
that conflict, "our intelligence failed to detect Chinese build up for
the attack," writes Maj. Gen. VK Singh, a retired army officer who did
a stint in RAW, in his 2007 book, India's External Intelligence:
Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing.
As a result, India established a dedicated external intelligence
agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Founded mainly to focus
on China and Pakistan, over the last forty years the organization has
expanded its mandate and is credited with greatly increasing India's
influence abroad. Experts say RAW's powers and its role in India's
foreign policy have varied under different prime ministers. Successes
that RAW claims it contributed to include:
■the creation of Bangladesh in 1971;
■India's growing influence in Afghanistan;
■Sikkim's accession to India in the northeast in 1975;
■the security of India's nuclear program;
■the success of African liberation movements during the Cold War.
The first head of RAW, Rameshwar Nath Kao, who headed the IB's
external intelligence division, led the agency until he retired in
1977. Many experts, including officers who worked with him, credit him
with RAW's initial successes: India's triumph in the 1971 war with
Pakistan, and India's covert assistance to the African National
Congress's anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. "To a large
extent, it was Kao who raised RAW to the level of India's premier
intelligence agency, with agents in virtually every major embassy and
high commission," writes Singh. But the organization has been
criticized for its lack of coordination with domestic intelligence and
security agencies, weak analytical capabilities, and complete lack of
transparency.
The Structure and Function of RAW
Not much is known regarding the structure of RAW, say experts. The
organization started with 250 people and about $400,000. It has since
expanded to several thousand personnel, but there is no clear estimate
of its staffing or budget, as both remain secret. However, an estimate
by the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists suggests that in
2000, RAW had about eight to ten thousand agents and a budget that
experts place at $145 million. Unlike the United States' Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) or Britain's MI6, RAW reports directly to
the prime minister instead of the Ministry of Defense. The chief of
RAW is designated secretary (research) in the Cabinet Secretariat,
which is part of the prime minister's office. Some officers of RAW are
members of a specialized service, the Research and Analysis Service,
but several officers also serve on deputation from other services such
as the Indian Police Service.
RAW had two priorities after its formation, writes B. Raman, a former
RAW official, in the 2007 book ,The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane.
The organization worked to strengthen its capability for intelligence
gathering on Pakistan and China and for covert action in East Pakistan
(now Bangladesh). Some experts say that RAW's efforts in East
Pakistan, which was created from the partition of the Indian state of
Bengal and completely separated from the rest of Pakistan, was aimed
at fomenting independence sentiment. Over time, RAW's objectives have
broadened to include:
■Monitoring the political and military developments in adjoining
countries, which have direct bearing on India's national security and
in the formulation of its foreign policy.
■Seeking the control and limitation of the supply of military hardware
to Pakistan, mostly from European countries, the United States, and
China.
Experts disagree on the amount of influence RAW asserts on India's
foreign policy. Sumit Ganguly, a professor of political science at
Indiana University, says the agency has no influence on foreign
policy. However, Dipankar Banerjee, a retired army official and
current director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, a New
Delhi-based think tank, says the head of RAW has direct access to the
head of state, to whom he provides input and analysis.
From the early days, RAW had a secret liaison relationship with the
Mossad, Israel's external intelligence agency. The main purpose was to
benefit from Israel's knowledge of West Asia and North Africa, and to
learn from its counterterrorism techniques, say experts.
RAW's Role in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka
RAW played a significant role in the formation of Bangladesh along
with the Indian army and other Indian security and intelligence
agencies. Besides providing intelligence to policymakers and the army,
RAW trained and armed Mukti Bahini, a group of East Pakistanis
fighting for the separate state of Bangladesh. Analysts say that RAW
also facilitated the northeastern state of Sikkim's accession to India
in 1975, and provided military assistance to groups hostile to the pro-
China regime in Myanmar, such as the Kachin Independence Army.
But it was the support for the Tamil separatist group, Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, that brought RAW much
criticism from human rights organizations. RAW helped to train and arm
the LTTE in the 1970s, but after the group's terrorist activities grew
in the 1980s-including its alliances with separatist groups in the
southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu-RAW withdrew this support. In
1987, New Delhi made a pact with the Sri Lankan government to send
peacekeeping troops to the island and Indian forces ended up fighting
the group RAW had armed. In 1991, Rajiv Gandhi, prime minister of
India at the time of the peacekeeping force deployment, was
assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber.
Covert Action in Afghanistan, Pakistan
Since its inception in 1968, RAW has had a close liaison relationship
with KHAD, the Afghan intelligence agency, due to the intelligence it
has provided RAW on Pakistan. This relationship was further
strengthened in the early 1980s when the foundation was laid for a
trilateral cooperation involving the RAW, KHAD, and the Soviet KGB.
Raman says RAW valued KHAD's cooperation for monitoring the activities
of Sikh militants in Pakistan's tribal areas. Sikhs in the Indian
state of Punjab were demanding an independent state of Khalistan.
According to Raman, Pakistan's ISI set up clandestine camps for
training and arming Khalistani recruits in Pakistan's Punjab Province
and North West Frontier Province. During this time, the ISI received
large sums from Saudi Arabia and the CIA for arming the Afghan
mujahadeen against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. "The ISI diverted
part of these funds and arms and ammunition to the Khalistani
terrorists," alleges Raman.
In retaliation, in the mid-1980s, RAW set up two covert groups of its
own, Counter Intelligence Team-X (CIT-X) and Counter Intelligence Team-
J (CIT-J), the first targeting Pakistan in general and the second
directed at Khalistani groups. The two groups were responsible for
carrying out terrorist operations inside Pakistan (Newsline), writes
Pakistani military expert Ayesha Siddiqa. Indian journalist and
associate editor of Frontline magazine, Praveen Swami, writes that a
"low-grade but steady campaign of bombings in major Pakistani cities,
notably Karachi and Lahore" was carried out. This forced the head of
ISI to meet his counterpart in RAW and agree on the rules of
engagement as far as Punjab was concerned, writes Siddiqa. The
negotiation was brokered by then-Jordanian Crown Prince Hassan bin-
Talal, whose wife, Princess Sarvath, is of Pakistani origin. "It was
agreed that Pakistan would not carry out activities in the Punjab as
long as RAW refrained from creating mayhem and violence inside
Pakistan," Siddiqa writes.
In the past, Pakistan also accused RAW of supporting Sindhi
nationalists demanding a separate state, as well as Seraikis calling
for a partition of Pakistan's Punjab to create a separate Seraiki
state. India denies these charges. However, experts point out that
India has supported insurgents in Pakistan's Balochistan, as well as
anti-Pakistan forces in Afghanistan. But some experts say India no
longer does this. As this Backgrounder explains, Pakistan is
suspicious of India's influence in Afghanistan, which it views as a
threat to its own interests in the region. Experts say although it is
very likely that India has active intelligence gathering in
Afghanistan, it is difficult to say whether it is also involved in
covert operations.
Relations with the CIA
The CIA assisted in the creation of RAW, says South Asia expert
Stephen P. Cohen of the Brookings Institution. However, India's
intelligence relations with the CIA started even before the existence
of RAW, note experts. After India's war with China in 1962, CIA
instructors trained Establishment 22, a "covert organisation raised
from among Tibetan refugees in India, to execute deep-penetration
terror operations in China," writes Swami.
But the CIA's operations with the ISI to fight the Soviets in
Afghanistan in the 1980s made RAW very wary. However, it did not stop
RAW from seeking the CIA's assistance in counterterrorism training.
Raman writes: "One had one more bizarre example of how international
intelligence cooperation works." The CIA trained the officers of the
ISI in the use of terrorism against an adversary, and at the same
time, he writes, it trained RAW and IB officers "in some of the
techniques of countering that terrorism." India's intelligence
agencies also feel the lack of an equal relationship with the CIA, say
experts. Swami says RAW's grievance is that there is little
information they get on Pakistan from the United States; however,
Washington expects New Delhi to provide it with intelligence on
Afghanistan.
In 1997, Prime Minister I.K. Gujral shut down both the CITs aimed at
Pakistan on moral grounds. Before Gujral, Prime Minister P.V.
Narasimha Rao had ended RAW's eastern operations in the early 1990s,
as part of his efforts to build bridges with China and Myanmar, say
analysts.
Successive RAW leaders attempted to gain fresh authorization for
deterrent covert operations, but without success, says Swami. Siddiqa
writes: "The Indian government probably realized that encouraging
covert warfare would not only destabilize bilateral relations but was
also dangerous for the peace and stability of the entire region."
Weaknesses in RAW
The intrusion of Pakistan-backed armed forces into the Indian state of
Jammu and Kashmir (GlobalSecurity) in 1999 prompted questions about
RAW's efficacy. Some analysts saw the conflict as an intelligence
failure. However, RAW officials argued they had provided the
intelligence but political leadership had failed to act upon it. The
Indian government constituted a committee to look into the reasons for
the failure and recommend remedial measures. The report of the Kargil
review committee was then examined by a group of ministers,
established in 2000. The group recommended a formal written charter
and pointed out lack of coordination and communication within various
intelligence agencies.
Following the review, a new organization was set up-the National
Technical Research Organization (NTRO)-modeled on the U.S. National
Security Agency-which would be the repository of the nation's
technical intelligence-spy satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), and spy planes. The government also decided to create a
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), whose head would be the adviser to
the Chief of Staffs Committee and the defense minister. The DIA was
empowered to conduct transborder operations.
However, the shakeup of the intelligence apparatus has not removed the
problems that persisted, especially relating to the overlap of agency
activities, say experts. Earlier, RAW was the only organization
permitted to conduct espionage operations abroad. Now both the IB and
DIA have also been given the authority to conduct such operations,
writes Singh.
There have also been occasional media reports of penetration inside
RAW by other agencies, in particular the CIA. Swami writes that RAW is
exceptional amongst major spy agencies in maintaining no permanent
distinction (Hindu) between covert operatives who execute secret
tasks, and personnel who must liaise with services such as the CIA or
public bodies, such as analysts and area specialists. "As a result,
personnel with sensitive operational information are exposed to
potentially compromising contacts," he writes.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
bademiyansubhanallah
India-Afghanistan Relations
Author: Jayshree Bajoria, Staff Writer
Updated: July 22, 2009
Introduction
India and Afghanistan historically have shared close cultural and
political ties, and the complexity of their diplomatic history
reflects this fact. India supported successive governments in Kabul
until the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, and was among the first
non-Communist states to recognize the government installed by the
Soviet Union after its 1989 invasion. But like most countries, India
never recognized the Taliban's assumption of power in 1996 (only Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban
regime). Following the 9/11 attacks and the U.S.-led war in
Afghanistan that resulted, ties between India and Afghanistan grew
strong once again. India has restored full diplomatic relations, and
has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Afghanistan's
reconstruction and development. But Pakistan views India's growing
influence in Afghanistan as a threat to its own interests in the
region. Experts fear for Afghanistan's stability as India and Pakistan
compete for influence in the war-torn country.
Since 2001, India has offered $1.2 billion for Afghanistan's
reconstruction, making it the largest regional donor to the country.
Strengthening Relations
Afghanistan holds strategic importance for India as New Delhi seeks
friendly allies in the neighborhood, and because it is a gateway to
energy-rich Central Asian states such as Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
"India is looking to ensure that other countries in the region favor
or at least are neutral on its conflict with Pakistan," says J
Alexander Thier, an expert on Afghanistan at the United States
Institute of Peace (USIP). Afghanistan, on the other hand, he says,
looks to India as "a potential counterweight in its relationship with
Pakistan." India's influence in Afghanistan waned in the 1990s after
Pakistan-backed Taliban rose to power. During this period, New Delhi
provided assistance to the anti-Taliban resistance, the Northern
Alliance, comprised mostly of Tajik and other non-Pashtun ethnic
groups, according to a 2003 Council Task Force report. After the
overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, New Delhi reached out to renew ties
with Kabul. India-Afghanistan relations further received a boost from
the fact that many current Afghan leaders, including President Hamid
Karzai, studied at Indian universities.
Since 2001, India has offered $1.2 billion for Afghanistan's
reconstruction, making it the largest regional donor to the country.
By helping rebuild a new Afghanistan, India strives for greater
regional stability, but also hopes to counter Pakistan's influence in
Kabul, say experts. For India, Afghanistan is also a potential route
for access to Central Asian energy. India, an observer in the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization, has been pursuing better relations with
Central Asian states for energy cooperation. It gave a $17 million
grant for the modernization of a hydropower plant in Tajikistan, and
has signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkmenistan for a
natural gas pipeline that will pass through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to Indian officials, there are currently about four thousand
Indian workers and security personnel working on different relief and
reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Since 2006, following
increased incidents of kidnappings and attacks, India has sent the
country's mountain-trained paramilitary force tasked with guarding its
border with China, to guard its workers; there are about five hundred
police deployed in Afghanistan currently. India is involved in a wide
array of development projects in Afghanistan: In January 2009, India
completed construction of the Zaranj-Delaram highway in southwest
Afghanistan near the Iranian border; it is building Afghanistan's new
parliament building set for completion by 2011; it is constructing the
Salma Dam power project in Herat Province; it has trained Afghan
police officers, diplomats and civil servants; and it has provided
support in the areas of health, education, transportation, power, and
telecommunications.
Bilateral trade between India and Afghanistan has been on the rise,
reaching $358 million for the fiscal year April 2007 to March 2008.
India hopes its investment in the Iranian port at Chabahar will allow
it to gain trading access to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. Pakistan
currently allows Afghanistan transit rights for its exports to India,
but does not allow goods to move from India to Afghanistan.
But soft power is "India's greatest asset" in Afghanistan, writes
Shashi Tharoor, former under-secretary-general at the United Nations.
He says Indian television soaps and Indian films are very popular in
Afghanistan and their particular strength is that they have "nothing
to do with government propaganda." Thier says the positive thing about
such influence is that it engages the population in a way that takes
into account what they want.
Pakistan's Suspicions
"Afghanistan has been a prize that Pakistan and India have fought over
directly and indirectly for decades," writes Robert D. Kaplan of the
Atlantic Monthly. Pakistan supported the anti-Soviet mujahadeen and
then the Taliban "to ensure that in the event of conflict with India,
Afghanistan would provide Pakistan with support and use of its land
and air space if needed," write Afghanistan experts Barnett R. Rubin
and Abubakar Siddique in a 2006 USIP report (PDF). Pakistani military
planners, they write, refer to this as the quest for "strategic
depth." In this Foreign Affairs essay, Rubin argues that Pakistan's
military establishment has always approached the various wars in and
around Afghanistan as a function of its main institutional and
national security interests: "first and foremost, balancing India."
"Afghanistan has been a prize that Pakistan and India have fought over
directly and indirectly for decades."- Robert Kaplan
It is no surprise then that Pakistan sees India's growing influence in
Afghanistan as a threat. After India opened consulates in Herat, Mazar-
e-Sharif, Jalalabad, and Kandahar, Pakistan charged that these
consulates provide cover for Indian intelligence agencies to run
covert operations against Pakistan, as well as foment separatism in
Pakistan's Balochistan province. "Pakistan's fears of encirclement
(PDF) by India have been compounded" by the new Indian air base in
Farkhor, Tajikistan, write South Asia experts Raja Karthikeya Gundu
and Teresita C. Schaffer in an April 2008 Center for Strategic and
International Studies newsletter. This is the first Indian military
airbase overseas, and is convenient for transportation of men and
material to and from Afghanistan. It is also a move toward protecting
India's potential energy interests in the region, say experts.
Pakistan also competes with India for access to consumer markets in
Afghanistan. Pakistan sees Iran's Chabahar port, which India hopes to
use as its route for trade with Afghanistan, as a rival that would
compete with its new port at Gwadar, which was been built with Chinese
assistance.
Endangering Afghanistan's Stability
Pakistan's concerns that India is trying to encircle it by gaining
influence in Afghanistan has in part led to "continued Pakistani
ambivalence toward the Taliban," argues a new report by the
independent, U.S.-based Pakistan Policy Working Group. The report says
Pakistani security officials calculate that the Taliban offers the
best chance for countering India's regional influence. Pakistan's
support for the Taliban has led to increased instability in
Afghanistan, from the growth of terrorism to upped opium cultivation.
But Islamabad denies any support for the Taliban and says it is
committed to fighting terrorism. U.S. military and intelligence
officials have repeatedly warned that Pakistan's tribal areas along
the Afghan border continue to serve as safe havens for the Taliban and
al-Qaeda to stage attacks against Afghanistan. Experts say Pakistan's
cooperation in counterterrorism is vital to winning the war in
Afghanistan.
Controlling this porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is the
central issue for the United States, write Schaffer and Gundu. As this
Backgrounder explains, Pakistan and Afghanistan have a long-standing
border dispute, in large part due to tribal allegiances that have
never recognized the century-old frontier. But a "transformation of
Pakistan-Afghanistan ties can only take place in an overall context of
improved Pakistani-Indian relations" that enhances Pakistani
confidence in its regional position, argues the Pakistan Policy
Working Group report.
Indian officials also blame Pakistan's military intelligence agency,
the ISI, and its support of the Taliban, for attacks on Indian
personnel and assets in Afghanistan. There have been several attacks
on Indian personnel working for reconstruction projects inside
Pakistan, particularly those working on road-building projects. The
deadliest attack came in July 2008, when a suicide bombing of the
Indian embassy in Kabul killed more than forty, including the Indian
defense attaché. Both the Afghan and Indian officials implied ISI's
involvement in the attack. India's National Security Adviser M K
Narayanan, in an interview with New Delhi Television, said: "We have
no doubt that the ISI is behind this." Pakistan has denied these
allegations. However, the country's army chief replaced the head of
the ISI in September, which some experts say was aimed at easing
accusations against the agency.
"A transformation of Pakistan-Afghanistan ties can only take place in
an overall context of improved Pakistani-Indian relations … that
enhances Pakistani confidence in its regional position." - Pakistan
Policy Working Group report
Toward Regional Cooperation
Most policy experts support India's engagement in Afghanistan but
recommend a three-way relationship between India, Pakistan, and
Afghanistan. USIP's Thier says Afghanistan must reassert a neutral
policy of pursuing strong relations with both India and Pakistan. In a
2006 Council Special Report on Afghanistan, Rubin writes: "The United
States should strengthen its presence on the Afghan side of the
border, and encourage India and Afghanistan not to engage in any
provocative activity there." Rubin says Afghanistan should encourage
confidence-building measures with Pakistan in the border area.
Some experts emphasize better regional cooperation on trade. A January
2008 report (PDF) by the Afghanistan Study Group, working under the
U.S.-based independent nonprofit Center for the Study of the
Presidency, recommended that Pakistan remove restrictions that inhibit
the transportation of goods through Pakistan to and from Afghanistan,
including from India. "With regard to trade, there should be a more
concerted and energetic international effort to enable Afghanistan to
take fuller advantage of its geographic position as a crossroads
between central, southern and western Asia," the report says.
The Pakistan Policy Working Group report, penned by several former
U.S. State department officials, says Washington will need to step up
diplomacy in South Asia, and it needs to consider how to decrease
Pakistan's fear of India and "how to improve U.S. ties with New Delhi
without alarming Islamabad." It is in India's interest to ensure that
its involvement in Afghanistan is transparent to Pakistan, argue these
experts.
bademiyansubhanallah
Kashmir Peace Setback
Interviewee: Dennis Kux, Senior Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars
Interviewer: Jayshree Bajoria
August 19, 2008
Streaming Audio
Download Audio
MP3
Recent clashes between pro-independence demonstrators in Indian-
administered Kashmir and Indian security forces have raised concerns
about a new chill in India-Pakistan relations. Protests started in
July over an Indian government proposal to transfer land to a Hindu
shrine in the Muslim-majority state. The situation soon snowballed
into anti-India demonstrations reviving sectarian tensions and calls
for independence. Dennis Kux, a former U.S. Foreign Service South Asia
specialist and currently a senior policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars says: "It just opened up a sore that
was there and that had been simmering underneath the surface."
Kashmir has been the flash point for two out of three wars the
neighbors have fought so far. But a peace process that began in 2004
led by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf had resulted in a thaw in
relations until now. Kux says Musharraf's resignation may have an
effect on the peace talks. According to him, the new government in
Pakistan is weaker and "could well be less favorable to improved India-
Pakistan relations or to continuing the dialogue."
Taking stock of the recent upsurge in violence, Kux says:
■The Indian government's decision of land transfer was a major
blunder.
■The only option for the government now is to try and work out a
compromise with the various parties.
■Elections scheduled for October in the Kashmir valley may be less
than satisfactory now.
■The sectarian conflict in the state of Jammu and Kashmir has become
more pronounced.
■In both India and Pakistan, the current political situation is not
conducive to the peace process.
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bademiyansubhanallah
The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations
Authors: Jayshree Bajoria, Staff Writer
Eben Kaplan
Updated: May 28, 2009
Introduction
Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), has long faced accusations of meddling in the
affairs of its neighbors. A range of officials inside and outside
Pakistan have stepped up suggestions of links between the ISI and
terrorist groups in recent years. In autumn 2006, a leaked report by a
British Defense Ministry think tank charged, "Indirectly Pakistan
(through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism-whether
in London on 7/7 [the July 2005 attacks on London's transit system],
or in Afghanistan, or Iraq." In June 2008, Afghan officials accused
Pakistan's intelligence service of plotting a failed assassination
attempt on President Hamid Karzai; shortly thereafter, they implied
the ISI's involvement in a July 2008 attack on the Indian embassy.
Indian officials also blamed the ISI for the bombing of the Indian
embassy. Pakistani officials have denied such a connection. Numerous
U.S. officials have also accused the ISI of supporting terrorist
groups, even as the Pakistani government seeks increased aid from
Washington with assurances of fighting militants. In a May 2009
interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
said "to a certain extent, they play both sides." Gates and others
suggest the ISI maintains links with groups like the Afghan Taliban as
a "strategic hedge" to help Islamabad gain influence in Kabul once
U.S. troops exit the region. Pakistan's government has repeatedly
denied allegations of supporting terrorism, citing as evidence its
cooperation in the U.S.-led battle against extremists in which it has
taken significant losses both politically and on the battlefield.
Supporting Terrorism?
"The ISI probably would not define what they've done in the past as
'terrorism,'" says William Milam, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.
Nevertheless, experts say the ISI has supported a number of militant
groups in the disputed Kashmir region between Pakistan and India, some
of which are on the U.S. State Department's Foreign Terrorist
Organizations list. While Pakistan has a formidable military presence
near the Indian border, some experts believe the relationship between
the military and some Kashmiri groups has greatly changed with the
rise of militancy within Pakistan. Shuja Nawaz, author of Crossed
Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within, says the ISI "has
certainly lost control" of Kashmiri militant groups. According to
Nawaz, some of the groups trained by the ISI to fuel insurgency in
Kashmir have been implicated in bombings and attacks within Pakistan,
therefore making them army targets.
"I do not accept the thesis that the ISI is a rogue organization."-
William Milam, former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.
On Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, the ISI supported the
Taliban up to September 11, 2001, though Pakistani officials deny any
current support for the group. [Pakistan's government was also one of
three countries, along with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia,
that recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan]. The ISI's
first major involvement in Afghanistan came after the Soviet invasion
in 1979, when it partnered with the CIA to provide weapons, money,
intelligence, and training to the mujahadeen fighting the Red Army. At
the time, some voices within the United States questioned the degree
to which Pakistani intelligence favored extremist and anti-American
fighters. Following the Soviet withdrawal, the ISI continued its
involvement in Afghanistan, first supporting resistance fighters
opposed to Moscow's puppet government, and later the Taliban.
Pakistan stands accused of allowing that support to continue. Afghan
President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly said Pakistan trains militants
and sends them across the border. In May 2006, the British chief of
staff for southern Afghanistan told the Guardian, "The thinking piece
of the Taliban is out of Quetta in Pakistan. It's the major
headquarters." Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in
September 2006, then President Pervez Musharraf responded to such
accusations, saying, "It is the most ridiculous thought that the
Taliban headquarters can be in Quetta." Nevertheless, experts
generally suspect Pakistan still provides some support to the Taliban,
though probably not to the extent it did in the past. "If they're
giving them support, it's access back and forth [to Afghanistan] and
the ability to find safe haven," says Kathy Gannon who covered the
region for decades for the Associated Press. Gannon adds that the
Afghan Taliban need Pakistan even less as a safe haven now "because
they have gained control of more territory inside Afghanistan."
Many in the Pakistani government, including slain former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto, have called the intelligence agency "a state
within a state," working beyond the government's control and pursuing
its own foreign policy. But Nawaz says the intelligence agency does
not function independently. "It aligns itself to the power center,"
and does what the government or the army asks it to do, says Nawaz.
Control over the ISI
Constitutionally, the agency is accountable to the prime minister,
says Hassan Abbas, research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of
Government. But most officers in the ISI are from the army, so that is
where their loyalties and interests lie, he says. Experts say until
the end of 2007, as army chief and president, Musharraf exercised firm
control over the intelligence agency. But experts say it is not clear
how much control Pakistan's civilian government--led by Bhutto's
widower, President Asif Ali Zardari--has over the agency. In July
2008, the Pakistani government announced the ISI will be brought under
the control of the interior ministry, but revoked its decision (BBC)
within hours. Bruce Riedel, an expert on South Asia at the Brookings
Institution, says the civilian leadership has "virtually no
control" (PDF) over the army and the ISI. In September 2008, army
chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani replaced the ISI chief picked by former
President Musharraf with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Some experts say
the move signals that Kiyani is consolidating his control over the
intelligence agency by appointing his man at the top. In November
2008, the government disbanded ISI's political wing, which politicians
say was responsible for interfering in domestic politics. Some experts
saw it as a move by the army, which faced much criticism when
Musharraf was at the helm, to distance itself from politics.
"I do not accept the thesis that the ISI is a rogue organization,"
Milam says. "It's a disciplined army unit that does what it's told,
though it may push the envelope sometimes." With a reported staff of
ten thousand, ISI is hardly monolithic: "Like in any secret service,
there are rogue elements," says Frederic Grare, a South Asia expert
and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace. He points out that many of the ISI's agents have ethnic and
cultural ties to Afghan insurgents, and naturally sympathize with
them. Marvin G. Weinbaum, an expert on Afghanistan and Pakistan at the
Middle East Institute, says Pakistan has sent "retired" ISI agents on
missions the government could not officially endorse.
Resistance in FATA
Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border have emerged as safe
havens for terrorists. Experts say because of their links to the
Taliban and other militant groups, the ISI has some influence in the
region. But with the mushrooming of armed groups in the tribal
agencies, it is hard to say which ones the agency controls. Also,
there appears to be divisions within the ISI. While some within the
intelligence agency continue to sympathize with the militant groups,
Harvard's Abbas says others realize they cannot follow a policy
contradictory to that of the army, which is directly involved in
counterterrorism operations in the area.
Bruce Riedel, an expert on South Asia at the Brookings Institution,
says the civilian leadership has "virtually no control" over the army
and the ISI.
Pasha, former head of military operations in charge of offensives
against militants in the tribal areas, was appointed as the ISI chief
in September 2008 amid growing U.S. and international pressure on
Pakistan to combat terrorism. It was not immediately clear whether his
appointment would lead to policy changes in the spy agency.
Mixed Record on Counterterrorism
Pakistan has arrested scores of al-Qaeda affiliates, including Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The ISI
and the Pakistani military have worked effectively with the United
States to pursue the remnants of al-Qaeda. Following 9/11, Pakistan
also stationed eighty thousand troops in the troubled province of
Waziristan near the Afghan border. Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers died
there in resulting clashes with militants, which, as Musharraf told a
CFR meeting in September 2006, "broke the al-Qaeda network's back in
Pakistan."
But Musharraf did crack down on terrorist groups selectively, as this
Backgrounder points out. Weinbaum in 2006 said the Pakistani military
has largely ignored Taliban fighters on its soil. "There are extremist
groups that are beyond the pale with which the ISI has no influence at
all," he says. "Those are the ones they go after." In 2008, Ashley J.
Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, wrote (PDF) in The Washington Quarterly that Musharraf
tightened pressure on groups whose objectives were out of sync with
the military's perception of Pakistan's national interest.
The Taliban as a Strategic Asset
Pakistan does not enjoy good relations with the current leadership of
Afghanistan, partly because of rhetorical clashes with Afghan
President Hamid Karzai, and partly because Karzai has forged strong
ties with India. But there have been increased efforts by the United
States to close this gap. The Obama administration's regional strategy
unveiled in March 2009 focused on creating new diplomatic mechanisms;
a trilateral summit of the leaders of the United States, Pakistan, and
Afghanistan has been one such step toward helping reduce the level of
distrust that runs among all three countries. But lingering suspicions
about ISI's support for the Taliban continue to pose problems. In an
October 2006 interview, Musharraf said some retired ISI operatives
could be abetting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, but he denied
any active links. Zardari too, denies any ISI links with the Taliban
or al-Qaeda. In a May 2009 interview with CNN, he remarked all
intelligence agencies have their sources in militant organizations but
that does not translate to support. "Does that mean CIA has direct
links with al-Qaeda? No, they have their sources. We have our sources.
Everybody has sources."
Some experts say Pakistan wants to see a stable, friendlier government
emerge in Afghanistan. Though the insurgency certainly doesn't serve
this goal, increased Taliban influence, especially in the government,
might. Supporting the Taliban also allows Pakistan to hedge its bets
should the NATO coalition pull out of Afghanistan. In a February 2008
interview with CFR.org, Tellis said the Pakistani intelligence
services continue to support the Taliban because they see the Taliban
leadership "as a strategic asset," a reliable back-up force in case
things go sour in Afghanistan.
Not everyone agrees with this analysis. According to Weinbaum,
Pakistan has two policies. One is an official policy of promoting
stability in Afghanistan; the other is an unofficial policy of
supporting jihadis in order to appease political forces within
Pakistan. "The second [policy] undermines the first one," he says.
Nawaz says there is ambivalence within the army regarding support for
the Taliban. "They'd rather not deal with the Afghan Taliban as an
adversary," he says.
Allegations of Terrorist Attacks
Indian officials implicated the ISI for the November 2008 terrorist
attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly two hundred people. India's
foreign ministry said the ISI had links (Reuters) to the planners of
the attacks, the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which New
Delhi blames for the assault. Islamabad denies allegations of any
official involvement, but acknowledged in February 2009 that the
attack was launched and partly planned (AP) from Pakistan. The
Pakistani government has also detained several Islamist leaders, some
of them named by India as planners of the Mumbai assault. Gannon says
this is an unusual step by Pakistan which never got enough credit in
India because the country was in the middle of a national election. "I
don't see any evidence" to believe that the ISI was behind the Mumbai
attack, she says. However, she doubts the agency has severed all its
ties with groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba which it supported to fight in
Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian officials also claim to have
evidence that the ISI planned the July 2006 bombing of the Mumbai
commuter trains, but these charges seem unlikely to some observers of
the long, difficult India-Pakistan relationship. The two nations have
a history of finger-pointing, and while some of the allegations hold
water, there is a tendency to exaggerate.
Following the release of the British report regarding its July 7, 2005
bombings of London's mass transit system--which London insists is not
a statement of policy--Weinbaum said it makes "too broad a statement."
Though Pakistan does offer safe haven to Kashmiri groups, and perhaps
some Taliban fighters, the suggestion that the ISI is responsible for
the 7/7 bombings is "a real stretch," Gannon says.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
...and I am Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
Stabilizing Pakistan: Boosting its Private Sector
Author: Jayshree Bajoria, Staff Writer
April 30, 2009
Introduction
As it struggles to contain a growing insurgency, Pakistan has aroused
concern that it is a failing or fracturing state. One aspect of the
international community's response has been to place new focus on
Pakistan's economic weaknesses. On completing his first hundred days
in office, U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged that the Pakistani
government was "fragile" and lacked capacity to deliver basic services
to its people, making it difficult for them to gain support of the
population. "So we need to help Pakistan help Pakistanis," he said.
The Obama administration is seeking a strong economic aid package, and
joined an international donor conference in April that pledged more
than $5 billion in aid and loans to Pakistan. In November 2008, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) saved the country from defaulting on
international debt with a $7.6 billion loan. Yet the private sector is
seen as essential to any effort to shore up the Pakistani state.
Experts say special emphasis should be placed on boosting trade with
Pakistan; investing in developing its energy, water, and transport
infrastructure; and making economic aid programs more transparent. But
an uncertain political climate and unwillingness to risk long-term
investments have so far limited engagement with the private sector.
Challenges of Doing Business
Pakistan's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 6 percent in 2008
and GDP per capita was estimated at about $2,600. But the IMF outlook
for 2009's GDP growth is just 2.5 percent. The World Bank ranks
Pakistan second in the South Asian region after Maldives on its Ease
of Doing Business Index for the private sector. But infrastructural
constraints, corruption, weak intellectual property rights, and a
feudal system of land distribution are some of the major bottlenecks
preventing a more effective and vibrant private sector in the country.
Increased violence in recent years has made the private sector more
reluctant to invest.
"Pakistan suffers from a dearth of infrastructure in the water,
irrigation, power, and transport sectors; infrastructure which is
essential for sustained growth and competitiveness both in the local
and international markets." – World Bank
Growing militant violence and resulting instability have been major
concerns for both domestic and international investors. However, some
experts believe that creation of greater economic opportunities could
help curb militant violence. While there is a lack of consensus among
analysts on the link between poverty and extremism, many agree that
militant groups are able to exploit local grievances to recruit new
members. In March, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden said that almost
70 percent of the Taliban joined the terrorist group in Afghanistan
simply because of the money offered to them. This trend must be
reversed through enhancing economic opportunities for the poor, argue
some experts, and in this the private sector could play an important
role.
But to do that, it will have to become more competitive. The World
Economic Forum's 2008-2009 Global Competitiveness Report (PDF) ranks
Pakistan's economy 101 out of 134 countries. It ranks particularly low
in indicators related to health, education, labor market efficiency,
and technological readiness. The report lists government instability,
corruption, and inefficient bureaucracy as the most problematic
factors of doing business in the country.
Developing the Private Sector
According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Pakistan's private
sector is by far the biggest contributor to GDP and is the biggest
employer in the country. A December 2008 ADB assessment (PDF) of the
private sector credits Islamabad with starting, in the early 1990s, a
strategy of privatization, deregulation, and good governance to
promote private-sector development. Under former President Pervez
Musharraf, the report says, major structural, governance, and economic
reforms were undertaken to create an environment that would "encourage
the private sector to become the growth engine in the economy." As a
result of this process, ADB reports, currently 77 percent of the
commercial banking sector, all of the textile and telecommunications
sectors, and significant parts of the cement, sugar, automobile, and
fertilizer sectors are privately owned. The private sector also
contributes to power generation and electricity distribution.
The government has also attracted foreign direct investment through
policies enacted in the last two decades that allow 100 percent
ownership to foreign investors in a large number of sectors. Total
foreign investment rose from $559 million in 2003 to over $8 billion
in 2007, decreasing to just over $5 billion in 2008 following
political turmoil in the country.
Still, while foreign investment has been on the rise, investment in
the country's infrastructure remains low. A November 2007 World Bank
assessment (PDF) of the country's infrastructure found: "Pakistan
suffers from a dearth of infrastructure in the water, irrigation,
power, and transport sectors; infrastructure which is essential for
sustained growth and competitiveness both in the local and
international markets." In April 2009, Ghulam Murtaza Satti, adviser
to Pakistan's ministry of finance on public-private partnership, said
the country required $110 billion (The Nation) over the next five
years in private-sector investment to meet the infrastructure needs of
its growing population, estimated at around 170 million.
Reduction in tariffs for imports of Pakistani textiles and garments is
one way the United States could most help Pakistan's economy – CFR
Senior Fellow Daniel Markey
Poor infrastructure in key sectors also undermines efforts to reduce
poverty, say experts. The World Bank report says without adequate
irrigation resources, power, and transport infrastructure, "the very
sustainability of Pakistan as an independent nation may be at stake as
shortages could lead to increased social discontent and disharmony
amongst the federation and the provinces." Water shortages have
already sparked disputes among provinces. Infrastructure challenges,
power shortages in particular, discourage businesses, says Aun Rahman,
Pakistan director of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital fund
that uses entrepreneurial approaches to try to end global poverty. The
current political and security climate also make businesses
uncomfortable with making any long-term investments, he says.
There have been efforts by the government to bring foreign investment
into infrastructure development. One of the biggest achievements has
been the new deepwater port at Gwadar in the southwest province of
Balochistan, which was funded and built by the Chinese. In 2007 PSA
International of Singapore won a forty-year contract to run the port.
But this, too, is threatened by domestic insurgency, separatist
rebellion, and local grievances. Robert Kaplan, national correspondent
for the Atlantic magazine, writes that if Gwadar languishes "it will
be yet more evidence of Pakistan's failure as a nation."
Boost in Trade
Several experts call for enhancing economic opportunities inside
Pakistan through trade. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S.-
Pakistan Business Council, in a March 2009 report (PDF), call for a
review of U.S. trade policy with Pakistan, a reduction in import
tariffs for Pakistani textiles, and approval of pending legislation in
U.S. Congress to create "reconstruction opportunity zones." These
zones would aim to spur growth and create market-access opportunities
for local populations in the country's turbulent border region with
Afghanistan.
Reducing tariffs for imports of Pakistani textiles and garments is one
way the United States could most help Pakistan's economy, says CFR
Senior Fellow Daniel Markey. But "politically this is a dead letter in
Washington," he adds, saying a tariff reduction would face significant
opposition in Congress primarily because of concerns voiced by
legislators representing textile-heavy districts. A 2001 bill to ease
textile trade with Pakistan never passed. Reducing tariffs might be
even more difficult in the current global economic crisis. CFR Senior
Fellow Isobel Coleman says that by being closed on the trade front,
the United States is punishing the same poor, rural populations in
Pakistan that it is trying to help through development aid.
Haris Gazdar, a senior researcher at the Collective for Social Science
Research, a Karachi-based research organization, says a boost in
regional trade is essential to help fix Pakistan's economy. He says
the Pakistani government should offer the private sector better trade
opportunities with India, Afghanistan, and Iran. Other analysts,
including Frederick Barton, co-director of the post-conflict
reconstruction program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic
and International Studies, also stress an enhanced trade relationship
with India. If the ties between India and Pakistan grow stronger,
Barton says, they would help ease Islamabad's fear of India. Pakistan
currently spends over 3 percent of its GDP on its military, which
includes the maintenance of a 550,000 strong army, the majority of
which is focused on India.
Alternative Development Models
Pakistan, with meager government spending on social services like
education and health care, ranks 139 out of 179 countries on the
United Nations Development Program's 2008 Human Development Index.
Experts say the private sector can help where the state has been
unable to deliver, either because of inefficiency or lack of political
will. CFR's Markey points to another country in South Asia,
Bangladesh, where the private sector plays a huge role in providing
social services. In Pakistan, too, the private sector provides some
basic services such as education and health care. However, this is a
small-scale initiative by some individuals, rather than a concerted
effort by the country's businesses, says Markey.
To fill gaps in its delivery of social services, in 2001, the
government set up the National Commission for Human Development, an
autonomous agency that encourages public-private partnerships (PPP).
It is also working with international organizations such as the Asian
Development Bank to promote PPPs for infrastructure development. But
the ADB's December 2008 report says the government still lacks an
explicit public-private partnership policy; the public sector lacks
the institutional capacity to prepare viable partnerships with the
private sector; and financing is a major concern for such projects.
The Acumen Fund's Rahman says there is also a market opportunity for
the private sector in delivery of essential services. Currently, he
says, the informal sector provides a significant portion of basic
services like water, housing, and education facilities. The formal
private sector can provide these services with better quality and at
affordable prices, he says. The private sector has played a major role
in the communications and information sector. Both telecommunications
and private media have boomed in Pakistan in recent years, in
particular independent news organizations.
Pakistan's private sector, in partnership with domestic
nongovernmental organizations, could also prove an effective partner
for the international donor community to help stabilize Pakistan, say
experts. CFR's Coleman says U.S. aid delivery should be revised to
form greater partnerships with local communities and organizations.
Such affiliations could also provide more transparency and
accountability with respect to how money is allocated.
It ranks particularly low in indicators related to health, education,
labor market efficiency, and technological readiness.
The United States is considering $7.5 billion in nonmilitary aid for
the next five years. To make this aid more effective, Markey writes in
a CFR Policy Options Paper that the United States should "begin
discussions with Pakistan's government, business leaders, and civil
society to identify creative new mechanisms to oversee and manage a
significant portion of these funds through demand-driven block grants,
a trust fund, or other widely accepted means." Here, too, public-
private partnerships that can identify the projects where money should
be spent and monitor how it is used could be very helpful, he says.
A clear accounting for aid to the Pakistani state is a growing
concern. A bill introduced by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-CA) in April
2009 lays down conditions for U.S. nonmilitary assistance to Pakistan,
including better transparency and enhanced accountability for all
assistance and reimbursements. According to Transparency
International, Pakistan is one of the countries most affected by petty
bribery. Its last national survey on corruption perceptions in 2006
revealed that Pakistan's government and political parties rank as the
most corrupt institutions in the country.
How to Fix It
The Asian Development Bank says the country's private sector must help
the public sector to develop the necessary institutional frameworks;
improved infrastructure, especially in the energy sector; and high-
quality education and health care delivery mechanisms. According to
its recommendations, the private sector must also lead in improving
technological readiness in the manufacturing and services sectors;
investing more resources in research and development; and adopting
international standards of corporate management and sophisticated
business practices for greater efficiency and higher competitiveness.
The bigger challenge, though, will be the economic transformation of
the country's restive areas along the Afghan border; the tribal
region, rife with militancy, and Balochistan, which struggles with
ethnic insurgency. In energy-rich Balochistan, a more equitable share
of its natural resources and greater job opportunities for local
populations at Gwadar, along with political reconciliation with
separatist leaders, could offer opportunities for economic
development.
Long-term economic prospects for the tribal areas, which are
relatively isolated and have few natural resources, hinge on regional
land trade links that connect markets and resources from Central to
East Asia, writes Markey in an August 2008 Council Special Report.
Pashtun tribesmen from the region have profited from local trucking
concessions and greater trade could benefit them further. The
standardization of national tariff regimes throughout the Central
Asian region, as well as from Afghanistan to India, could further
boost the flow of trade. Markey concedes that prospects for industrial
development in the tribal areas are dim in the short- to medium-term;
however, he recommends supporting new industries on the fringes of the
tribal areas as the best approach to sustainable growth.
bademiyansubhanallah
What You should know about RAW by Satish Chandra
I have written (for example in my article titled `India’s
Technological and Economic Emancipation’ on sulekha.com) about the
continued control of Indian intelligence agencies by British and later
American intelligence agencies after 1947. India’s Research and
Analysis Wing (RAW) was split off from the Intelligence Bureau which
had continued after 1947 to be loyal to the British. Later the
Americans supplanted the British and RAW functions as a branch of the
CIA against India. As part of this relationship, CIA-RAW exercises
extensive control over the Indian media and, among its various
activities, engages in sabotage of indigenous research and development
to keep India dependent on other countries for defence and other
equipment (the nuclear deal is just another CIA-RAW operation of that
kind, though of a scope and with consequences far graver than any such
operation till now).
An example of this is a Bharat-Rakshak discussion thread about a black
box installed by the Defence Research and Development Organization
(DRDO) in the indigenously developed Arjun tank that documented the
sabotage of its engines during trials by the Army; such sabotage has
been the basis of the Army’s rejection, on RAW’s prompting, of the
Arjun tank in favour of imports (as I said in the above article,
India`s Army is the collaborator Army that helped the British rule
India and, even after Independence, all its regiments and units have
retained their former identities and regularly celebrate the
anniversaries of their founding by the British).
A CIA-RAW operative, who serves as a moderator on Bharat-Rakshak and
controls the forum, recently locked away this discussion thread so
that numerous posts that had appeared documenting the sabotage of the
Arjun tank were covered up. The major metropolitan newspapers, on most
of which CIA-RAW exercises extensive control, have made no mention of
the black box — which was like the flight data recorder in aircraft —
installed by DRDO in Arjun tanks and the shocking findings about the
sabotage even though a report on this was provided to them by the Indo-
Asian News Service (IANS). There is across the board sabotage by
various means by CIA-RAW to keep India down technologically,
economically and militarily. RAW’s grip over India is comparable to
the old KGB’s grip over the Soviet Union, with the difference that
whereas the KGB worked for the good of the Soviet Union, except toward
the end, RAW has always worked for its imperialist paymasters. The
role of politicians in governing India is insignificant compared to
that of CIA-RAW but RAW has no place in the public’s consciousness or
in discussions of public affairs in India.
An important point about the sabotage of Arjun is that people on the
Arjun discussion thread on Bharat-Rakshak were aghast at the Army’s
behavior and calling for Army brass being tried for treason, etc. but
it will be a mistake to stop with the Army; it is RAW which is behind
such sabotage not just of Arjun but of India’s interests,
technological, economic and other, in a lot of areas. RAW has
operatives in the Army at various levels but it is necessary to go to
the root of the problem. RAW has to be destroyed and I have said that
a brand new external intelligence agency should be formed with the
help of military intelligence (RAW is supposed to be India’s external
intelligence agency but at least 90% of its activities are within
India, against India).
The destruction of RAW does not mean simply disbanding the agency and
letting its employees continue their service to the CIA through other
organisations, old or new, or in other roles. It is a mammoth agency
with just the number of joint secretaries in the hundreds. It is
India’s real `government’ and the politicians and civil servants
largely obey its dictates. It puts the words in the mouths of cabinet
ministers, etc., and determines most policies that are, erroneously,
attributed to them. Any one, even a prime minister, whom CIA-RAW
considers inconvenient is eliminated, if necessary by death, as I have
said regarding the deaths of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and, later,
Rajiv Gandhi in my article titled `How India`s economy can grow 30%
per year`.
Over the past many years, I have shown how almost all terrorist
incidents in India since 1983 have been carried out by outfits
controlled by the CIA either directly or through intelligence agencies
in the region, including India’s RAW. The Jain Commision of Inquiry,
which went into Rajiv Gandhi’s death, acknowledged that the LTTE,
which carried out his assassination, was created and controlled by
RAW. It was an open secret that MQM, in Pakistan’s Sindh province,
when it was known as a terrorist organization, was a creation of RAW.
But the same is true of many terrorist outfits that operate in India.
Another example of RAW’s multifarious activities, that I have
described in press releases, articles and letters to the press since
1987, is its spreading heroin addiction and AIDS first in India’s
Northeast then elsewhere to provide the United States with a
population to use as guinea pigs for AIDS vaccine development, after
the CIA was assigned the task of roping in a population for this
purpose.
I have described how both Rajiv Gandhi (after being blackmailed with
threats of exposure of the Bofors and HDW kickbacks by Swedish and
German media at the CIA`s instigation) and Vajpayee cooperated in
this. But terrorism, etc., are the least of its activities; I
mentioned those only because the existence of terrorism is publicly
known. Its sabotage of India’s research and development activities, of
which the sabotage of the Arjun tank is just one example, is among the
deadliest of its activities. The nuclear deal and its various aspects
— replacing indigenous production of uranium and reactors with
imports, the capping, rollback and elimination of India’s nuclear
weapons program, media control and buying up politicians, scientists,
etc. for this purpose — is just the largest and deadliest of such
activities, leaving out the 24-hour satellite surveillance and all the
crimes, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars per year for
the past 31 years, against India’s greatest scientist, described in my
article titled `How India`s economy can grow 30% per year` on
sulekha.com. The point is that all the tens of thousands of RAW
employees are guilty of the gravest treason and deserve the death
penalty. So do all those — politicians, civil servants and others —
who are willing collaborators of CIA-RAW.
It is not just the Intelligence Bureau that continued to be loyal to
the British after 1947. So did Nehru:”Starting about 10 hours before
he tendered his resignation, Vajpayee, through the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency, tried hard to induce the undersigned to issue a
statement urging him to not resign (as I have said over the years, he,
like Indira and Rajiv, has been a life-long paid agent of British and
American intelligence agencies, with the Soviets providing some
antidote which gave India a semblance of independence; Indira was made
prime minister by the KGB’s assassination of Shastri; and as Nehru
admitted to U.S. ambassador Galbraith, he was a life-long agent of the
British). No more than about 80,000 British, women and children
included, ruled India for centuries. Nothing that can be said about
the stupidity and slavishness of Indians will be an
exaggeration.” ( see my article `What can save India?’ on
sulekha.com). In India traitors have been the rule rather than the
exception. Anyone concerned with India’s defence has to take account
of that.
Nuclear Supremacy for India over U.S.
bademiyansubhanallah
Afghan Intel: India RAW in Afghanistan
Written by moinansari on Apr-3-09 7:26pm
From: rupeenews.com
Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | новости
рупии | 卢比新闻 | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ルピーニュース | Notizie di
Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا | Moin Ansari | معین
آنصآرّی | April 3rd, 2009 |
Indian Strategic plans about Pakistan
Secretary of State Clinton during the campaign called Pakistanis
paranoid about Indian intentions. Ms. Clinton please explain this
article (not the only one) published in India’s most presitgious
Defense journal.
India’s real intentions about Pakistan. See Indian Defense Review
article
The India Doctrine by Munshi
Indian intelligence: “‘the aim of RAW is to keep internal
disturbances flaring up and the ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can
lend no worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region.”
Listing of Indian RAWs bomb blasts in Pakistan
India has long been looking for an opportunity to flex its muscles in
the Afghanistan imbroglio. It has been traditionally using the Afghan
card to spell gloom and doom in Pakistan. As early as the 1962 Sino-
Indian conflict, India urged the then Afghan government to deploy its
armed forces along the Durand Line to dissuade Pakistan from any
adventurism against India and exploit its weakness when it was being
routed by the Chinese along Ladakh. During the 1965 and 1971 Pakistan-
Indian wars too, Afghanistan sided with India. During the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan in the decade of seventies, Pakistan became
a front-line state and with the help of USA and its allies, helped
thwart the Soviet invasion and limited to the Durand Line and
ultimately force the Soviets into retreat. India aided the Soviet
secret service KGB and Afghan spy agency Khad to attempt to
destabilize Pakistan through sabotage, sedition, subversion and acts
of terrorism. The seeds of rebellion were sown in Balochistan, the
fires of which are now again being stoked by Indian spy agency RAW.
The advent of Taliban Rule in Afghanistan threw a damper on Indian
machinations to use Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan; however, 9/11
provided a fresh impetus to Indian nefarious aims towards Pakistan.
Since its erstwhile allies the Northern Alliance rose to power in
Afghanistan, following the US-led invasion, India made the most of it
by deploying Indian personnel working on various projects with the
Afghan people and government for the rehabilitation and reconstruction
of the country. There are approximately 3,000-4,000 Indian nationals
working on several such projects across Afghanistan. India has
committed aid to Afghanistan in the 2002-09 period amounting to $750
million, making it the fifth largest bilateral donor after the United
States, Britain, Japan and Germany. India has used these trade centers
and its four Consulates to man with RAW and its four Consulates to man
with RAW personnel to hatch plots against Pakistan. Indian forces will
give respite to the ISAF and NATO forces but sink the Indians deep
into the Afghan quagmire. The choice is theirs if they want to face
the humiliation and ignominy of another disaster.
..the ones Biden won’t talk about
US attacks on Pakistan fuel Afghan insurgency
The CIA connection…Benazir death, Musharraf elimination, Zardari
coronation. Installing an Anti-Pakistan government in Kabul
Who bombed the Marriott? Marriott Marines mystery How long can the
“wink-wink- nod-nod” farce of drone terror go on Marriot: What was
the US Marine role?
by Sultan M Hali
Recent media reports that India has signed an understanding with
Afghanistan to deploy 150,000 of its armed forces personnel in
Afghanistan to support the ISAF and NATO forces fighting insurgency in
the war-ravaged country is not only disturbing but also bodes ill for
the region. Indian defense planners are convinced that a significant
Indian military presence in Afghanistan will alter the geo-strategic
landscape in the extended neighborhood by expanding India’s power
projection in Central Asia. India has historically had a friendly
relationship with both Iran and Russia. With Iran, India can also ride
on the goodwill created by Zaranj-Delaram highway, which has provided
a road link between Afghanistan and Iran. These nations could well be
more amenable to an Indian military presence than they have been to
the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan.
Sushant K Singh, in his article titled, ‘Security Watch - Indian
presence essential in Afghanistan’ comments: “The Pakistani state will
be denied the strategic depth it seeks by installing a favorable
dispensation in Afghanistan. The Pakistani establishment will be
compelled to divert its energies from their eastern to their northern
borders. Loud protests can be anticipated from Pakistan against
India’s active military involvement in the region, but the involvement
of the United States will restrict Pakistani antipathy to voluble
complaints. US officials have, moreover, long been frustrated at what
they view as Pakistan’s failure to do enough to combat militants along
its border with Afghanistan. An Indian military involvement in
Afghanistan will shift the battleground away from Kashmir and the
Indian mainland. Targeting the jihadi base will be a huge boost for
India’s anti-terrorist operations, especially in Kashmir, both
militarily and psychologically. Until the time Islamic fundamentalist
forces are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, India’s battle to
contain terrorism in Kashmir will always be a defensive one. This is
because ISI and other jihadist forces across the border have the
ability to calibrate the level of terrorism in India. India can
counter this effectively only if it has the capacity to strategically
ratchet up pressure either of Pakistan’s fronts.”
BLA is a threat to International Peace. The BLA a creation of Indian
Intelligence agency RAW trying to destabilize Pakistan & Iran Smoking
Gun: India provided Rs 650 for terrorism in Swat
RAW: India intelligence: “‘the aim of RAW is to keep internal
disturbances flaring up and the ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can
lend no worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region.”
He further surmises that “The presence of Indian military in
Afghanistan and provision of aid for infrastructure development and
human resource training in the war-ravaged country are not mutually
exclusive options. In any case, the ferocity of the enmity of jihadist
elements against the Indian state will not be subdued, if India shuns
military deployment in favor of solely executing developmental
projects. Moreover India will find it much easier to successfully
execute civil projects once it has stabilized the security climate by
taking military control of a region. Soft power has to be an important
component of any successful counterinsurgency operation; but it has to
be augmented by hard power - of having military boots on ground. It
will also send a strong message to the local Afghan nationals that
India is in there for a long haul, putting lives of its soldiers to
risk, and not restricting itself to merely throwing some alms at them,
through developmental aid or projects.”
India has long been looking for an opportunity to flex its muscles in
the Afghanistan imbroglio. It has been traditionally using the Afghan
card to spell gloom and doom in Pakistan. As early as the 1962 Sino-
Indian conflict, India urged the then Afghan government to deploy its
armed forces along the Durand Line to dissuade Pakistan from any
adventurism against India and exploit its weakness when it was being
routed by the Chinese along Ladakh. During the 1965 and 1971 Pakistan-
Indian wars too, Afghanistan sided with India. During the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan in the decade of seventies, Pakistan became
a front-line state and with the help of USA and its allies, helped
thwart the Soviet invasion and limited to the Durand Line and
ultimately force the Soviets into retreat. India aided the Soviet
secret service KGB and Afghan spy agency Khad to attempt to
destabilize Pakistan through sabotage, sedition, subversion and acts
of terrorism. The seeds of rebellion were sown in Balochistan, the
fires of which are now again being stoked by Indian spy agency RAW.
The advent of Taliban Rule in Afghanistan threw a damper on Indian
machinations to use Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan; however, 9/11
provided a fresh impetus to Indian nefarious aims towards Pakistan.
Since its erstwhile allies the Northern Alliance rose to power in
Afghanistan, following the US-led invasion, India made the most of it
by deploying Indian personnel working on various projects with the
Afghan people and government for the rehabilitation and reconstruction
of the country. There are approximately 3,000-4,000 Indian nationals
working on several such projects across Afghanistan. India has
committed aid to Afghanistan in the 2002-09 period amounting to $750
million, making it the fifth largest bilateral donor after the United
States, Britain, Japan and Germany. India has used these trade centers
and its four Consulates to man with RAW and its four Consulates to man
with RAW personnel to hatch plots against Pakistan.
RAWs trail of terror: Indian bomb blasts in Pakistan
Indian intelligence’s (RAW) covert war on on Pakistan
Partial list of RAW bombings of civilians in Pakistan
It has also been aspiring and preparing its troops to be deployed in
Afghanistan. It has been training its armed forces with British Armed
Forces. Three years of intense interaction between the Royal Marines
(RM) mountain leaders and the Indian Army’s Gulmarg-based High
Altitude Warfare School
(HAWS) culminated last year in a 25-day exercise code-named, Himalayan
Warrior comprising specialist high altitude training in the Ladakh
region of the Kashmir Himalayas to enable both forces to operate in
the rugged terrain of Afghanistan.India seems to have forgotten its
sad experience in its intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war in the
late 1980s, which ended in disaster. Its armed forces late entry in
Afghanistan also spells doom and gloom. Since 2002, the Taliban has
demanded the departure of all Indian personnel working in Afghanistan.
It has conducted multiple attacks against Indian targets. Many of
these have been concentrated in the southwest province of Nimroz
(which is at the heart of the strategic Zarang-Delaram highway project
being built under the auspices of the Indian army’s Border Roads
Organization (BRO). They include the abduction and murder of
Ramankutty Maniyappan, an employee of BRO in November 2005; the
killing of two soldiers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police on 3 January
2008 in the first-ever suicide-attack on Indians in Afghanistan; and
the killing of another ITBP trooper on 5 June 2008. The suicide car-
bombing in front of the Indian embassy in Kabul on the morning of 7
July 2008 that killed at least fifty-four persons and wounded more
than 140 should be a stark reminder to Indian forces, what lies ahead.
If they think that they can bask in the glory of a “victory” in
Afghanistan along with other international armies, they are sadly
mistaken. The ISAF and NATO forces in Afghanistan are exhausted and
seeking face-saving truce and power sharing with the Taliban.
Indian forces will give respite to the ISAF and NATO forces but sink
the Indians deep into the Afghan quagmire. The choice is theirs if
they want to face the humiliation and ignominy of another
disaster.BDIntellBlog
Low intensity events– a Modi signal to unleash anti-Muslim pograms?
Indian genocide of Muslim: Sang Parvar’s Gujarat pogroms: Confidence
building in South Asia should depend on apprehension and prosecution
of the culprits of Gujarat tried by the the International Court of
Justice Trail of terror BJP student wing caught red handed in
terrorism and Gujarat blasts Hindu extremist party: Sang Parvar’s
terrorism <img src=”a-policeman-walks-past-a-burned-body-at-naroda-
paldi-in-ahmedabad-on-2-march-2002-over-200-muslim-houses-were-burnt-
down-in-which-over-25-people-were-burnt-alive-in-retalitation-to-the”
width=”150″ height=”150″ Gujarat explodes in Anti-Modi frenzy Dr.
Ambedkar discusses fascist history of the Hinduvata Hindu origins of
the TNT The headlines about Pakistan in the media: Understanding the
Rupert Murdock neocon, Hinduvata doomsayer machine which is running
scared of defeat and retreat
Pakistan: Here we go again: Another prophecy of doom: The first one
came in 1946
The resilience of Pakistan and the nation’s continuing collective
refusal to do what the west would like it to do
THE PAKISTANI RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF THREATS: Mountbatten, Nehru,
Mohandas gandhi, Indira, Kruschev, Johnson, Carter, Kissinger (Nixon),
Gobachev, Clinton, Armitage, Bush, Karzai, Vajpayee, Sing have all
threatened Pakistan: The Pakistanis are used to it…so what else is
new?!! Pakistan’s Nuclear Program should be seen in the backdrop of
these threats. Pakistani Bloggers
Pakistan: Prophecy of doom
The Best Pakistan bloggers: سب سے بھترین پاکستاني خطاط
Contributing Authors
Moin Ansari, Jason Miller, Dr. Isha Khan, Dr. Kancha Iiaiah, Dr. Abdul
Ruff, Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan, and others
bademiyansubhanallah
India’s dreaded RAW infiltrates into Sri Lanka’s London High
Commission and Bars Diplomats from meetings
Sat, 2008-03-22 05:23 — admin
News
By a special Correspondent
Colombo, 22 March, (Asiantribune.com): The Sri Lanka High Commission
in London has been infiltrated by agents working for India’s Research
and Analysis Wing (RAW) and managing powerful person’s working in the
High Commission to run affairs in the mission according to an agenda
of the dreaded intelligence service, it is alleged.
“ The purpose of the infiltration is to impose India’s plan of
devolution of power fully through so called peace agitators and bar
this information from the defense services of Sri Lanka so that
accurate counsel regarding these matters will not be available to the
President of Sri Lanka,” an insider of the High commission told the
Asian Tribune.
The RAW operatives were fully successful in barring the Defense
Counsellor Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe from few meetings they took
part with High Commissioner Mrs. Kshenuka Senewiratne and her
confidants although the normal practice is to invite all diplomats at
the High Commission for such meetings. Few other diplomats were also
barred from the meeting.
Arranged by the hierarchy of the High Commission the RAW operatives
who are sometimes called double agents recently made a study tour of
Sri Lanka at the expense of the Sri Lanka government and obtained five
star hotel accommodations from the government.
In addition to the meeting they did not want to share with the Defense
Counselor of the High Commission intelligence sources in Colombo said
the perpetrators of the RAW operation went to a Chennai based website
which is constantly been used by the two main RAW operators dealing
with Sri Lankan political operations there to freely attack three Sri
Lankans, two diplomats, and a journalist mercilessly whom they think
are obstacles to London’s RAW plan. The RAW related website is Sri
Lanka Guardian that has allowed any libelous piece written by the RAW
operative.
The RAW double agents are furious that they were not able to enter
Eastern Province during their recent trip to Sri Lanka for which they
blame the Ministry of Defense.
Sri Lankan agents of the same group have approached a diplomat and
warned him that if he ever writes anything revealing the affairs of
the Chief RAW agent that he might be deported from Britain as they are
so powerful.
The Lanka Guardian website is set up to promote the Indian Government
official views on Sri Lanka through two well known intelligence
operatives Col R. Hariharan, a retired MI specialist on South Asia,
and Bahukutumbi Raman, former Additional Secretary, Cabinet
Secretariat, and Govt. of India, who was in charge of RAW openly and
also through other RAW operative clandestinely to influence the Sri
Lankans to the thinking of India. This will ultimately bring sovereign
Sri Lanka under the political tutelage of India, the operatives
believe.
For months the Sri Lanka Guardian, has been publishing defamatory
articles against Walter Jayawardhana , long before he arrived in
London and the High Commissioner for reasons only known to herself has
been opposing his appointment as a Minister Counsellor.
It has been reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the first
orders of High Commissioner Mrs. Kshenuka Senewiratne was to order
Jayawardhana that he should immediately stop releasing his items in
the web and the Indian press which were intended to sabotage a mega
Musical Show organized by the LTTE elements in London to earn one
million Pound Sterling. Jayawardhana defied orders and sabotaged the
Mega Musical Show. Now Jayawardhana is barred from all diplomatic
meetings at the London High Commission. Jayawardhana a former reporter
for the Daily News and a science writer for the Lankadeepa and its
news editor before he became a Jefferson Fellow of the East West
Center of the University of Hawaii had been also the Asiaweek’s staff
man in Los Angeles. He is also a Sri Lankan Attorney at law.
The second person they severely attacked in the RAW related website is
the hardworking Dr. Jayan Jayatilleke Sri Lanka’s ambassador in Geneva
whom they consider an extremely dangerous man who could be a great
obstacle to the RAW and LTTE plans.
The man who instigates the writing of this website is the man who went
to Sri Lanka, with the help of High Commissioner Kshenuka Senewiratne,
and enjoyed the hospitality of the government to implement a foreign
intelligence service plan. But yet he calls the editor of the Asian
Tribune a pandankaraya of the government. A commentator in Los Angeles
Harry Hatharasinghe queried, “does it mean that the Sri Lanka High
Commissioner in London hates pandankarayasof the government and
supports its opponents”. If, this man continues to go the Sri Lanka
High Commission with authority, bar diplomats there from his meetings
with the High Commissioner and some other representatives of the
government whose policies prevail at the High Commission?
While the LTTE has been going from strength to strength in London the
High Commissioner has been doing nothing. Nesan Shankar Raji, a senior
member of EROS said he had been liaising with the High Commission
staff regarding the LTTE'S activities for nearly two years and much of
the information given by him was not acted upon. He said that he later
had to resort to liaising with the authorities concerned directly as
he was frustrated with the High Commissioner, her staff and their lack
of competence. Many Diaspora members alike have now abandoned their
voluntary work with the High Commission following their frustration
with its staff.
It is alleged that the High Commissioner Kshenuka's husband, Mr.
Seniwaratne is a known wheeler dealer amongst the Sri Lankan Diaspora
and is closely associated with members of the BTF (British Tamil
Forum), the eyes of the LTTE in the UK . Mr. Senewiratne is said to be
closely associated with Mr. S. Balasundaram of the BTF and many of the
pro-LTTE Councilors in London. The Diaspora alleges that those links ,
apart from the RAW links also tell a long story short about the plight
of the London High Commission’s anti-LTTE activities.
When Asian Tribune contacted Nilantha Illangamuwa who is according to
our information is one of the Editors of Sri Lanka Guardian. He denied
that he is the Editor but said that the Editor is one Mr. Azad, a Sri
Lankan refugee hiding in Chennai. When asked for his mailing address
and his telephone number he said that he does not know his address and
telephone number but he contacts him only through his e-mail ID
edito...@gmail.com
This revelation of Nilantha Illangamuwa confirmed our suspicion that
Sri Lanka Guardian is a web blog organized and run by RAW and double
agents of LTTE who lurks under the guise of democrats in London.
- Asian Tribune -
Sid Harth
India and State Terrorism
This is a report of the State Terrorism as practiced by India
internally on its own population and externally on its neighbours.
This was published in the GLOBE in January 1993, it is being re-
printed being still valid today
The only country in the world, other than Israel, to have acquired
land through conflict or intimidation after the end of World War 2 is
India. Israel has the excuse at least that in some of their conflicts
with the Arabs they pre-empted imminent aggression and thus were not
the aggressor per se. In the South Asian sub-continent, India has
openly coveted (and/or made designs to take possession thereof) before
actually annexing their neighbour or their prime real estate. In every
incident of aggression, care was taken to garb the nakedly
expansionist moves under some camouflage or the other.
EXTERNAL TERRORISM
The first to fall into India's grip was Kashmir, the legal subterfuge
used was the Maharaja's Letter of Accession. This was followed by
military intervention to annex Hyderabad, Junagadh and Manawadar in
1948. In 1960 it was the turn of the Portuguese possessions of Goa,
Daman and Diu in a farcical war. The smaller princely States of India
were just taken over lock, stock and barrel at the appropriate time.
As the world started to look askance at naked aggression, India turned
increasingly to subterfuge. In 1968 they formed the Research and
Analytical Wing (RAW) whose main purpose at that time was to organise
covert operations in Bangladesh, in this they were actively supported
by the Border Security Forces (BSF) whose Deputy Director General
(DDG), in this case Brig Pande, was based at Calcutta with an
alternate HQs in 91 BSF at Agartala for operational purposes. With the
creation of RAW, India turned from naked aggression to sophistication
in the pursuit of its ambitions. RAW became involved in covert
operations in all the peripheral countries around India. While RAW's
role in the creation of Bangladesh did not get much attention, its
operatives were in constant contact with hard-core India sympathizers
within Awami League (AL) such as Tajuddin, Nazrul Islam, etc. Through
these surrogates RAW maintained pressure on Sheikh Mujibur Rehman
whenever he started weakening in his anti-Pakistan stance. After 1971,
RAW retained its interest in Bangladesh, raising a parallel military
organisation loyal to AL (and India) known as the Rakhi Bahini headed
by Brig Nuruzzaman. As a Captain of the Pakistan Army, Nuruzzaman had
undergone trial for treason in the famous Agartala Conspiracy Case.
Though they were better armed and organised than the Bangladesh Armed
Forces, the Rakhi Bahini was easily disarmed and demobilised by the
Bangladesh Army post-Mujib. RAW agents have since become a permanent
factor for destabilisation in Bangladesh, having subverted the
loyalties of a large segment of the Hindu population. After Sheikh
Mujib was assassinated, they re-created the 1971 vintage Kader Bahini
led by the infamous Kader Siddiqui who operated from Indian territory
from 1975 to 1985 and constantly troubled the Zia Regime (and later
the Ershad regime) with many instances of terrorism. Today India
sustains the Chakma revolt against Bangladesh in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts by supporting the Shanti Bahini which makes cross border raids
from training and logistics camps in the Indian Tripura State at
Amarpur, Sabroom and opposite Baghban-Tilla.
Westerners were captivated by the marriage of the American Ms Hope
Cooke with the ruler of the Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim in the early
60s. Set in a fairytale Shangri-La atmosphere Sikkim became known as
one of free world's remaining ancient monarchies. But trouble incited
by RAW was brewing from 1973 onwards. RAW planted agents in Gangtok,
Mangain, Namchi and Gyalshing for cultivating sympathisers who would
fan disturbances against the reigning monarch and would then 'request'
for Indian help against the 'despot'. Just in case the anti-monarchist
ploy did not work, RAW was ready with operational data required for
military intervention. On 20 April 1975, the once friendly and
peaceful kingdom of Sikkim became a possession of India.
Bhuttan's Jigme Wangchuk of the adjacent Himalayan Kingdom took this
lesson to heart and while he clearly pouts at regional official
functions he does not strain too much at the leash and studiously toes
the Indian line, realising that his situation is probably more
untenable than his once-upon-a-time Sikkim Counterpart. Nominally, he
remains, along with the Maldives, as showpiece independent nations and
the only ones on India's periphery 'without' problems with India. Just
in case that he should ever dream otherwise, the Kingdom is prone to
inspired pro-India riots from time to time. This domino will fall
eventually or may not depending upon whether the Indians want to keep
the showpiece going.
Nepal is the only Hindu Kingdom in the world. King Bhirendhra ran
afoul of India because of his independent stance on regional policies.
Previously known as an annexe of India, Nepal opened out to the world
in the late 70s and early 80s. RAW was mandated by the Indian
Government to bring Nepal into line. The first set was that India used
a pretext to halt all supplies of food, medicine, oil etc. from going
to this land-locked country. In the meantime RAW agents fanned out
among anti-monarchist elements and as the economic blockade took hold,
riots broke out all over Nepal escalating into full fledged political
confrontation between the monarchy and the electorate. Acts of
terrorism, including the explosions of bombs, sabotage of
installations, attacks on prominent personalities, etc. proliferated.
Faced with the possibility of large-scale anarchy and even take-over
by India on the Sri Lanka pattern, the King opted to become a
constitutional monarch and a 'friendly' government came to power in
Nepal. This was a blatant interference in the internal affairs of
another nation, RAW was used as the terror weapon.
Burma has not escaped interference from India. Having a long border
with India, Burma is bedevilled by independence movements that freely
roam across international borders. Such cross border operations have
meant that Burmese troops have been engaged on yet another front to
secure the country's frontiers. There is concern in Bangladesh that
RAW agents were behind the trouble in Arakan Province that has
resulted in 250,000 Arakanese Muslim refugees crossing over to
Bangladesh. Normally Burma and Bangladesh enjoy excellent relations
but this refugee problem has become a sore point that has almost led
to war between the two countries.
The paradise that once was Sri Lanka is a case of the full force of
application of the so-called Indira Doctrine, that this whole region
is an area of unrestricted Indian influence. The former Chief of RAW,
Kao, was mandated by Indira Gandhi to repeat the Bangladesh story and
bring the Sri Lankans into line. RAW was given a free hand to
destabilise the island republic, a country so at peace with itself and
its neighbours that it had a maximum of only two or three active
military units (less than 5,000 men under arms). The Chief Minister of
Tamil Nadu, Ramachandra, gave his consent to RAW setting up Tamil
rebel camps at Ganda and Gorakhpur. Tamils were trained to bring about
an armed rebellion to carve a Tamil State out of the predominantly
Sinhalese island. Of the many groups that RAW trained, the most deadly
were the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) led by Prabhakaran,
which murderously targeted the other fellow ethnic Tamil Groups in
addition to bringing unrestrained terror to the Sinhalese majority in
the island. The full face of terrorism was unleashed in the cities
with car bombs, assassinations etc. killing and maiming thousands
before the Sri Lankan Armed Forces could re-organise themselves and
assert the rule of the law. With their LTTE allies ultimately besieged
in the North and North East, the Indians gave the Sri Lankans an
ultimatum to stop their offensive and virtually at the point of gun
signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. Indian forces started
landing in Sri Lanka as the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) to
'enforce' the peace even before the Accord was signed. This was Pax
India-na at its most blatant. As often happens in a Client Patron
relationship, the Tamil Tigers refused to fall into line with their
Indian masters and the IPKF started to sustain heavy casualties from
their former allies. The Indian Army blamed RAW for not providing
accurate information about the former RAW proteges. The IPKF
inadequacy in dealing with the LTTE became a debacle that forced the
Indians to withdraw from Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan paradise that once
was had now became Hell on Earth, the fighting between the now 3-4
division strength Sri Lanka Armed Forces (over 100,000 men under arms)
and the Tamil Tigers goes bloodily on without quarter given or taken.
As a revenge for having caused innumerable casualties and horrific
damage, the Tamil tigers targeted the man who had mandated the IPKF to
establish Pax-India-na in Sri Lanka, Rajiv Gandhi. In a classic Tamil
Tiger operation, RAW trained operative assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the
blood cycle had come a complete circle. This is second time around
that it had happened in the same family, the first being the gunning
down of Rajiv's mother by Sikh Bodyguards in the wake of the storming
of the Golden Temple at Amritsar and the killing of Bhindranewala and
his close associates. Bhindranewala shot into fame from obscurity as a
protege of late Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's younger son, who
mandated RAW to support his feud. As a sequel to Rajiv's assassination
India closed down all camps and suspended the free movement of Tamils
(now mostly supporter of LTTE) with India, one may well ask, if this
is not an instance of an open display of export of State terrorism,
what is? Unfortunately for India, the Tamils have plenty of
sympathisers in Tamil Nadu and the problems persist, having come home
to roost.
The Indian Ocean farce where 200 Tamil mercenaries from the Ealam
Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF - another creation of
RAW) were employed to stage a coup against Maldives President Mamoon
Abdul Gayoom is a case in point. President Gayoom was prompted to ask
for Indian help for rescuing his government. Anybody with scant
knowledge of aircraft, ships and logistics would have worked out that
the Indian forces were dispatched to the rescue much before the coup
was even attempted. A grateful Gayoom has given Indian forces a major
foothold deep in the Indian Ocean, a solid landbased aircraft carrier
for dominating the oceanic area figuring in the designs of India
hegemony.
Pakistan figures promptly as a major RAW target, with special emphasis
on the separatist Sindhu Desh movement. A wing of the Indian Special
Services Bureau (SSB) has established terrorist camps across the
border from Sindh in Rajasthan in eight major locations, Ganganagar,
Jaipur, Udhampur, Kishangarh, Bikaner, Barmer, Jaiselmer and
Gandhinagar. Services of Hindus who had migrated to India during 1971
and whose relatives are still living in Sindh are coordinated through
a RAW cell located at Jaipur called the Sindhu Desh Department. With
the exit of the active elements of the Al-Zulfikar Organisation (AZO)
from Afghanistan and Libya, AZO has been taken over lock, stock and
barrel by RAW. The same style of paid gunmen and bomb explosions as
was witnessed in Sri Lanka has been duplicated in Sindh. The
cooperation between the KGB, Khad and RAW to destabilize Pakistan,
particularly Sindh during the decade-old Afghan war, is well
documented and known to western intelligence agencies.
RAW emerges as the only presently functioning instrument of widescale
application of State terrorism. This is no rogue operation planned by
some idealistic nuts running wild, this is a deliberate implementation
of the policy of the Indian Government to annex and occupy
neighbouring countries or to browbeat them into accepting Indian
hegemony. That RAW takes the initiative to sow anarchy and disorder
puts it in a murderous class of its own.
Pakistan's main claim to fame with respect to being judged guilty of
State terrorism is Kashmir, there is widescale speculation that the US
may declare Pakistan a terrorist State because of supposedly ISI-
organised camps organise guerrillas to cross into Indian occupied
Kashmir. The ISI learnt most of its expertise from close collaboration
with the CIA during the 80s decade Afghan war when Afghan Mujahideen
were trained in guerilla warfare in camps in the border region to
liberate Afghanistan from Soviet yoke. Given the fact of Kashmir's
disputed status and Pakistani emotions, the ISI could well be using
that knowledge for operations in Kashmir but the insurrection within
Kashmir is mostly indigenous, the people's will being spontaneous does
not need orchestration. The ISI and other Pakistani covert agencies
are also accused of providing help to Sikh militants demanding a
separate homeland. Most of the Sikh militants are ex-Indian Army
personnel who mutinied after the Golden Temple was desecrated. Support
to them by Pakistan may be more moral than material in the
circumstances. Kashmir is another matter, it is freedom struggle and
the ISI need not organise camps since Kashmiris on both sides of the
border are committed to freedom from Indian tutelage and thus would be
crossing the border without official sanction. Even if the sanction is
denied, the borders will remain porous, in the circumstances imposing
a clamp down would be next to impossible.
INTERNAL TERRORISM
Many people wrongly believe that RAW is used by India only for the
purposes of the State's external policies. RAW has another more
vicious role, to support the security forces within India to cow down
its own population.
Many people in the outside world are not aware of the Hindu class
system, almost 53% of the population are of the lowest class, the
Untouchables. With about 17% Muslims and 3-4% Christians of various
denomination, only about 25-27% of the population is really
enfranchised. Most of the government jobs go to this minority with a
sprinkling drawn from the majority for purposes of window dressing.
The only government employment really open to the majority population
are the menial jobs, even in the Armed Forces Untouchables, Muslims
and Christians are few and far between. Control of the government at
all levels and of the Armed Forces thus gives the Hindu minority upper
class dictatorial authority over the rest of the population. When VP
Singh was PM he tried to overcome this inequity by enforcing a Quota
system, riots broke out all over the country, mostly fanned by the
civil administration. In Delhi most of the protestors were government
servants, this was repeated during the Babri Masjid riots in December
showing BJP's hold. To sustain their rule, the ruling classes use RAW
as a weapon to stamp down dissent, spread disinformation, political
character assassination, hit squads to commit murder, etc. The amazing
thing is that they got away with it despite the fact that the maximum
amount of movements for independence are raging within India.
To start with is the grey area of Kashmir which is legally not a part
of India but is under Indian subjugation. To fight the freedom
movement, the Indians have adopted a three track policy. First they
have shored up the present Indian administration, particularly the law
enforcement agencies to maintain civil order. Since the local police
forces have been hopelessly compromised, the Indians moved in large
number of units from the Border Security Forces (BSF) and the Central
Reserve Police (CRP). To augment their strength at key points, at
least 2 more complete mountain divisions have been moved in, one from
Eastern Command and the other from Southern Command. Both these
formations were part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri
Lanka. In addition, Brigade sized independent formations as well as
special commando units have been posted to Kashmir. While the BSF and
CRP were known for their penchant to resort to atrocities against non-
combatants particularly old men, women and children, the commando
units were trained by Israelis to combat the urban guerillas on the
counter-Intifida pattern. Most infamous among these special units are
the so-called Black Cats (they wear black uniform). The prime modus
operandi is to surround a locality and line up all the men held in
that swoop. Hooded men, who are obviously either informants or
guerillas who have been tortured and thus forced to cooperate, are
then brought to identify possible dissidents. Some of those that are
held simply disappear, in most cases their bodies turn up after a few
days. There is no sanctuary, churches and/or mosques are entered at
will, in many cases there has been gun-battles on the premises. A form
of ethnic cleansing is in process in Kashmir, the country is being rid
of Muslim Kashmiris. There have been as many as 40,000 documented
deaths in the last 2/3 years, over double that have crossed over the
LoC to become a fresh wave of refugees in Azad Kashmir.
Almost a similar modus operandi is followed in Khalistan (Indian
Punjab). Operation Blue Star in 1984 aimed at getting the Sikh
militants out of the Golden Temple at Amritsar. The Sikh leader
Bhindranewala was a RAW creation, a discovery of the late Sanjay
Gandhi who thought he could be built-up as antidote to the growing
Sikh freedom movement. Unfortunately for India, while before
Bhindranewala the Sikhs were for greater autonomy within India, after
Blue Star the great majority now want an independent Khalistan. Like
in Kashmir, the province is in a state of virtual internal siege and
the guerilla attacks are matched by the State's law enforcement
agencies in the context of terrorism. Like in Kashmir, draconian laws
ensure that fundamental rights remain suspended.
Over the broad mass of Central India, extending to the South is the
shadowy Naxalite movement. Originating in a village called Naxalbari
in West Bengal in the late 60s, this is essentially a revolt of the
downtrodden class against the injustice of the rich and ruling,
particularly the landlord class and government functionaries. At the
beginning the movement was not really terrorist-oriented but the
reaction of the civil administration forced them to respond with
vengeance, now it is all out war with the Naxalites beheading their
targeted enemies. Naturally the Indian Government's response, both
Federal and State, has been to fight fire with fire with only lip-
service given to civil liberties.
In the South is the land of the Tamils. In the 60s and 70s there was a
budding secessionist movement, however with Indian moves on Sri Lanka
in support of the minority Tamils against the majority Sinhalese, this
movement was stymied. During the 80s, RAW created many camps in Tamil
Nadu for the Tamil guerilla movements. Most of the supplies to Tamil
areas were ferried across the straits to Jaffna and other areas by RAW
operatives. A time came when the Sri Lankan Tamils had virtually free
run of the place. However, with the advent of the IPKF into Sri Lanka,
the major Tamil group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), led by
Prabhaharan, revolted against Indian tutelage. RAW's proteges now
became India's implacable enemies, the most bloody action was Rajiv
Gandhi's assassination in typical LTTE style with the help of a girl
from the LTTE suicide squad, she blew herself up along with the former
PM of India. The Indian reaction against the Sri Lankan Tamils in
India has been predictable and has created a backlash among the South
Indian Tamil population.
Most of India's budding secessionist movements are too small to be
well documented but the Indian response has been bloody and brutal.
Some of the movements that are of significance are:-
a. Gorkhaland
The areas around Darjeeling, just south of Nepal, is inhabited by a
large number of Gorkhas who are fighting for their own homeland. There
is an uneasy peace at the moment because the Indians have promised
autonomy.
b. Bodoland
Just west of Darjeeling lies Meghalaya where Bodo tribals are fighting
for their independence. This freedom struggle started with bows and
arrows, it is now a full fledged guerilla movement.
c. ULFA
United Liberation Front of Assam envisages an independent Assam as the
local inhabitants feel they have been colonized by the Indians. As
usual, the Indians have met terror with terror, razing entire villages
to the ground.
d. Nagaland
The Nagas have been fighting for their independence since almost 1947.
The British had promised them an independent homeland for their active
support against the Japanese in World War 2. After the emergence of
Bangladesh, the mainly Christian Nagas lost their main supply base for
some time and they came to terms with the Federal authorities. However
the promises made by the Indians were never fulfilled and as
Bangladesh fell out with India, the Naga logistics improved and the
guerilla movement goes on in full swing.
e. Mizoram
Like the Nagas, the Mizos are mainly Christians and their guerilla
movement has followed the same route. Laldenga, their leader, had to
come to terms after the emergence of Bangladesh. He was brought to
Delhi for peace negotiations and then incarcerated when the talks
failed in utter violation of the immunity given to him. Today the
movement for an independent Mizoram goes on.
f. Manipuris
One of the greatest shocks of 'democratic' India that awaited tea
planters of West Pakistani origin who moved into India while escaping
from East Pakistan in 1971 (and were incarcerated in Indian Jails) was
to find Manipuri children in many jails of Tripura State, particularly
Agartala Jail. Under the Maintenance of India Security Act (MISA), a
large number of Manipuri children of Manipuri influentials were kept
as hostages for their good behaviour. For a time after Bangladesh
became a separate country, there was relative peace in Manipur as the
guerilla movement lost its supply sanctuaries. It is now a war-torn
country with Indian forces being attacked by Manipur guerillas in
areas stretching from Manipur south to the Burmese border.
CONCLUSION
In the face of overwhelming evidence of Indian sponsored State
terrorism directed against (1) its neighbours and (2) its own
population for years, the USA is not likely to discriminate against
Pakistan on the basis of the evidence at hand and the nature of the
international dispute with respect to Kashmir, though restraint may
well have been advised by the US through diplomatic channels. One may
well ask, what is any Pakistani government to do, turn the other cheek
and act deaf, dumb and blind while Kashmiris are increasingly subject
to atrocities? In Kashmir today, if death, rape and torture has become
endemic, it is mostly at the initiative of Indian forces. To be fair
while one may accept that we may have cast a stone or two, in the face
of the Indian barrage of terrorism against all its neighbours, one
will expect that justice will not be denied. If the world community
has any even-handed non-discriminatory yardstick for labelling any
nation a terrorist State, India outstrips everyone else by a mile!
Sid Harth
The Rediff Special/A Special Correspondent
September 08, 2003
Thirty-five years ago, in September 1968, when the Research and
Analysis Wing was founded with Rameshwar Nath Kao at its helm, then
prime minister Indira Gandhi asked him to cultivate Israel's Mossad.
She believed relations between the two intelligence agencies was
necessary to monitor developments that could threaten India and
Israel.
The efficient spymaster he was, Kao established a clandestine
relationship with Mossad. In the 1950s, New Delhi had permitted Tel
Aviv to establish a consulate in Mumbai. But full-fledged diplomatic
relations with Israel were discouraged because India supported the
Palestinian cause; having an Israeli embassy in New Delhi, various
governments believed, would rupture its relations with the Arab
world.
This was where the RAW-Mossad liaison came in. Among the threats the
two external intelligence agencies identified were the military
relationship between Pakistan and China and North Korea, especially
after then Pakistan foreign minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited
Pyongyang in 1971 to establish a military relationship with North
Korea.
Again, Israel was worried by reports that Pakistani army officers were
training Libyans and Iranians to handle Chinese and North Korean
military equipment.
RAW-Mossad relations were a secret till Morarji Desai became prime
minister in 1977. RAW officials had alerted him about the Zia-ul Haq
regime's plans to acquire nuclear capability. While French assistance
to Pakistan for a plutonium reprocessing plant was well known, the
uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta was a secret. After the French
stopped helping Islamabad under pressure from the Carter
administration, Pakistan was determined to keep the Kahuta plant a
secret. Islamabad did not want Washington to prevent its
commissioning.
RAW agents were shocked when Desai called Zia and told the Pakistani
military dictator: 'General, I know what you are up to in Kahuta. RAW
has got me all the details.' The prime minister's indiscretion
threatened to expose RAW sources.
The unfortunate revelation came about the same time that General Moshe
Dayan, hero of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, was secretly visiting
Kathmandu for a meeting with Indian representatives. Islamabad
believed Dayan's visit was connected with a joint operation by Indian
and Israeli intelligence agencies to end Pakistan's nuclear
programme.
Apprehensive about an Indo-Israeli air strike on Kahuta, surface-to-
air missiles were mounted around the uranium enrichment plant. These
fears grew after the Israeli bombardment of Iraq's Osirak nuclear
reactor in 1981.
Zia decided Islamabad needed to reassure Israel that it had nothing to
fear from Pakistan's nuclear plans. Intermediaries -- Americans close
to Israel -- established the initial contacts between Islamabad and
Tel Aviv. Israel was confidant the US would not allow Pakistan's
nuclear capability to threaten Israel. That is why Israeli experts do
not mention the threat from Pakistan when they refer to the need for
pre-emptive strikes against Iraq, Iran and Libya's nuclear schemes.
By the early 1980s, the US had discovered Pakistan's Kahuta project.
By then northwest Pakistan was the staging ground for mujahideen
attacks against Soviet troops in Afghanistan and Zia no longer feared
US objections to his nuclear agenda. But Pakistani concerns over
Israel persisted, hence Zia decided to establish a clandestine
relationship between Inter-Services Intelligence and Mossad via
officers of the two services posted at their embassies in Washington,
DC.
The ISI knew Mossad would be interested in information about the
Libyan, Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi Arabian military. Pakistani army
officers were often posted on deputation in the Arab world -- in these
very countries -- and had access to valuable information, which the
ISI offered Mossad.
When young Israeli tourists began visiting the Kashmir valley in the
early nineties Pakistan suspected they were Israeli army officers in
disguise to help Indian security forces with counter-terrorism
operations. The ISI propaganda inspired a series of terrorist attacks
on the unsuspecting Israeli tourists. One was slain, another
kidnapped.
The Kashmiri Muslim Diaspora in the US feared the attacks would
alienate the influential Jewish community who, they felt, could lobby
the US government and turn it against Kashmiri organisations
clamouring for independence. Soon after, presumably caving into
pressure, the terrorists released the kidnapped Israeli. During
negotiations for his release, Israeli government officials, including
senior intelligence operatives, arrived in Delhi.
The ensuing interaction with Indian officials led to India
establishing embassy-level relations with Israel in 1992. The decision
was taken by a Congress prime minister -- P V Narasimha Rao -- whose
government also began pressing the American Jewish lobby for support
in getting the US to declare Pakistan a sponsor of terrorism. The
lobbying bore some results.
The US State Department put Pakistan on a 'watch-list' for six months
in 1993. The Clinton administration 'persuaded' then Pakistan prime
minister Nawaz Sharif to dismiss Lieutenant General Javed Nasir, then
director general of the ISI. The Americans were livid that the ISI
refused to play ball with the CIA who wanted to buy unused Stinger
missiles from the Afghan mujahideen, then in power in Kabul.
After she returned to power towards the end of 1993, Benazir Bhutto
intensified the ISI's liaison with Mossad. She too began to cultivate
the American Jewish lobby. Benazir is said to have a secret meeting in
New York with a senior Israeli emissary, who flew to the US during her
visit to Washington, DC in 1995 for talks with Clinton.
From his days as Bhutto's director general of military operations,
Pervez Musharraf has been a keen advocate of Pakistan establishing
diplomatic relations with the state of Israel.
The new defence relationship between India and Israel -- where the
Jewish State has become the second-biggest seller of weapons to India,
after Russia -- bother Musharraf no end. Like another military
dictator before him, the Pakistan president is also wary that the fear
of terrorists gaining control over Islamabad's nuclear arsenal could
lead to an Israel-led pre-emptive strike against his country.
Musharraf is the first Pakistani leader to speak publicly about
diplomatic relations with Israel. His pragmatic corps commanders share
his view that India's defence relationship with Israel need to be
countered and are unlikely to oppose such a move. But the generals are
wary of the backlash from the streets. Recognising Israel and
establishing an Israeli embassy in Islamabad would be unacceptable to
the increasingly powerful mullahs who see the United States, Israel
and India as enemies of Pakistan and Islam.
With inputs from the rediff Delhi Bureau
Sid Harth
India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing
(RAW)
Product Details:
Author: Maj Gen VK Singh | ISBN: 81-7049-332-3 | Format: Hardcover |
Pages: 185 | Weight: 0.96 lbs | Pub. Date: 2007 | Publisher: Manas
Publications
DESCRIPTION
The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is India’s premier intelligence
agency. Like the CIA in the USA and MI-6 in the UK, it is responsible
for external intelligence. However, unlike intelligence agencies in
many democratic countries that are subjected to public and
parliamentary scrutiny, the activities of RAW remain shrouded in
mystery. Though RAW has been written about earlier, most of the
authors are of foreign origin, the largest number being from Pakistan.
The few Indians who have written about RAW are those who have served
in the agency. There is not a single inside account of RAW.
The present book is the first account by a person who has served in
RAW at a senior level and was able to see its functioning from close
quarters. Since has was concerned with signal intelligence rather than
human intelligence operations, most of the coverage is devoted to the
former. The book brings to light several lacunae in the functioning of
the country’s top intelligence agency, the most glaring being the
anomalies in procurement of equipment, lack of accountability and our
dependence on foreign sources, with the resultant threat to national
security. Some of the hitherto untold stories recounted in the book
are: 1. How equipment was purchased from foreign companies at prices
that were more than ten times the market price by altering technical
parameters. 2. How the security of the Prime Minister was almost
compromised for a few pieces of silver. 3 The circumstances leading to
the death of one of RAW’s brightest officers, Vipin Handa. 4 The
stories of moles in the country’s top intelligence agencies, including
that of Rabinder Singh. 5. The bitter rivalry between RAW and IB, and
its effects. 6. The modus operandi of foreign intelligence agencies in
recruiting moles in India. The Indian taxpayer has a right to know how
his money is spent, and after reading this book, he will not only be
wiser but also angry. The author hopes that the anger gives rise to a
public debate and an increase in accountability of our top
intelligence agencies.
Sid Harth
Response to “India RAW did it: Taliban deny all involvement in
Marriott attack”
Recently an artice was published which claims that “India RAW did it:
Taliban deny all involvement in Marriott attack”. (Read Here). Was
this article written just because someone wanted to write?
Pakistan Ledger reported that it was the Indian agents of RAW that
attacked the Marriott Hotel. Now the Taliban, never shy about
accepting responsibility has denied any responsibility in the
Islamabad attack. So if the Taliban did not do it, who did? The answer
to this :Whodunnit” is obvious. There are external hands in this
carnage. Which external hand gets the maximum advantage out of the
killings.
1) India has infiltrated many movements and has adopted the TTP. It
provides the TTP with arms, equipment and training.
2) By discrediting the Taliban and the FATA militants India feels more
secure in Kashmir.
3) By destabilizing Pakistan and demoralizing the populace India may
feel that it can dictate policy in Afghanistan and also Pakistan
4) By attacking Pakistan from Afghanistan India can have plausible
deniability and say to the world that its not her attacking Pakistan.
Nothing could be farther than the truth. Indian RAW with the KGB and
Khad rained more terror on Pakistan than any other country in the
world. In fact during the 80s Pakistan received more than 70% of the
terror in the world. All of that was made in India.
5) The sophistication of the operation against the Marriott, the
material used, the amount of the incendiary material used, and the
type of RDX used shows a very clever and costly operation which
requires state machinery to execute.
6) India has the motive, the opportunity and the inclination to run
this operation.
Here are some of the points which needs to be clarified -
1. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is an umbrella organization of
Pakistani Taliban groups and is no where related to RAW
2. Why would India destabalize an already de stabalized country . It
is not in India’s interest to have a nuclear powered destabalized
state as it’s neighbour
3. In the 80’s Pakisstan received 70% of the terror in the world
because they themselves were diverting millions of dollars from the US
to help afghan fighters against soviets.
Dawn ( A leading news paper of Pakistan) has blamed another terrorist
outfit (Fedayeen-i-Islam) for this attack (Read Here).
2 Comments
Nazir
November 17, 2008 at 10:13 am Fedayeen-i-Islam is a name used by the
terrorist outfit blamed for the attack on Marriott. One should never
forget the outfit Muslim Mujahideen who caused havoc in Kashmir and
was involved in many atrocities against the Muslim and Hindu
civilians. They were later proved to be an outfit created by RAW under
its operation Chanakya. Please google it and you’ll get your links.
The leader of the TTP was videotaped leaving an Indian consulate in
Kandahar in an Indian consulate vehicle back in November last year,
evidence of which was shared with the US Army but instead of actions
against RAW, Musharaf was over thrown and replaced by a Pro Indian
(pro money I should say) president.
India has never been able to gulp down the reality of Pakistan and the
fanatic elements that rule India are hell bent on burning Pakistan.
The conventional war is not an option for India for it knows that
Pakistan has nukes and a superior missile capability. Instead, the
cunning philosophies of Chanakya are their tool.
If Pakistan is blamed for funding the dollars to the Afghan Mujahideen
(Taliban didn’t exist back then), one should not forget the source of
those dollars i.e the USA.
With a gazillion Indian consulates across Afghan/Pakistan border,
Pakistan should be aware of the enemy threat from both sides. The US
is interested to take over Pakistan with its ultimate goal to stop the
only possible Chinese access to the warm waters. Israel has its own
ambitions for it has always regarded Pakistan as enemy number one.
Israel has always and US has now started to favor India because India
is more than ready and capable to become their dog.
The stage is set for another 9/11 in the first year of Obama
presidency and Pakistan will be directly blamed for the attack. Its
evident that these elections were fought over which candidate can
present the worst scenario for Pakistan. Obama has surpassed McCain
obviously. His nomination for the Chief of staff and the incharge of
Kashmir conflict resolution should (if it hasn’t already) ring alarm
bells for Pakistanis and the Arab world.
Covert operations of CIA, RAW, Mosad are evident in the Northern areas
of Pakistan. It won’t be long before Russia and China have to step up
against the growing future threat of US surrounding them.
What do your Pundits predict?
Souvik
December 12, 2008 at 7:54 am Nazir mia
Your post proves poor educational infrastructure in pakistan. You
wrote-
“The conventional war is not an option for India for it knows that
Pakistan has nukes and a superior missile capability. ”
ha ha ha ….ok ok read this ::
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1735912.stm
Sid Harth
RAW: An Instrument of Indian Power
Isha Khan - 8/6/2006
The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), created in 1968, has assumed a
significant status in the formulation of India's domestic and foreign
policies, particularly the later. Working directly under the Prime
Minister, it has over the years become and effective instrument of
India's national power. In consonance with Kautilya's precepts, RAW's
espionage doctrine is based on the principle of waging a continuous
series of battles of intrigues and secret wars.
RAW, ever since its creation, has always been a vital, though
unobtrusive, actor in Indian policy-making apparatus. But it is the
massive international dimensions of RAW operations that merit a closer
examination. To the credit of this organization, it has in very short
span of time mastered the art of spy warfare. Credit must go to Indira
Gandhi who in the late 1970s gave it a changed and much more dynamic
role. To suit her much publicized Indira Doctrine, (actually India
Doctrine) Mrs. Gandhi specifically asked RAW to create a powerful
organ within the organization which could undertake covert operations
in neighboring countries. It is this capability that makes RAW a more
fearsome agency than its superior KGB, CIA, MI-6, BND and the Mossad.
Its internal role is confined only in monitoring events having bearing
on the external threat. RAW's boss works directly under the Prime
Minister. An Additional Secretary to the Government of India, under
the Director RAW, is responsible for the Office of Special Operations
(OSO), intelligence collected from different countries, internal
security (under the Director General of Security), the electronic/
technical section and general administration. The Additional Secretary
as well as the Director General of Security is also under the Director
of RAW. DG Security has two important sections: the Aviation Research
Center (ARC) and the Special Services Bureau (SSB). The joint Director
has specified desks with different regional divisions/areas
(countries):
Area one. Pakistan: Area two, China and South East Asia: Area three,
the Middle East and Africa: and Area four, other countries. Aviation
Research Center (ARC) is responsible for interception, monitoring and
jamming of target country's communication systems. It has the most
sophisticated electronic equipment and also a substantial number of
aircraft equipped with state-of- the art eavesdropping devices. ARC
was strengthened in mid-1987 by the addition of three new aircraft,
the Gulf Stream-3. These aircraft can reportedly fly at an altitude of
52,000 ft and has an operating range of 5000 kms. ARC also controls a
number of radar stations located close to India's borders. Its
aircraft also carry out oblique reconnaissance, along the border with
Bangladesh, China, Nepal and Pakistan.
RAW having been given a virtual carte blanche to conduct
destabilization operations in neighboring countries inimical to India
to seriously undertook restructuring of its organization accordingly.
RAW was given a list of seven countries (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal,
Sikkim, Bhutan, Pakistan and Maldives) whom India considered its
principal regional protagonists. It very soon systematically and
brilliantly crafted covert operations in all these countries to
coerce, destabilize and subvert them in consonance with the foreign
policy objectives of the Indian Government.
RAW's operations against the regional countries were conducted with
great professional skill and expertise. Central to the operations was
the establishment of a huge network inside the target countries. It
used and targeted political dissent, ethnic divisions, economic
backwardness and criminal elements within these states to foment
subversion, terrorism and sabotage. Having thus created the conducive
environments, RAW stage-managed future events in these countries in
such a way that military intervention appears a natural concomitant of
the events. In most cases, RAW's hand remained hidden, but more often
that not target countries soon began unearthing those "hidden hand". A
brief expose of RAW's operations in neighboring countries would reveal
the full expanse of its regional ambitions to suit India Doctrine
(Open Secrets. India's Intelligence Unveiled by M K Dhar. Manas
Publications, New Delhi, 2005).
Bangladesh
Indian intelligence agencies were involved in erstwhile East Pakistan,
now Bangladesh since early 1960s. Its operatives were in touch with
Sheikh Mujib for quite some time. Sheikh Mujib went to Agartala in
1965. The famous Agartala case was unearthed in 1967. In fact, the
main purpose of raising RAW in 1968 was to organise covert operations
in Bangladesh. As early as in 1968, RAW was given a green signal to
begin mobilising all its resources for the impending surgical
intervention in erstwhile East Pakistan. When in July 1971 General
Manekshaw told Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that the army would not be
ready till December to intervene in Bangladesh, she quickly turned to
RAW for help. RAW was ready. Its officers used Bengali refugees to set
up Mukti Bahini. Using this outfit as a cover, Indian military sneaked
deep into Bangladesh. The story of Mukti Bahini and RAW's role in its
creation and training is now well-known. RAW never concealed its
Bangladesh operations.
Interested readers may have details in Asoka Raina's Inside RAW: the
story of India's secret service published by Vikas Publishing House of
New Delhi.
The creation of Bangladesh was masterminded by RAW in complicity with
KGB under the covert clauses of Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and
Co-operation (adopted as 25-year Indo-Bangladesh Treaty of Friendship
and Co-operation in 1972).
RAW retained a keen interest in Bangladesh even after its
independence. Mr. Subramaniam Swamy, Janata Dal MP, a close associate
of Morarji Desai said that Rameswar Nath Kao, former Chief of RAW, and
Shankaran Nair upset about Sheikh Mujib's assassination chalked a plot
to kill General Ziaur Rahman. However, when Morarji Desai came into
power in 1977 he was indignant at RAW's role in Bangladesh and ordered
operations in Bangladesh to be called off; but by then RAW had already
gone too far. General Zia continued to be in power for quite some time
but he was assassinated after Indira Gandhi returned to power, though
she denied her involvement in his assassination(Weekly Sunday,Calcutta,
18 September, 1988).
RAW was involved in training of Chakma tribals and Shanti Bahini who
carry out subversive activities in Bangladesh. It has also unleashed a
well-organized plan of psychological warfare, creation of polarisation
among the armed forces, propaganda by false allegations of use of
Bangladesh territory by ISI, creation of dissension's among the
political parties and religious sects, control of media, denial of
river waters, and propping up a host of disputes in order to keep
Bangladesh under a constant political and socio-economic pressure
( "RAW and Bangladesh" by Mohammad Zainal Abedin, November 1995, RAW
In Bangladesh: Portrait of an Aggressive Intelligence, written and
published by Abu Rushd, Dhaka).
Sikkim and Bhutan
Sikkim was the easiest and most docile prey for RAW. Indira Gandhi
annexed the Kingdom of Sikkim in mid-1970s, to be an integral part of
India. The deposed King Chogyal Tenzig Wangehuck was closely followed
by RAW's agents until his death in 1992.
Bhutan, like Nepal and Sikkim, is a land-locked country, totally
dependent on India. RAW has developed links with members of the royal
family as well as top bureaucrats to implements its policies. It has
cultivated its agents amongst Nepalese settlers and is in a position
to create difficulties for the Government of Bhutan. In fact, the King
of Bhutan has been reduced to the position of merely acquiescing into
New Delhi's decisions and go by its dictates in the international
arena.
Sri Lanka
Post- independence Sri Lanka, inspire of having a multi-sectoral
population was a peaceful country till 1971 and was following
independent foreign policy. During 1971 Indo-Pakistan war despite of
heavy pressure from India, Sri Lanka allowed Pakistan's civil and
military aircraft and ships to stage through its air and sea ports
with unhindered re-fueling facilities. It also had permitted Israel to
establish a nominal presence of its intelligence training set up. It
permitted the installation of high powered transmitter by Voice of
America (VOA) on its territory, which was resented by India.
It was because of these 'irritants' in the Indo-Sri Lanka relations
that Mrs Indira Gandhi planned to bring Sri Lanka into the fold of the
so-called Indira Doctrine (India Doctrine) Kao was told by Gandhi to
repeat their Bangladesh success. RAW went looking for militants it
could train to destabilize the regime. Camps were set up in Tamil Nadu
and old RAW guerrillas trainers were dug out of retirement. RAW began
arming the Tamil Tigers and training them at centers such as Gunda and
Gorakhpur. As a sequel to this ploy, Sri Lanka was forced into Indian
power-web when Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 was singed and Indian
Peace-Keeping-Force (IPKF) landed in Sri Lanka.
The Ministry of External Affairs was also upset at RAW's role in Sri
Lanka as they felt that RAW was still continuing negotiations with the
Tamil Tiger leader Parabhakran in contravention to the Indian
government's foreign policy. According to R Swaminathan, (former
Special Secretary of RAW) it was this outfit which was used as the
intermediary between Rajib Gandhi and Tamil leader Parabhakaran. The
former Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, J.N. Dixit even accused
RAW of having given Rs. five corore to the LTTE. At a later stage, RAW
built up the EPRLF and ENDLF to fight against the LTTE which turned
the situation in Sri Lanka highly volatile and uncertain later on.
Maldives
Under a well-orchestrated RAW plan, on November 30 1988 a 300 to 400-
strong well trained force of mercenaries, armed with automatic
weapons, initially said to be of unknown origin, infiltrated in boats
and stormed the capital of Maldives. They resorted to indiscriminate
shooting and took high-level government officials as hostages. At the
Presidential Palace, the small contingent of loyal national guards
offered stiff resistance, which enabled President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom
to shift to a safe place from where he issued urgent appeals for help
from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Britain and the United States.
The Indian Prime Ministe Rajiv Gandhi reacted promptly and about 1600
combat troops belonging to 50 Independent Para-Brigade in conjunction
with Indian Naval units landed at Male under the code-name Operation
Cactus. A number of IAF transport aircraft, escorted by fighters, were
used for landing personnel, heavy equipment and supplies. Within hours
of landing, the Indian troops flushed out the attackers form the
streets and hideouts. Some of them surrendered to Indian troops, and
many were captured by Indian Naval units while trying to escape along
with their hostages in a Maldivian ship, Progress Light. Most of the
30 hostages including Ahmed Majtaba, Maldives Minister of Transport,
were released. The Indian Government announced the success of the
Operation Cactus and complimented the armed forces for a good job
done.
The Indian Defense Minister while addressing IAF personnel at
Bangalore claimed that the country's prestige has gone high because of
the peace-keeping role played by the Indian forces in Maldives. The
International Community in general and the South Asian states in
particular, however, viewed with suspicious the over-all concept and
motives of the operation. The western media described it as a display
of newly-acquired military muscle by India and its growing role as a
regional police. Although the apparent identification of the two
Maldivian nationals could be a sufficient reason, at its face value,
to link it with the previous such attempts by the mercenaries, yet
other converging factors, indicative of involvement of external hand,
could hardly be ignored.
Sailing of the mercenaries from Manar and Kankasanturai in Sri Lanka,
which were in complete control of IPKF, and the timing and speed of
the Indian intervention proved their involvement beyond any doubt.
Nepal
Ever since the partition of the sub-continent India has been openly
meddling in Nepal's internal affairs by contriving internal strife and
conflicts through RAW to destabilize the successive legitimate
governments and prop up puppet regimes which would be more amenable
Indian machinations. Armed insurrections were sponsored and abetted by
RAW and later requests for military assistance to control these were
managed through pro-India leaders. India has been aiding and inciting
the Nepalese dissidents to collaborate with the Nepali Congress. For
this they were supplied arms whenever the King or the Nepalese
Government appeared to be drifting away from the Indian dictates and
impinging on Indian hegemonic designs in the region. In fact, under
the garb of the so-called democratization measures, the Maoists were
actively encouraged to collect arms to resort to open rebellion
against the legitimate Nepalese governments. The contrived rebellions
provided India an opportunity to intervene militarily in Nepal,
ostensibly to control the insurrections which were masterminded by the
RAW itself. It was an active replay of the Indian performance in Sri
Lanka and Maldives a few years earlier. RAW is particularly aiding the
people of the Indian-origin and has been providing them with arms and
ammunition. RAW has also infiltrated the ethnic Nepali refugees who
have been extradited by Bhutan and have taken refuge in the eastern
Nepal. RAW can exploit its links with these refugees in either that
are against the Indian interest. Besides the Nepalese economy is
totally controlled by the Indian money lenders, financiers and
business mafia ( RAW's Machination In South Asia by Shastra Dutta
Pant, Kathmandu, 2003).
Afghanistan
Since December 1979, throughout Afghan War, KGB, KHAD (WAD) (former
Afghan intelligence outfit) and RAW stepped up their efforts to
concentrate on influencing and covert exploitation of the tribes on
both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. There was intimate co-
ordination between the three intelligence agencies not only in
Afghanistan but in destabilization of Pakistan through subversion and
sabotage plan related to Afghan refugees and mujahideen, the tribal
belt and inside Pakistan. They jointly organized spotting and
recruitment of hostile tribesmen and their training in guerrilla
warfare, infiltration, subversion, sabotage and establishment of
saboteur force/terrorist organizations in the pro-Afghan tribes of
Pakistan in order to carry out bomb explosions in Afghan refugee camps
in NWFP and Baluchistan to threaten and pressurize them to return to
Afghanistan. They also carried out bomb blasts in populated areas deep
inside Pakistan to create panic and hatred in the minds of locals
against Afghan refugee mujahideen for pressurizing Pakistan to change
its policies on Afghanistan.
Pakistan
Pakistan's size, strength and potential have always overawed the
Indians. It, therefore, always considers her main opponent in her
expansionist doctrine. India's animosity towards Pakistan is
psychologically and ideologically deep-rooted and unassailable.
India's war with Pakistan in 1965 over Kashmir and in 1971 which
resulted in the dismemberment of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh
are just two examples.
Raw considers Sindh as Pakistan's soft under-belly. It has, therefore,
made it the prime target for sabotage and subversion. RAW has enrolled
and extensive network of agents and anti-government elements, and is
convinced that with a little push restless Sindh will revolt. Taking
fullest advantage of the agitation in Sindh in 1983 and the ethnic
riots, which have continued till today, RAW has deeply penetrated and
cultivated dissidents and secessionists, thereby creating hard-liners
unlikely to allow peace to return to Sindh. Raw is also involved
similarly in Balochistan.
RAW is also being blamed for confusing the ground situation is Kashmir
so as to keep the world attention away from the gross human rights
violations by India in India occupied Kashmir. ISI being almost 20
years older than RAW and having acquired much higher standard of
efficiency in its functioning , has become the prime target of RAW's
designs, ISI is considered to be a stumbling block in RAW's
operations, and has, therefore, been made a target of all kinds of
massive misinformation and propaganda campaign. The tirade against ISI
continues unabated. The idea is to keep ISI on the defensive by
fictionalising and alleging its hand is supporting Kashmiri Mujahideen
and Sikhs in Punjab. RAW'S fixation against ISI has taken the shape of
ISI-phobia, as in India everyone traces down the origin of all
happenings and shortcomings to the ISI . Be it an abduction at
Banglaore or a student's kidnapping at Cochin, be it a bank robbery at
Calcutta or a financial scandal in Bombay, be it a bomb blast at
Bombay or Bangladesh, they find an ISI hand in it (RAW :GLOBAL AND
REGIONAL AMBITIONS" Edited by Rashid Ahmad Khan and Muhammad Saleem,
Published by Islamabad Policy Research Institute, Asia Printers,
slamabad, 2005).
RAW over the years has admirably fulfilled its tasks of destabilising
target states through unbridled export of terrorism. The India
Doctrine spelt out a difficult and onerous role for RAW. It goes to
its credit that it has accomplished its assigned objectives due to the
endemic weakness in the state apparatus of those nations and failure
of their leaders.
Sid Harth
Profile of the Terrorist Insurgency in North East India
Isha Khan - 12/19/2006
Formation: Asom Sanjukta Mukti Morcha or the United Liberation Front
of Asom (ULFA) was formed on April 7, 1979 by Bhimakanta Buragohain,
Rajiv Rajkonwar alias Arabinda Rajkhowa, Golap Baruah alias Anup
Chetia, Samiran Gogoi alias Pradip Gogoi, Bhadreshwar Gohain and
Paresh Baruah at the Rang Ghar in Sibsagar to establish a "sovereign
socialist Assam" through an armed struggle.
War Cry: Joi Ai Asom
Leadership:
Arabinda Rajkhowa is the 'Chairman' of ULFA. 'Vice Chairman' Pradip
Gogoi was arrested on April 8, 1998 , and is currently in judicial
custody at Guwahati. 'General Secretary' Anup Chetia is under
detention in the Bangladeshi Dhaka after being arrested on December
21, 1997. The outfit's founding member and ideologue Bhimakanta
Buragohain, 'Publicity Secretary' Mithinga Daimary and 'Assistant
Secretary' Bolin Das were arrested during the military operations in
Bhutan in December 2003. Earlier, 'Cultural Secretary' Pranati Deka
was arrested at Phulbari in the West Garo Hills district of
Meghalaya.
Other leaders are: Bhimkanta Buragohin, Pradip Gogoi alias Samiran
Gogoi, Mithinga Daimari, Pranati Deka and Ramu Mech ,Mithinga Daimary
(real name Dipak Das),The cultural secretary of the Ulfa, Pranati Deka
hails from Nalbari district. She is the wife of the group's finance
secretary Chitrabon Hazarika. She was first arrested from a Mumbai
hospital in 1996. Later, she was released on bail in 1998 only to be
arrested again at Phulbari, Meghalaya in 2003 while trying to escape.
The ULFA has a clearly partitioned political and military wing. Paresh
Barua heads the military wing as the outfit's 'commander-in-chief'.
Following the military operations in Bhutan in December 2003, most of
its top leadership reportedly operates from unspecified locations.
According to reports, ULFA is in the process of relocating its camps
in Myanmar, Mon district of Nagaland, Garo hills of Meghalaya and
Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Areas of Activity and Influence
The ULFA's organisational structure is divided into four zones:
East Districts(Purb Mandal)
West Districts(Paschim Mandal)
Central Districts(Madhya Mandal)
South Districts(Dakshin Mandal)
Sanjukta Mukti Fouj (SMF):
A military wing of the ULFA, the Sanjukta Mukti Fouj (SMF) was formed
on March 16, 1996 . SMF has three full-fledged battalions (Bn): the
7th, 28th and 709th. The remaining battalions exist only on paper - at
best they have strengths of a company or so. Their allocated spheres
of operation are:
7th Bn (HQ- Sukhni) Responsible for defence of GHQ
8th Bn Nagaon, Morigaon, Karbi Anglong
9th Bn Golaghat, Jorhat, Sibsagar
11th Bn Kamrup, Nalbari
27th Bn Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar
28th Bn Tinsukia, Dibrugarh
709th Bn Kalikhola
Links and camps:
The ULFA sought shelter in the forests on the Indo-Bhutan border from
the early 1990s and established several camps in the forest areas of
southern Bhutan. Over the years, it reportedly developed linkages with
several officers and personnel of the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) and
Police - which ensured, among other things, a steady flow of rations,
logistical support as well as aid and contacts for money laundering.
The ULFA's Bhutan set-up had a reported strength of around 2000 cadres
spread across the outfit's 'General Head Quarters', it's 'Council Head
Quarters', a 'Security Training Camp' and a well-concealed 'Enigma
Base'. Numbering around 13 in all, the major camps of the ULFA in
Bhutan included:
1. Mithundra
2. Gobarkunda
3. Panbang
4. Diyajima
5. Pemagatsel Complex
i. Khar
ii. Shumar
iii. Nakar
6. Chaibari
7. Marthong
8. Gerowa
9. Sukhni (Merungphu): 'General HQ'
10. Melange
11. Phukaptong: 'Council HQ'
12. Dalim-Koipani (Orang)
13. Neoli Debarli
Most camps and other establishment of the ULFA were in Sandrup
Jongkhar, a district in southern Bhutan that borders Assam's Nalbari
district. The RBA is reported to have destroyed all the outfit's camps
and observation posts during the military operations launched in
December 2003.
In 1986, ULFA first established contacts with the then unified
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA) of Myanmar for training and arms. ULFA linked
up with the Kachins through the 'good offices' of the Naga rebels. It
learnt the rudiments of insurgent tactics from the Kachins (who
reportedly charged Rupees 100,000 per trainee). Subsequently, links
were established with Pakistan 's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI)
and the Afghan Mujahideen. Reports indicate that at least 200 ULFA
activists received training in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Bangladesh authorities arrested its leader Anup Chetia on December 21,
1997 . He is currently under detention at the high-security Dhaka
Central Jail. The main charges against Chetia include illegal entry
into Bangladesh, possession of two forged Bangladeshi passports,
possession of an unauthorised satellite telephone and illegal
possession of foreign currency of countries as diverse as the US, UK,
Switzerland, Thailand, Philippines, Spain, Nepal, Bhutan, Belgium,
Singapore and others. Two other accomplices, identified as Babul
Sharma and Laxmi Prasad, were also arrested along with Chetia.
ULFA gradually expanded its network to include operational control of
activities and the receipt and shipment of arms in transit before they
finally entered India. Owing to greater vigil along the known routes
of ULFA arms flow, the group has, in recent times, been making
attempts to set up bases in Meghalaya, especially in the West Garo
Hills to coordinate the transit of arms.
ULFA has for long maintained close linkages with the Pakistan's ISI
which procured several passports for Paresh Baruah and other ULFA
cadres. Several ULFA cadres have also received arms training from the
ISI at various training centres in Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan
border. ULFA had also announced its support for Pakistan during the
Kargil war. They described the Pakistani intruders - primarily
Pakistani Army regulars and Afghan mercenaries - as 'freedom
fighters'.
Reports indicate that the ULFA's mouthpiece, ULFA's a website
newsletter Swadhinata also known as 'Freedom', receives editorial
support from ISI inside Pakistan. It was in 'Freedom' that the ULFA
first supported the Pakistanis during the Kargil war. The ISI has
provided ULFA cadres with arms training, safe havens, funds, arms and
ammunition. Training has been given at camps in Pakistan and Bhutan.
At least 300 ULFA cadres were also trained at Rawalpindi and other
locations in Pakistan. The training included courses in the use of
rocket launchers, explosives and assault weapons. Paresh Baruah has
been regularly visiting Karachi since 1992-93. He is also reported to
have met Osama bin Laden in 1996 during a visit to Karachi.
The ULFA leader was reportedly taken to a camp on the Pakistan-
Afghanistan border, where he not only received assurance of military
help in the form of arms and ammunition, but also assurances of co-
operation and logistical support of all international organisations
owing allegiance to bin Laden, including the International Jehad
Council, the Tehrik-ul-Jehad, Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islami (HuJI), apart
from the Al Qaeda.
The ISI has also trained ULFA terrorists in counter intelligence,
disinformation and use of sophisticated weapons and explosives.
Pakistan has facilitated the visits of Paresh Baruah and other ULFA
leaders to Singapore , Thailand and other countries, and a channel for
the transfer of funds and arms has been created. The ISI largesse
enabled ULFA to buy arms in Cambodia, paying for these in hard
currency routed through Nepal. The ISI also 'introduced' ULFA to LTTE
transporters who, for a fee, undertook to transport arms from
Southeast Asia into Myanmar. In April 1996, Bangladesh seized more
than 500 AK-47 rifles, 80 machineguns, 50 rocket launchers and 2,000
grenades from two ships off Cox's Bazaar. Four Tamils were among those
arrested
Co-operation between various terrorist organisations in India's north-
east and foreign groups was formalised with the formation of the Indo-
Burmese Revolutionary Front (IBRF) in 1989. The IBRF was made up
initially of the NSCN-K, ULFA, United Liberation Front of Bodoland,
Kuki National Front (KNF) (all from India) and Chin National Front
( Myanmar). Paresh Baruah is reported to have paid a substantial sum
of money to the Kachins for the first large consignment of weapons
from Thailand.
Manerplaw in lower Myanmar on the border with Thailand is the
stronghold of the rebel Karen National Union which, in 1993, is
reported to have delivered, from the Cambodian arms market, AK-56
rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled guns and anti-tank rifles to
the ULFA. The organisation's cadres have identified an arms dealer as
an ethnic Kachin and wife of an assassinated Manipuri rebel Themba
Song. The Communist Party of Burma is known to have gifted some
weapons, mainly Chinese-made M10 rifles, to ULFA and Naga terrorist
organisations.
Arrested ULFA cadres have claimed that Baruah used to smuggle heroin,
procured in Myanmar into Assam as part of "a personal operation".
According to surrendered ULFA cadres, the ULFA terrorists had also
crossed over into China via Bhutan and established contact with the
Chinese Army.
The group, on the basis of these contacts, had a rendezvous with a
Chinese ship on the high seas in March 1995 during which a weapons'
consignment was transferred to them. A further consignment ultimately
landed up in Bhutan in 1999, though it was actually acquired in 1997.
ULFA also runs profitable narcotics business in Myanmar and Thailand.
A close nexus between ULFA and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) had also been reported. The LTTE is reported to have trained
various ULFA cadres in explosives handling.
ULFA as a Revolutionary Organization:
United Liberation Front of Assam, ULFA, a revolutionary political
organisation was born on the lawns of the historic Rang Ghar of
Sibsagar on 7th April 1979.
ULFA'S aims & objects :
To liberate Assam , (a land of 78,529 square K.M.), through Armed
national liberation struggle from the clutches of the illegal
occupation of India and to establish a sovereign Independent Assam.
ULFA represents:
ULFA represents, as its name implies, not only the Assamese nation but
also the entire independent minded struggling peoples, irrespective of
different race-tribe-caste-religion and nationality of Assam. The
struggle for national liberation of Assam never is a separatist or
secessionist movement. Assam was never a part of India at any point of
time in history. The fact is independent Assam has been occupied by
India , and deploying occupation forces they are oppressing our
peoples and persecuting them. ULFA itself and all freedom fighters of
Assam are neither planning nor conspiring to break up India! We are
not conducting any armed operation inside India . Freedom fighters of
Assam are only trying to overthrow Indian colonial occupation from
Assam.
The armed struggle for self-defence: The people of Assam are
confronting with various problems. Among those, the National identity
problem is basic. The communal riot that was followed by the partition
of India and Pakistan was responsible for the influx of foreigners
from the Indian sub-continent in large scale and thereby caused a real
threat to the demographic composition of Assam. India has all along
encouraged this influx because of a population base having ethnic
affinity with main land India is always favourable to their long term
security perspective. This is one of India 's major aspects of
colonial occupation of Assam.
In economic sphere, India has been engaged in large-scale
exploitation. Despite its rich resources, Assam remains one of the
most backward states. Therefore, the question of real threat to the
national identity of the people of Assam under the colonial occupation
and exploitation of India has become the basic problem. As a whole,
the problem has become a question of life and death to the people of
Assam.
The people of Assam confronted with the aforesaid problems such as
influx of foreigners and massive exploitation of its natural resources
and determined as national identity problem after summing up them.
Against the gross injustice for sheer survival as a nation, as a
people and as individuals, the people of Assam many times launched
democratic and unarmed peaceful movement. However, India ruthlessly
suppressed and crushed them ignoring the value of democratic movement.
Though the people of Assam and leadership of the struggle have a
strong stand for peaceful and amicable solution of the conflict, India
has always been trying to force a military solution.
Indian military operation in Assam:
The main intention of this operation is to suppress the legitimate
aspiration of the people of Assam , and their basic and fundamental
human rights i.e., national self-determination. There are endless
lists of gross human rights violations during this period by Indian
occupation forces. They have killed hundreds of innocent people,
hundred more have disappeared in their custody and many of our
womenfolk have been raped while many more hundreds have been severely
tortured to become handicapped. It is the reflection of direct
consequence of colonial repressive policy of India. Today, Assam is an
occupied country under Indian's martial law and an undeclared war
inside Assam is running on. Any thing may happen at any time inside
this war theatre. Colonial India 's this repressive policy compel to
the freedom fighters of Assam to take up arms for self-defence. So,
armed national liberation struggle of Assam is a democratic struggle
for the survival of a Nation.
ULFA commander Paresh Barua:
One of the 'most wanted' north-east terrorist leader, the 45-yr-old
ULFA 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua is a versatile radical who has
been successful in evading Indian forces for long despite non-stop
efforts by the latter. Wanted for a series of robberies, killings and
extortions, he is believed to be currently based in Bangladesh or
Bhutan. Trained in guerrilla war by ISI, Kachin Independent Army (KIA)
of Myanmar and NSCN, he can handle all kinds of weapons, travels on
forged passports and identity cards and lives on money obtained from
extortion or robbery.
Also known as Paban Barua and Pradip Barua. He, he is 173 cms in
height, has black hair and black eyes, a scar on the palm of his right
hand. On May 10, 1985 he and some others raided a bank in Guwahati and
shot the manager and stole a sum of Rs 27, 549.62 in cash. Often
dubbed as 'braveheart' by many ULFA sympathisers, he has had brush
with death several times, including in Dec 2000 when he was seriously
wounded in a factional gun-battle in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in
Bangladesh. But there is other side of Barua story too. Born on May 1,
1957 , he is a very good football player, can speak a number of
languages including English, Bengali, Hindi, Naga and Singpho and of
course Assamese, his mother tongue.
Insurgent Outfits in North East India
Arunachal:
National Liberation Front of Arunachal: Koj Tara Dragon Force (ADF)
Assam:
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) :Paresh Baruah, Arbinda
Rajkhoa,
Anup Chetia, Daimari, Pradip Gogoi
National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)
United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS)
Bodo Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF)
Dima Halim Daogah (DHD)
Karbi National Volunteers (KNV)
Rabha National Security Force (RNSF)
Koch-Rajbongshi Liberation Organisation (KRLO)
Hmar People's Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
Karbi People's Front (KPF)
Barak Valley Youth Liberation Front (BVYLF)
United Liberation Front of Barak Valley
Manipur:
United National Liberation Front (UNLF)
People's Liberation Army (PLA)
People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK)
Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF)
Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP)
Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL)
Manipur Liberation Tiger Army (MLTA)
Iripak Kanba Lup (IKL)
People's Republican Army (PRA)
Kangleipak Kanba Kanglup (KKK)
North East Minority Front (NEMF)
Kuki National Front (KNF)
Kuki National Army (KNA)
Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA)
Kuki National Organisation (KNO)
Mizoram:
Hmar People's Convention (HPC)
Hmar People's Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
Hmar Revolutionary Front (HRF)
Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA)
Zomi Revolutionary Volunteers (ZRV)
Indigenous People's Revolutionary Alliance(IRPA)
Kom Rem People's Convention (KRPC)
Chin Kuki Revolutionary Front (CKRF)
Bru National Liberation Front
Meghalaya:
Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC)
Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC)
People's Liberation Front of Meghalaya (PLF-M)
Hajong United Liberation Army (HULA)
Nagaland:
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) - NSCN(IM)
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) - NSCN (K)
Naga National Council-NNC (Adino)
Tripura:
National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT): Biswamohan Debbarma,
Nayanbashi Jamatia
All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) : Ranjit Debbarma
Tripura Tribal Volunteer Force (TTVF)
Tripura Liberation Force (TLF)
All Tripura Volunteer Force (ATVF)
Tripura National Army (TNA)
Borok National Council of Tripura (BNCT)
West Bengal:
Kamtapuri Liberation Organisation (KLO)
Sid Harth
Book Review: "India Doctrine"
Isha Khan - 8/29/2006
Adorned in a saffron red jacket and embellished with a detailed map of
South Asia the concept of an India Doctrine has been introduced to the
readers in Bangladesh recently. The book 'India Doctrine' has been
published by the Bangladesh Research Forum and edited by Barrister
M.B.I. Munshi and is priced at Tk. 300. Munshi's contribution to the
book constitutes the largest section with several other writers from
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka providing some useful and informative
chapters.
The book comes complete with a foreword written by a esteemed a
scholar Professor Ataur Rahman of Dhaka University who sets the theme
of the book. We are reminded by Prof. Rahman that while India might
have its own rationale for framing its regional policy compatible with
its national interests, the fact remains that constant apprehensions,
mistrust and tensions between India and the smaller neighbors
including Bangladesh had its negative effects on any meaningful
cooperation and security in the region.
This introduction neatly moves us into the chapters written by Munshi
which are a series of discussions that covers the relations between
India and East Pakistan/Bangladesh from 1947 to the present. It
attempts a historical and geo-strategic appraisal of relations between
the two countries but also offers a more wide ranging analysis
involving the Indian external intelligence operations in Bangladesh
and outside. The central idea of the chapters when taken as a whole
appears to be that the India Doctrine as implemented by succesive
administrations in India is not limited to simply harming the economic
interests of the nation, but also has a historical and intellectual
underpinning that comes from the thoughts and writings of Jawaharlal
Nehru and Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar amongst others. The idea of a
United India (or an 'Akhand Bharat') according to the author is still
a goal of Indian policy making in South Asia.
Prof. Rahman is forced in his foreword to contend that this thesis may
seem implausible and 'far-fetched' but also points out that Munshi
supplements his ideas with an exhaustive and elaborate set of
references and notes to back up his argument. However, a defect in
this intricate framework of references is that the chapters lack a
bibliography which would have made it easier to verify the arguments
advanced by the author. The chapters also seems to be hampered by the
fact that they were written originally as a 3 part article and the
author clearly has had some difficulty in framing his arguments within
this constriction. However, as we all know Francis Fukuyama and Samuel
Huntington both started their seminal works in a similar manner with
articles in prominent journals before they were rendered into book
form and this does not seem to have affected the stream of their
discussion and thoughts.
As this may be, the principle cause of disquiet will certainly be
Munshi's interpretation of significant historical events and his
commentary on the motivations of characters such as Jawaharlal Nehru,
Indira Gandhi, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ayub Khan who are all now
long dead. I was certainly surprised by some of his findings but it
was difficult to find fault here as most of his views are backed-up
with thorough research and investigation. His chapters on the 1971 war
and the insurgency in the CHT are probably the most tantalizing in
terms of historical data and comparisons.
Some of Munshi's arguments are further buttressed by a short chapter
by Khodeza Begum who makes reference to events that occurred during
the 1990's related to clandestine meetings held in Dhaka concerning
the reunification of the subcontinent. In her chapter, there is an
extensive discussion on the policies being pursued by the Indian
government that according to her is detrimental to the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Bangladesh. She analyses the concept of a
United Bengal that has featured in some of the Indian political
literature in recent years.
She has also summarized the tactics and strategies adopted by the
Indian government and its intelligence agency to undermine the unity
of Bangladesh and to inculcate the population of the country with a
perspective adverse to the nations integrity.
Although solidly written there is a problem with the length of the
chapter as well as the dated materials used by the author. A more
contemporary approach may have served better but the evidence seems
irrefutable and the author should update her research before a second
edition is considered.
In a sudden change of location Brig.-Gen. M. Sakhawat Hossain
inexplicably takes us all the way to the Indian Ocean and the emerging
strategic scenarios being played out in the area. One may legitimately
question the relevance to the overall context and theme of the book
but the author makes this abundantly clear when he remarks that
rivalries in the South Asian region are primarily based on events in
1971 and India's intent on dominating the region has had to appreciate
the ground realities that this cannot be achieved alone. Hossain
expertly explains the intricate alliances being forged in the region
and the importance of the Indian Ocean in the strategic thinking of
India, China, the USA and Pakistan. His comments on the North-East
insurgency and the recent uprising in Nepal are highly commendable and
very insightful especially in the latter case where he had visited
prior to writing the chapter.
Following the chapters by the Bangladeshi authors mentioned above come
the section written by the Nepali writers. In the case of Madan Prasad
Khanal, Nishchal Basnyat and Sanjay Upadhya their contributions to the
book are highly articulate, elegant and almost near impeccable. Each
author discusses differing aspects of Indian interference and
intervention in Nepali internal affairs and in some cases provides
possible solutions to these problems. But with a clear conception of
the implications of Indian domination on Nepal Dr. Shastra Dutta Pant
appeared a little confused in his expressions.
The final chapters of the book are by two Sri Lankan writers Dr Rohan
Gunaratna and Arbinda Acharya. Both writers collaborated to produce a
single chapter on the Sri Lankan attitude to Indian interference or as
the authors themselves put it, "India's involvement in Sri Lankan
ethnic imbroglio has been one of the most controversial, ironic as
well as tragic aspects of New Delhi's foreign policy." While
concentrating on the Sri Lankan situation the writers also manage to
draw in examples from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan to back
up their case on Indian aspirations in South Asia. Of significance is
the Indian involvement in the protracted and apparently insoluble
conflict with the Tamils. The chapter also involves a geostrategic
appraisal of Sri Lanka and its growing relationship with China and
Pakistan. It is unfortunate therefore that the authors were not as
forceful about Indian interventions in Sri Lanka especially during the
time of the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi.
The chapter seems somewhat apologetic about Indian intervention rather
than condemnatory which would have been an appropriate response from
Sri Lankan nationals.
Sid Harth
GEO-POLITICAL AFFAIRS
Raw at War-Genesis of Secret Agencies in Ancient India
Columnist Gp Capt SM HALI examines the historical capacity of Research
& Analysis Wing (RAW) of India to conduct clandestine operations
Introduction
Espionage, euphemistically called the second oldest profession of the
world finds a mention in the Indian Vedas, one of the most - if not
the most - ancient of the human texts. References to espionage are
also discernible in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Babylon,
Assyria, Greece and China. The Chinese sage Sun Tzu is considered by
European scholars to be the first to study and analyse the whole
question of espionage on scientific lines, and to set it down in a
text book Ping Fa, The Art of War. This view is, however, not
substantiated by cogent facts since there is ample proof of the
greater antiquity and soundness of the system of Secret Services
enunciated by the early Indians.
Varuna, one of the chief gods of the Vedic pantheon is considered to
be a forerunner of Secret Services. Magha, one of the most erudite and
lucid poets and pragmatic thinkers, unequivocally asserted that
statecraft cannot exist without the assistance of espionage. He
writes:-
'The statecraft in which even a single step is not taken in
contravention of the science of dandaniti {(i.e. the law of danda (the
rod)} which provides decent living (to the officers) and in which
liberal grants are given in recognition of services rendered, does not
shine to advantage without (the employment of ) spies, just as the
science of grammar does not shine without Papasa Bhasya (the
introductory portion of Patanjali's Mahabhasya), though it is provided
with Nyasa (a commentary of that name) which strictly follows the
words of the Sutras (of Panini), a good vrtti (explanatory work) and
an excellent Bhasya (advance work of explanation, discussion and
criticism)'.
- (Sisupala - vadha, 2.112)
Secret Agencies in ancient India were not conceived of as an
instrument of oppression but as a tool of governance. Secret agents
were considered as 'eyes of the king'.
Indian history illustrates that ancient Indians had gained great
expertise in this secret art. The techniques and operational methods
adopted by them were highly advanced, and can be usefully emulated
today. From the spasas of Varuna, the fore-runners of the modern globe-
trotting spies (the etymological affinity of the two terms is
noticeable) to Chanakya's final manifestation of this art in the
Arthasastra which is in fact a systematic codification of a wide
variety of scattered information copiously found in the Epics, - the
Mahabharata and the Ramayana - the Puranas and literary works of
Bhasa, Kalidasa, Magha and Bana; and the Tamil Sangam literature,
transcends unprecedented heights in this discipline.
The vision of the Arthashastra, is truly breath taking, its practical
utility timeless and the clarity of its exposition unique. The
techniques of manipulating public opinion and creating disinformation,
propounded by Chanakya anticipated modern intelligence systems by
several centuries. No wonder then that the nearly 2500 years old
lessons in deceit, guile, hypocrisy, machination, and gore taught by
that Master strategist, Chanakya alias Kautilya (literally meaning
'crooked') was adopted in toto by India and its chief intelligence
agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
While laying the foundation stone of RAW, India's late Prime Minister
Mrs. Indira Gandhi approvingly quoted Louis F Hallis, when she said
that its objectives should be the 'Ability to get what one wants by
whatever means: eloquence, reasoned arguments, bluff, tirade, threat
or coercion, as well as, by arousing pity, annoying others, or making
them uneasy'.
RAW is basically a Secret Service established to perform clandestine
operations based on the Chanakyan principles of deceit and guile. It
has successfully destabilised neighbouring countries, disintegrated
independent states and backed the most notorious guerrilla
organizations to achieve its ends. If it is compared to other
intelligence agencies of the region, it emerges as an aggressive, cold-
blooded and ruthless institution, engaged in the most macabre deeds.
The organization and structure of RAW will be discussed in the second
part of this paper. But to appreciate its working we must, first
examine the origin and organization of India's ancient secret
agencies.
Origin and Organization of Secret Agencies in Ancient India
The origin and development of Secret Agencies in ancient India is
linked to the geopolitical conditions of the times when India was
dotted with small states attempting to grab each other's territory and
wealth. The art of espionage was thoroughly mastered, and almost all
ancient Indian literary sources exhaustively dealt with this system.
Spying came to be regarded as an indispensable feature and integral
part of an efficient administration and of a sound foreign policy. It
kept the rulers posted with the activities, afflictions, and
operations of political adversaries: their disloyal and disgruntled
elements, fifth columnists and foreign agents in their midst, also the
strength and intentions of all foreign power. Espionage was considered
to be as important an institution as diplomacy, and was sought to be
governed by certain definite rules and usages. In Chanakya, the secret
service department became a permanent feature of the state and was
organised in the most 'uninhibited manner'.
While Chanakya presents a highly developed and complicated system of
governance including an all-pervasive espionage system, references to
it are found in pre-Mauryan literature, too. The Mahabharata refers to
a mythological tradition on the origin of the dandaniti and the art of
espionage, which was handed down from the past. It expounds 'Brahma,
the creator, himself composed a work comprising 1,00,000 chapters
relating to dharma (religion), artha (economy), kama (sexual desire)
and moksa (spiritual salvation) - the four aspects of life.' Brahma's
compilation, according to the Great Epic, included subjects of
behaviour towards counsellors, of spies, the indication of princes, of
secret agents possessed of diverse means, of envoys, and agents of
other kinds, conciliation, fomenting discord, gifts and chastisement;
deliberations including counsels for producing disunion; the three
kinds of victory, first, that which served righteously, secondly,
which was won by wealth, and, thirdly, the one obtained by deceitful
ways; chastisement of two kinds, namely, open and secret; the disorder
created in the hostile troops; inspiring the enemy with fear; the
means of winning over persons residing in the enemy territory; and
finally, the chastisement and destruction of those that are strong.'
No other civilization can claim such an antiquity for the techniques
of war, diplomacy, intrigue and espionage and on such compulsive
terms.
In short, Varuna and other deities of the Vedic pantheon heavily
depended on their secret agents. Manu, Kamandaka, Yajnavalkya and
Chanakya, besides the later digest writers, deliberated on the art of
espionage, while Chanakya perfected the art and recommended the
organisation of secret agencies in the most unabashed manner.
Professor Ghoshal suggests that the Mauryas followed the Arthasastra
tradition in four respects, i.e. precautions in recruiting spies,
countrywide espionage, safeguards against false reports by secret
agents and enlistment of the services of loose women.
Organization
The modest origin of secret agents in the form of Varuna's spasas
brought about the imperative need for effective and vigorous espionage
in an institutionalized form. The blue-print on espionage prepared by
Chanakya has remained a model for successive generations. Various
aspects of the organization of a secret agency as discussed in
complete detail in the Arthasastra are briefly touched upon here.
* Category of Agents. The Arthasastra mentions two wings of 'secret
service', viz. 'samstha' and 'sancara'. The agents belonging to
'samstha' were stationed in the Establishment financed by the State,
whereas the 'sancaras' moved from place to place depending on
professional requirements. The spymasters of the two wings headed
their respective cadre of agents, and controlled their operations. The
members of one group were not aware of the existence of the other.
This classification of Chanakya has been followed in India throughout
the successive centuries.
* Recruitment of Secret Agents. A study of Arthasastra, the
Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Manusmriti, Kamandaka and Sukra reveals
that there was no fixed source of recruitment of secret agents. Modern
intelligence services generally resort to three main sources of
recruitment, the academic world, the armed services and the under-
world. This was also the pattern followed in ancient India.
* Training. After recruitment, the secret agents were put through a
rigorous training in the techniques of adopting disguises, changing
appearances, science of signalling, secret writing, detection and
identification of criminals, manipulating public opinion and creating
dissensions in the enemy ranks.
* Control and Supervision. The complicated, comprehensive, all-
pervasive and ubiquitous institution of spies in ancient India
necessitated very close and personal supervision of the ruler or his
most reliable officers. It must have been difficult for the king to
personally handle the comprehensive and complicated department of
intelligence. According to the Arthasastra, the department of external
affairs, which was covering military intelligence was managed by the
king with the help of his foreign minister and the Commander-in-Chief.
The agents detailed to cover the senior officers of the central
government certainly reported to the king directly. In the far-flung
areas of extensive kingdoms and in view of poor means of
communication, the action specially in times of war had to be taken by
men on the spot and not by the king who may be at a place far distant
from the field of action. In foreign countries the spies were kept
under the control and supervision of ambassadors who scrutinised their
reports and directed intelligence operations. According to Chanakya,
the institution of spies as an organization did not function under a
unified command. The spies and secret agents worked under their
respective heads of department, and also directly under the king.
Techniques of Espionage
Before discussing the working of RAW, it would be worthwhile to
briefly examine some of the techniques of espionage employed by the
ancient secret agencies of India.
* Motivation and Recruitment of Sources. Motivation of persons to
cater intelligence is directly proportionate to their weakness for sex
and money, besides the burning desire of revenge or insatiable hunger
for power. The Spymasters of ancient India exploited these weaknesses
to their fullest advantage, and even the modern intelligence agencies
heavily depend on these considerations. Chanakya advocated that the
weak should be subjugated by means of conciliation and gifts, the
strong by means of dissension and force.
* Selection and Infiltration of Targets. Chanakya, in a very subtle
manner and with an intimate knowledge of human psychology, selected
his targets in foreign lands depending on their weaknesses and
motivation. He advised secret agents to concentrate on targets:-
* Among those who are dissatisfied with the rulers or had been
humiliated or exiled;
* Who have not been compensated for their expenditure;
* Those who have been deprived of their rightful inheritance to
office;
* Whose women have been molested by force;
* Who were wrongly imprisoned;
* Whose property had been confiscated;
* Who are prone to blackmail due to some weakness.
Double-Agent Operation. A 'Double-Agent' is a spy who works for the
opposition while pretending loyalty to those who employ him. this
technique is an indispensable facet of agent-running and was
extensively practised in ancient India. Chanakya suggested that secret
agents should not refuse pay from the targets for working with them as
their employees. This was to allay the misgivings on the part of the
targets. 'Double-Agents' were used for creating dissensions and
confusion among the confederates of the enemy. They floated false
documents, got them seized from the possession of the enemy's army
chiefs, and thus weakened the enemy. 'Double-Agents' were used to
winning over the confidence of their adopted masters by sacrificing a
few exposed, treacherous, disaffected or inefficient spies.
* Payment of Sources Encouragement of secret agents with money and
honour was considered an imperative necessity. The sources were paid
both in cash and kind, besides receiving extraordinary courtesies and
favours. It was also recommended that secret agents not only be
rewarded for the job done by them but, also, in the event of repeated
mistakes, silent punishment-death-be awarded to them.
* Communication of Intelligence Intelligence not properly and promptly
conveyed and which cannot be acted upon loses its value and validity.
Besides this, the Arthasastra, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Kamandaka and
Kathasaritasagara all recommend the use of coded language and signals.
* Interception of Mail Interception of messages, signals and letters
by postal censorship; monitoring and tapping telephones; and breaking
codes is the standard practice of modern intelligence agencies. In the
ancient period, since intelligence was communicated through pre-
determined signals and with the assistance of pigeons, secret agents
must have made elaborate arrangements to intercept these messages.
* Assessment of Information. The Arthasastra cautions against the
placing of reliance on agents without proper corroboration. It is
repeatedly emphasised that all aspects of a report must be gone
through, including the source of information, the mode of its
collection and the past performance of a source before it is accepted.
Briefing and debriefing of secret agents was an elaborate exercise,
and they were trained to be precise, accurate and truthful in
reporting.
* Working Under 'Cover'. The institution of espionage in ancient
India, like modern times, required secret agents to work under some
kind of 'cover' to preserve secrecy. Chanakya institutionalized the
art of working under the most ingenious 'covers'. The most common
disguises recommended by him were those of ascetic, mendicant,
merchant, artisan, wandering minstrel, artiste, cook, barber and
shampooer, bath and toilet attendant, deaf, dumb, eunuch and
prostitute. Chanakya recommends the use of women as effective tools of
espionage particularly those who were engaged in harlotry.
* Counter-Intelligence. A counter-intelligence operation is directed
at discovering the identities and methods of foreign spies and
intelligence officers working for the opposition. One of the most
important duties of the Secret Service in ancient India was to
counteract the activities of such agents operating within the country.
Chanakya recommends that secret agents should discover foreign spies
by operating at the places of entertainment, conclaves of people,
among beggars, in gardens and public places, and the houses of
prominent citizens.
Disinformation and Dissension. Manipulation of public opinion is as
important an object of the State today as it was in ancient India. It
is used to create disharmony and distrust among the enemy's friends,
ill-will among his allies, loss of confidence in their leadership and
disruption by psychological means his capacity and will to fight.
Chanakya had perfected the technique of disinformation and highly
eulogised the use of dissension in enemy's ranks for winning a battle
without any military action. His winning an extensive empire for his
student Chandragupta Maurya without fighting any mentionable battle is
aweÑ, and one may be excused to add: admirationÑ, inspiring feat,
unparalleled in history. The Sanskrit Classical drama Mudrakshasa has
tried to depict it dramatically but, at best, has only partially
succeeded.
* Sabotage. The technique of sabotage, which the political strategists
consider as the penultimate means to vanquish an adversary, had been
greatly perfected in ancient India. Secret practices for sabotage were
advocated by Chanakya to ensure victory. As a preface to sabotage, he
suggests the creation of an atmosphere congenial to arousing terror,
fear, demoralization, disappointment and loss of confidence among the
enemy ranks. Prior to launching a full-scale assault on the enemy
fort, Chanakya suggests implementation of secret measures to weaken
its defences not only physically but in all respects. These include
prevention of sowing the fields, destruction of the standing crops and
cutting of the enemy's supply lines.
He also advises free and uninhibited use of poison in the articles
used by the enemy. His detailed and scientifically valid knowledge of
the subject has earned for him a place in Arabic medical literature,
that knows him as Ibn Shanaq (son of Chanak). Some of the secret
stratagems advocated by Chanakya include the use of smoke with
properties seriously affecting the vision, and, arson or setting fires
within the enemy fort.
* The employment of Visakanyas (Poison-damsels). Secret Agencies in
ancient India had perfected very ingenious techniques to subserve the
interests of their monarchs. Besides using the nascent technological
advancement available to them, they exploited human weakness for sex
to achieve royal objectives. Visakanya is a unique feature of the
Indian genius to poison the monarch. These venomous beauties can be
classified, as follows:-
* A damsel whose body is saturated with gradual doses of poison, and
who is likely to transmit poison from her body to another person
coming in contact with her;
* A woman who treacherously captivates the heart of a person, and then
mixes poison in his food or drink;
* A girl who is, one way or the other, so much poisoned or infected
with disease that she is likely to convey her poison or disease to the
person coming in contact with her. A woman suffering from Venereal
disease or, in the latest situation one suffering from Aids is a
Visakanya of this kind.
RAW AT WAR-II
What is not possible by deployment of force is possible by the use of
stratagem.The black cobra was defeated by the stratagem of the crow
and the golden chain.
-- Chanakya
Introduction
The first part of this article briefly traced out the history of
secret services in ancient India. Its chief progenitor was Chanakya,
whose classic, the Arthasastra, not only provides a fairly graphic
account of the activities of spies in the Mauryan and post-Mauryan
polity but lays the foundation for the 'statecraft', guile and
unscrupulous practices advocated by this master strategist.
He goes on to recommend, 'In the work of espionage, all methods are
admissible Ñ snooping, lying, bribing, poisoning, using women's wiles
and the assassin's knife. To a weak king menaced by strong neighbours,
Chanakya's advice was to rely chiefly on spies and wage what he
described as a 'battle of intrigues' (mantra yuddha) and 'secret
wars' (kuta yuddha). The spies, in order to achieve their objective,
were to practice all kinds of fraud, artifice incendiarism and
robbery. Their objective was to demoralize the enemy's troops by
circulating false news, and seduce the allegiance of his minister and
commanders. The underlying idea seems to have been to keep the strong
neighbour preoccupied with domestic troubles thus making it impossible
for him to launch a foreign expedition. From the days of Chanakya, the
rules of business of espionage have not changed, at least the basic
principles remain as before. The development of science and technology
has only given fresh impetus and tools to the art of spying.
Evolution of RAW
Origins in the Directorate of Intelligence Bureau, created by the Raj
in November 1920 Ñ during the Khilafat and Swaraj movements Ñ out of
the old Criminal Intelligence Department (CID). In 1933, sensing the
political turmoil in the world which eventually led to the Second
World War, the bureau's responsibilities were increased to include the
collection of intelligence along India's borders. In 1947, after
Independence, Sanjeevi Pillai took over as the first Indian Director.
Having been depleted of trained manpower by the exit of the British
and Muslims, Pillai tried to run the bureau along MI 5 lines. Although
in 1949, Pillai organized a small foreign intelligence set-up, the
inefficacy of it was proved by the Indian debacle in the Indo-China
War of 1962, and the cry of 'not enough intelligence available', was
taken up by the Indian Chief of Army Staff, General Chaudhry, after
the 1965 Indo-Pak war.
It was towards the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967 that the
concept of a separate foreign intelligence agency began to take
concrete shape. In 1968, after Indira Gandhi had taken over, it was
decided that a full-fledged second security service was needed. R. N.
Kao, then a deputy director of IB, submitted a blueprint for the new
agency. Kao was appointed as the chief of India's first foreign
intelligence agency named as 'the Research and Analysis Wing' or RAW.
RAW takes shape
Having started humbly as a Wing of the main Intelligence Bureau with
250 personnel and an annual budget of Rs 2 crore (by a rough
estimate), in the early seventies, its annual budget had risen to Rs
30 crores while its personnel numbered several thousand. In 1971, Kao
had persuaded the government to set up the Aviation Research Centre
(ARC). The ARC's job was aerial reconnaissance. It replaced the Indian
Air Force's old reconnaissance aircraft and by the mid-70s, RAW,
through the ARC, had high quality aerial pictures of the installations
along the Chinese and Pakistani borders. By 1976, Kao had been
promoted to the rank of a fullfledged Secretary responsible for
Security and reporting directly to the Prime Minister. His rise had
raised RAW to become India's premier intelligence agency. RAW agents
operated in virtually every major embassy and high commission.
RAW's objectives
The objectives of RAW according to Asoka Raina's famous book Inside
RAW (Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1981) have been:-
* To monitor the political and military developments in all the
adjoining countries, which have, direct bearing on India's national
security and in the formulation of its foreign policy.
* Secondly, RAW watched the development of international communism and
the schism between the two communist giants, the Soviet Union and The
Republic of China. For as in other countries both the powers had
direct access to the Communist Parties in India.
* Thirdly, the supply of military hardware to Pakistan mostly from
European countries, the USA and China, was of high priority.
* And last but not the least, the presence of a large ethnic Indian
population in foreign countries, provided a powerful lobby. These
countries could back a favourable policy in international councils,
motivated by the ethnic Indian group.
The Organization
RAW has been organized on the lines of the CIA. The following chart
(source: Inside RAW by Asoka Raina) signifies the organization of RAW
and is self-explanatory.
Training of RAW Agents
Recruitment: Initially, induction in RAW relied primarily on trained
intelligence officers who were recruited directly. These belonged to
the external wing of IB. However, quite a few were taken from police
and other services to fill the cadres of RAW owing to its sudden
expansion. Later RAW began recruiting promising fresh graduates from
the Universities directly. The criteria for selection are fairly
stringent.
Basic Training: Basic training commences with 'pep talks' to boost the
morale of the new recruit. This is a ten days' phase in which the
fresh inductee is familiarized with the world of intelligence and
espionage and alienated from the spies of fiction. Common usages,
technical jargon and classification of information are taught. Case
studies of other agencies like CIA, KGB, Chinese Secret Agency and ISI
are presented for study. He is also taught that an intelligence
organisation does not basically identify a friend from a foe, it is
the country's foreign policy that do.
Phase - II: The fresh recruit's training continues and he is now
posted in some remote outpost, attached to a Field Intelligence Bureau
(FIB). His training here lasts for a period of six months to a year.
He is given a first hand feeling of what it was to be out in the cold,
in the danger area conducting clandestine operation. During night
exercises, under conditions of absolute realism, he is taught
infiltration and exfiltration. He is instructed to avoid capture and
if caught, how to face intensive interrogation; the art of
reconnoiter, making contacts, and, the numerous skills of operating an
intelligence mission. At the end of the field training, the new
recruit is brought back to the School for final polishing. Before his
deployment in the field, he is given exhaustive training in the art of
self-defence, an introduction to martial arts and the use of technical
espionage devices. He is also drilled in various administrative
disciplines so that he could take his place in the foreign missions
without arousing suspicion. He is now ready to operate under the cover
of an Embassy to gather information, set up his own network of
informers, moles or operatives as the task may require.
Functions of RAW
The functions of RAW vary according to the target. Some functions for
obtaining strategic intelligence are outlined below:-
Collection of Information: Emphasis is laid on obtaining information
essential to Indian interests. Both overt and covert means are
adopted.
Collection of Information : The vast myriad of data is sifted through,
classified and filed. The modern computer network in the 13-storey
bombproof building situated at Lodhi Road, New Delhi, is a great help.
Aggressive Intelligence: The primary mission of RAW includes
aggressive intelligence which comprise espionage, psychological
warfare, subversion, sabotage, terrorism and creating dissension,
insurgency and, ultimately, insurrection to destabilize the target
country.
Modus Operandi
Foreign Missions: Foreign Missions provide an ideal cover and RAW
centres in a target country are generally located inside the Embassy
premises.
Multinationals: RAW operatives find good covers in Multinational
organizations. NGOs and Cultural programmes are also popular screens
to shield RAW activities.
Media: International media centres can easily absorb RAW operatives
and provide freedom of movement.
Collaboration with other agencies: RAW maintains active collaboration
with other secret services to meet its ends in a particular target
country. Its contacts with KGB of the former Soviet Union, KHAD, the
erstwhile Afghan agency, Mossad, CIA and MI6 have been well-known. A
common interest being Pakistan's Nuclear Programme.
Third Country Technique: RAW has been very active in obtaining
information and operating through third countries like the Middle
East, Afghanistan, UK, Hong Kong, Mayanmar and Singapore.
Spotting and Recruitment: RAW operatives are on the lookout for local
recruits to serve their ends. Acting on the Chanakyan principles, they
tend to exploit human weaknesses for wine, women and wealth, and, at
times resort to blackmail. Separatist tendencies and ethnic or
sectarian sensitivities are also well-known grounds for manipulation.
Armed Forces personnel remain a primary target. Those journalists,
intellectuals and politicians harbouring and preaching goodwill and
better Indo-Pak relations also make suitable targets for inadvertent
and unconscious recruitment by RAW agents.
Major successes of RAW
Creation of Bangladesh: The Bangladesh operation, beginning with
sowing seeds of dissension, leading to the Agartala Conspiracy,
creation of Mukti Bahini and under its cover sneaking into East
Pakistan for guerrilla operations to blow up bridges and other
installations damaged the morale of Pakistani troops and India won the
war even before the battle began, thanks to RAW as its agents had
infiltrated every nook and corner of erstwhile East Pakistan. The
paragraph entitled: 'RAW takes shape', in the initial part of this
article, amply demonstrates the causal chain of events.
Plan to assassinate General Zia-ur-Rahman: According to the September
18-24, 1988 issue of the weekly Magazine Sunday (Calcutta), RAW was on
the verge of assassinating Bangladesh's President General Zia-ur-
Rahman (with Mrs Gandhi's approval) when the Congress government fell.
RAW briefed the new Prime Minister Morarji Desai about it who was
appalled at the idea and stopped the murder. General Zia continued to
rule Bangladesh for many more years. He was assassinated after Indira
Gandhi returned to power but RAW pleads innocence.
Poornima: Project Poornima was the name given India's Nuclear
Programme. The task to keep it 'under tight wraps of security' was
given to RAW. This was the first time that RAW was involved in a
project inside India. The rest is history as India managed to surprise
the world on 18 May, 1974 by detonating a 15-Kiloton plutonium device
at Pokharan.
Kahuta's Blueprint: According to the September 18-24, 1988 issue of
the weekly Indian Magazine Sunday, RAW agents claim that in early
1978, they were on the verge of obtaining the plans and blueprint for
Kahuta nuclear plant that was built to counter the Pokharan atomic
blast, but the then Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai not only
refused to sanction the $ 10,000 demanded by the RAW agent, but
informed Pakistan of the offer. According to the report, Pakistanis
caught and eliminated the RAW mole.
It must be noted that the author of 'Ham Jang Nahin Hone Denge' held
the external affairs portfolio at that time.
Sikkim: Encircled by Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and West Bengal in the
Eastern Himalayas, Sikkim presented a lucrative target to the Indians.
It was ruled by a Maharaja. The Indian Government had recognized the
title of Chogyal (Dharma Raja) for the Mahraja of Sikkim. After their
kill in East Pakistan, in 1972, RAW was given the green signal to go
ahead with the operation of installing a pro-Indian democratic
government there. In less than three years, with the manipulation of
RAW, Sikkim became the 22nd State of the Indian Union on April 26,
1975.
Maldives: To bring the smaller Independent States/countries in the
Indian sphere of influence with the use of RAW, the case of Maldives
makes an important example. In November 1988, the Eilam Peoples'
Liberation Front comprising about 200 Tamil secessionists on the pay
roll of RAW were tasked to stage the drama of an uprising on that
peaceful island. At the request of the President of Maldives, Mr
Mamoon Abdul Qayyum, Indian Armed Forces 'quelled' the insurgency
engineered by themselves and thus tried to sneak into the
administrative mechanism of that peace-loving country.
Operation Chanakya: This was the codename given to the RAW operation
in Occupied Kashmir to create rifts among the various Kashmiri
Mujahideen groups, suppress the uprising and bring the Kashmiris under
total Indian subjugation. According to Tariq Ismail Sagar's book RAW,
(Milli Book Depot, Lahore, 1997) in 1991, RAW operatives entered the
Srinagar Valley in the guise of freedom fighters. They resorted to
loot, rape and arson of Kashmiri Pundit families to give the popular
non-communal uprising a bad name. Operation Chanakya gained momentum
when Mossad provided its experienced Katsas to train RAW operatives.
They did gain initial successes but when later actions of Operations
Chanakya failed, RAW commenced an intensive propaganda to blame ISI.
Monitoring Pakistani Telecommunication: Raw operatives boast that at
one time its monitoring complex had managed to break through Pakistani
Telecommunications and were listening in to all telephonic
conversations held by important Pakistani leaders.
RAW's Failures
Although RAW has had many successes, it has also committed a number of
blunders. Some of these are discussed below:
Promulgation of Emergency: Whereas the IB Director, A. Jayaram had
advised Mrs Indira Gandhi against promulgating the Emergency, Kao, Mrs
Gandhi's handpicked man and RAW's head, supported it. This proved to
be a fatal mistake. He continued to feed the PM reports of its
popularity and that no excesses were committed. How disastrous it
proved for Kao's benefactor is a matter of history.
Operation Blue Star: This was the codename given to the storming of
the holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple of Amritsar in 1984.
Although it was a domestic matter and IB's concern, yet RAW was pulled
in under the pretext of a foreign element's (allegedly Pakistani)
involvement. RAW failed miserably as it could not assess the strength
of Bhindranwale's forces. What was to be a 5 hours' operation
stretched to 5 days and tanks had to be brought in and Indian Army
suffered heavy casualties. Ultimately Indira Gandhi had to pay with
her own life as she was gunned down by her Sikh bodyguard in
retaliation to Operation Blue Star. Kao, the Prime Minister's Security
Adviser resigned within 24 hours of her assassination.
Kee us ne mere qatl ke ba'd Jafaa se tauba,
Haae! Us zood pashemaan kaa pashemaan honaa.
Ah! The remorse of the one
Who after finishing me,
Took the vow never to be cruel again.
So soon did he repent!
Bravo!
--- Ghalib
Mujib-ur-Rahman's Assassination: RAW operatives claim that they had
advance information about Shaikh Mujib-ur-Rahman's assassination but
they failed to prevent it. It is interesting to note that despite its
role in the creation of Bangladesh, RAW failed to annex it.
It was a classic case of the cropping up of a double dilemma: Yak na
shud do shud.
Mauritius: Mrs Gandhi was so keen to see Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam
continue as the Prime Minister of Mauritius that RAW was tasked to
oversee his reelection campaign. Despite heavy investments, RAW failed
by a wide margin.
Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka had been marked for special attention after it
had permitted Pakistani aircraft to land for refuelling there after
India had stopped the over flight rights of Pakistani flights to and
back from East Pakistan. Sri Lankan President Junius Jaywardhene's aim
of turning his country into an Asian Tiger did not suit India at all.
Stung by its failures in the Indian Punjab, RAW attempted to make up
in Sri Lanka. RAW started training militants to destabilize the Pearl
Island but in the bargain, such a monster was unleashed that even the
landing of Indian troops as a peacekeeping force in Sri Lanka failed
badly. Eventually, Rajiv Gandhi became a victim of the muddling in Sri
Lanka.
RAW seems to be a congenital enemy of the Gandhi family.
Soft Target: Zuhair Kashmiri and Brian Mac Andrew's well-known book
Soft Target (James Lorimer and Comp., Publishers, Toronto, 1994)
provides details of RAW's botched operations in Canada to malign the
Sikhs there for their role in the Khalsa movement and make them
suspect in the eyes of the Canadian authorities. On 23 June, 1985 Air
India's Flight 182 was blown up near Ireland and 329 innocent lives
were lost. On the same day another explosion took place at Tokyo's
Narita airport's transit baggage building where baggage was being
transferred from Cathay Pacific Flight No CP 003 to Air India's Flight
301 which was scheduled for Bangkok. Both aircraft were loaded with
explosives from Canadian airports. Flight 301 got saved because of a
delay in its departure. Initially RAW was successful in pointing the
finger at Canadian Sikhs but the Canadian authorities soon concluded
that it was a RAW ploy.
RAW's Primary Target: Pakistan
Pakistan remains RAW's primary concern. It runs thousands of agents
and spends millions of rupees in its operations against Pakistan. It
has made a three-pronged attack against Pakistan in an attempt to
destabilise it:-
* Propaganda
* Espionage, and
* Subversion
RAW is totally committed on all these three fronts and is engaged in
launching covert operations in consonance with India's hostile foreign
policy. The Jain Commission Report, released by India in 1997,
acknowledges that RAW did sponsor the terrorist activities of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eilam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka and violent
intervention in Bangladesh. All aspects of Pakistani activities,
economic, military, industrial and cultural receive a close scrutiny
of RAW. It considers Sindh as the soft under-belly of Pakistan and has
therefore made it the prime target for sabotage and subversion. Ashok
A Biswas, a Delhi-based research scholar, in his recently compiled
study RAW - An Unobstructive Instrument of India's Foreign Policy, (as
quoted by Pakistan Observer in 'A RAW deal for South Asia, 03 May,
1998) states that 'the aim of RAW is to keep internal disturbances
flaring up and the ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can lend no
worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region.' He concludes,
'RAW over the years has admirably fulfilled its task of destabilizing
target states through unbridled export for terrorism. The 'Indian
Doctrine' spelt out a difficult and onerous role of RAW. It goes to
its credit that it has accomplished its assigned objectives. The
Indian government spelling out the task for RAW in this regard has
stated, 'Pakistan should be so destabilized internally that it could
not support the 'Kashmir cause even morally, diplomatically or
politically'. Keeping the size of Pakistan in view, the task seems a
difficult one for RAW. But it appears, RAW has taken it as a challenge
and is working assiduously and speedily to accomplish this task'.
No wonder, with the wily Chanakya as its mentor and the machinations
preached in his Arthasastra as their bible, RAW is well equipped to
continue waging its war of propaganda, sabotage and subversion. It is
for its prime target 'Pakistan' to be wary of its macabre game plan of
continuing war by 'other means' and continue exposing RAW's heinous
designs against us, which are a blatant, utter and naked violation of
all human values. And not the least the people and the leadership of
India; for as the great poet Ghalib said:
Hue tum dost jiske,
Us ka dushman asman kiyun ho
With a friend like you,
Who needs a foe!
Sid Harth
Superseded by ‘outsider’, RAW officers protest
Express News Service
Posted: Tuesday , Sep 08, 2009 at 0446 hrs
New Delhi:
Angered at being superseded by an ‘outsider’, some of the senior-most
officers of India’s external intelligence agency, Research and
Analysis Wing (RAW), have proceeded on a protest leave, triggering a
fresh crisis in the organisation.
As many seven officers belonging to RAW’s own cadre, RAS, all in the
rank of Additional Secretary, have decided to go on leave following
the appointment of A B Mathur, a 1975 batch IPS officer, in the rank
of Special Secretary, the second highest post in the organisation.
Mathur, an officer of Manipur and Tripura cadre, has been brought from
the Intelligence Bureau, after being promoted as a Special Director
General, though he has earlier served in RAW. His appointment led to
apprehension among the RAS cadre that once again an outsider would be
favoured to get the top post in RAW.
The present chief of RAW K C Verma is also an IPS and, incidentally,
he too had a long stint spanning nearly three decades in the
Intelligence Bureau. He was preferred over P V Kumar, the senior-most
officer of RAS at that time.
Meanwhile, the promotion of Mathur has also become a bone of
contention within the IPS community as not all of his batchmates have
been elevated to the rank of SDG.
The protest by the RAS officers has forced the Cabinet Secretariat to
intervene in the issue. Sources said the Cabinet Secretariat had asked
RAW to hold a Departmental Promotional Committee to look into the case
of the aggrieved officers.
chhotemianinshallah
Sid Harth
ISI chief at Indian High Commissioner's 'iftar' makes headlines
PTI 11 September 2009, 02:00pm IST
ISLAMABAD: ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha's presence at an 'iftar'
hosted by the Indian High Commissioner made it to the front pages of
most Pakistani newspapers today, with one daily even describing the
development as a "milestone" in the history of Indo-Pak ties.
Pasha created ripples after he made a low-key entrance along with
another senior ISI official and some aides at the iftar-dinner hosted
by High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal in a five-star hotel last
evening. In the absence of any senior ministers, Pasha was the senior-
most representative from the Pakistani side at the event.
Clad in a black sherwani, Pasha sat at the same table as Sabharwal and
several other Pakistani guests, including former minister Gohar Ayub
Khan, TV anchors and businessmen. After breaking his fast and offering
the 'maghrib' prayers, Pasha left much before the dozens of other
guests.
In its front-page report, The News daily said: "September 10, 2009 was
a milestone in the history of India-Pakistan relations...It was the
first time that the head of the ISI Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha was the
guest of Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal at an iftar
dinner..."
Sabharwal exchanged pleasantries with Pasha and told his guests about
his earlier diplomatic stint in Pakistan during 1995-99. The News
noted that this was "the most difficult time" between the two
countries because of the Kargil conflict in 1999 and the ISI "used to
chase all those visiting the Indian High Commission in Islamabad."
The News also pointed out that though Pakistani and Indian diplomats
were "beaten up" many times by intelligence personnel in the late
1990s, the ISI chief was greeted with smiles by Indian diplomats at
yesterday's event. When a Pakistani TV anchor remarked to Pasha that
Pakistan had done a lot to improve ties with India in the wake of the
Mumbai attacks though the Indian response was not very encouraging,
the ISI chief replied: "Let's hope for the best. Things will
definitely improve."
Referring to the ISI chief's "rare presence" at an event hosted by
India, the Daily Times quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the
development was a "good beginning" that suggested Pakistan is serious
about resolving all issues by resuming the stalled composite dialogue
process with India.
The sources said Pasha's presence at the Indian function will "create
hope that the intelligence community of the two countries might be
reviewing their policy of sworn hostility against each other."
Former ISI chief Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, who also attended the
event along with several retired military officials, said: "It's a
very positive development."
The Dawn newspaper said in its report that Pasha's presence at the
event assumed significance "in view of the chill in ties between the
two countries in the aftermath of last year's Mumbai attacks."
chhotemianinshallah
Spies to Pak blame Centre for neglecting their kin
13 September 2009, 03:52am IST
AHMEDABAD: Three persons who were sent to Pakistan to spy for the
Indian agencies have blamed the Centre for neglecting them and
demanded compensation for the period they spent in Pakistani jails.
Ratanlal Harnamdas, 45 and Sunil Fazal, 50, both from Gurdaspur
district in Punjab were sent to Pakistan as informers by the officials
of military intelligence, while Prakashchand Dhanaram, 60, from Bega
village in Jammu was sent by the Border Security Force.
Addressing the media on Saturday, they claimed that the Indian
government did not care to look after their families when they were in
Pakistani jails. Ratanlal, who crossed the border first in 1994, was
arrested in 1999 and spent three years in jail. Sunil worked for nine
years before he was caught by Pakistan agencies in 1999, and was later
sentenced to imprisonment by a court there. He was released in 2006.
Similarly, Prakashchand went to Pakistan first in 1984, then he made
20 such trips before he was nabbed in 2001. He was made to remain in
jail for six years. He has claimed that when he returned to India, his
family was in poor financial condition.
All the three have accused the government for not fulfilling the
promise made by the defense agencies that the financial requirements
of their families would be taken care of by the government while they
were spying in Pakistan for "the cause of nation". But, after they
were arrested and put in jails, nobody cared for their families, and
they returned to India to find their family members in displeasing
condition.
They have also revealed that along with 18 other families of such
informers, they have also instituted a suit in the Delhi High Court
seeking compensation from the government for the time they spent in
Pakistan jails in order to serve the country. Earlier, the high court
had asked the Centre to pay Rs 5 lakh to family of an informer towards
compensation.
These informers also narrated how Pakistani security agencies as well
as jail authorities had put them to inhuman torture, and how they had
witnessed death of other Indian nationals during detention. "Besides
all other abuses during interrogation, Pakistani officials also
threatened us to liquidate us in staged shoot-out," said Sunil, when
asked whether they feared extra-judicial killing in Pakistan.
chhotemianinshallah
I live in daily dread of another 26/11, says NSA
IANS 20 September 2009, 06:23pm IST
NEW DELHI: National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has said that he
lives in "daily dread" of a repeat of the Nov 26 Mumbai terror
attacks, though he added that now India is better prepared.
In an interview to Karan Thapar on the news channel, he also
questioned the credibility of the police first information reports
(FIRs) Pakistan has filed against Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafiz
Saeed, the alleged mastermind of Mumbai terror attacks.
Asked how seriously scared was he that there could be a second major
'Mumbai-like' strike on India, Narayanan said: "Here you are asking me
a question that I live in almost daily dread that something that I am
looking at or home minister P. Chidambaram."
"The home minister takes a daily meeting at which I am also present
and when he is not there I take that meeting. We get so many pieces of
intelligence which pass across our table, many you can sort of weed
out but as I said there are quite a few which if they are not able to
nip in bud can turn dangerous."
"However, it is difficult to say whether we will have another Mumbai
because I think we are better prepared perhaps for that kind of
situation, but it could be quite serious," Narayanan said.
Asked whether Pakistan scares him, Narayanan said: "Pakistan may not
scare me, but some of Pakistan's actions scare us, because I don't
think this really adds to anything except creating problems for us."
In an apparent contradiction to the stand taken by Chidambaram who
said that the FIRs against Saeed was Pakistan's first positive step in
booking the perpetrators of the Mumbai mayhem, Narayanan said it does
not add any credibility to Pakistan's commitment to act.
"If you take the Saeed dossier that has been provided to Pakistan, I
think we have marshalled what I would call Grade 1 evidence. You have
the evidence from three people, three human beings, three admittedly
terrorists - Kasab, Fahim Ansari, Soharabuddin - who talked of what
Saeed had come talked to them, what he had said etc."
"This is apart from other connecting evidence. I agree one can never
be as sure what a court would (do) with that kind of evidence but if
you are not even willing to test that, it certainly leaves in our mind
a big question mark about where Pakistan stands on terrorism," he
said.
"I think the latest one doesn't really add to any credibility in my
opinion."
Sid Harth
The defence services-owned think tanks
What is their role? What is holding them back from achieving their
potential?
MoS for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor — currently in the media
spotlight due to a needless tweeting controversy — is doing something
of great significance in his ministry. If this Times of India report
is something to go by — and Tharoor has tweeted that it is largely
accurate, the policy planning division in the MEA is being overhauled
to bring it to the fore of foreign policy thinking in the country.
More interestingly, Tharoor is looking at inputs from think tanks and
experts outside his ministry which is a norm in many western
democracies.
“The division will put forward policy papers, options, etc, which will
need inputs from all the territorial divisions. We also plan to
circulate the policy papers to select think tanks like IDSA, and other
outside experts. Certainly, for the Indian Ocean policy, we want to
work closely with the Indian Navy’s think tank, the National Maritime
Foundation,” Tharoor said.[TOI]
Rather interestingly, the minister gave the examples of IDSA
[Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses] and NMF [National Maritime
Foundation] as the think tanks he was looking at for seeking inputs.
Needless to say, it is a hugely welcome step: national security,
defence and foreign policy are interrelated and overlapping areas of
national policy and a synergy between the three fields is an absolute
necessity today.
Besides the IDSA[funded by the defence ministry] and the NMF[owned by
the Indian Navy], there are a few other defence and security related
think tanks — funded by the government or the defence services — in
this country. The oldest among them is the USI [United Services
Institution of India] which has been in existence since 1870; in
comparison, the IDSA started only in 1965. However, the USI has
degenerated into an institution more focused on producing study
material for officers appearing for promotion examinations and staff
college entrance examinations, besides producing a quarterly journal
of questionable quality. By diversifying into training military and
police officers proceeding on UN peacekeeping missions under the aegis
of CUNPK, it is no longer even close to being a think tank producing
original thought or research of strategic value.
The Indian Army has its own think tank called the CLAWS [Centre for
Land Warfare Studies] while the Indian Air Force and the Integrated
Defence Staff have the CAPS [Centre for Air Power Studies] and CENJOWS
[Centre for Joint Warfare Studies] respectively. While these are
trying hard to create a niche for themselves in the nebulous world of
Indian think tanks, they are hampered by a few inherent drawbacks.
The first and foremost among them is the credibility and integrity of
these service-specific think tanks as they have not been able to
dismember their umbilical cord with the parent services. The services
own them but by being making these think tanks indistinguishable from
their parent service, the services do a great disservice to themselves
and other government-supported think tanks. When these think tanks act
as a front for the services that own them, they do serve a very
important purpose: of bringing out the views and quasi-official
position of the services on matters of national importance in the
public domain, an option generally not available to the Indian defence
services. However, there have been question marks about these views
not being the institutional views but only those of the brass perched
at the top of the service hierarchy. When heads of think tanks change
with the changing of service chiefs — and the outgoing and the
incoming heads happen to be from the same regiments as the outgoing
and the incoming chiefs — it is bound to not inspire much confidence
among external observers.
These think tanks also suffer the disadvantage of promoting fossilised
thinking, rooted in that service specific culture from which they draw
the majority of their research scholars and fellows. There are hardly
any young officers [Captains and Majors or equivalents] deputed to
these think tanks who can bring fresh and unconventional ideas to the
table. Barring a few exceptions, the majority of work produced by the
retired or about-to-retire officers in these think tanks is thus a
regurgitation of age old thought taught at service schools, staff
college and NDC, sprinkled with some modern jargon and terminology
borrowed from various western journals that are now so easily
available on the internet. This is also a poor reflection on the
intellectual upbringing in the Indian defence services where a Jasjit
Singh or Sundarji or C Uday Bhaskar is an exception, and not the norm.
These think tanks also seem to be struggling with a clear enunciation
of their goals and vision. What is the rationale for their existence?
Do they complete a feedback loop to the services on various tactical
or organisational matters from the perspective of an ex-insider-
looking-in? Or do they influence the strategic landscape of national
security by holding forth on esoteric subjects that do not directly
concern the services? In trying to expound on all the subjects —
foreign policy, national security, defence, strategy, tactics,
internal security and organisational matters — these think tanks end
up doing nothing substantively.
However, all hope is not lost for these think-tanks as the exemplary
work produced by a reinvigorated NMF, under the leadership of C Uday
Bhaskar, has demonstrated so well in the last few months. These
service-owned think tanks have an important role to play in the
intellectual debate in the domain of national security and subsequent
policy formulation. But they need to get their act in place first, and
fast. These think tanks desperately need an infusion of fresh (and
younger) blood in their ranks and full autonomy in functioning as
independent institutions. Internally they need to be more focused in
their approach by clearly articulating their main and subsidiary
roles, and then separating the various roles within the think tank,
focus on red gaming for the services, and by being more active and
visible in public domain — on the electronic and in the print media.
The services and the ministry can help by providing greater access to
classified data and information, and the government must also actively
encourage their enhanced interaction with policy makers,
parliamentarians and political parties.
There has been some talk of too many security related think tanks
proliferating in Delhi, with the non-government funded ones such as
the Delhi Policy Group, Observer Research Foundation, Institute of
Peace and Conflict Studies, Society for Indian Ocean Studies and the
Indian Council of World Affairs also trying to assert themselves.
However, Air Commodore Jasjit Singh has opined that Delhi needs a
minimum of 30 top-class think tanks dealing with national security.
What India suffers from then is not a problem of plenty, but a lack of
quality in the few think tanks that deal with national security. Let
us not only better the existing ones, but let us get some more new
ones — of the highest quality — in the think tank business in this
country.
Sid Harth
Needed: a privacy law
Intelligence sharing is fine, but protect personal privacy
Business Standard / New Delhi September 29, 2009, 0:00 IST
The Kargil review committee went into the failure to share
intelligence, seen as one of the causes of the Kashmir war, and
recommended corrective action. The government then decided to set up a
Multi-Agency Centre (Mac) to coordinate and share intelligence
available with the different agencies, including the Intelligence
Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and Military Intelligence. It
was also decided that a National Intelligence Grid (Nig) would be set
up at a subsequent stage. Nothing happened for many years, until the
Mumbai attack of last year, which was seen as having resulted from yet
another failure of intelligence coordination. A new home minister took
charge, and soon there was action.
The Mac was set up within weeks, and Mr Chidambaram chaired its first
meeting in January. Nig was then promised as State II, and it has now
been disclosed that this will involve the sharing of information (not
just intelligence) by 11 agencies which run 20 different databases,
ranging from income tax returns to bank accounts, and from telephone
records to internet search histories. The databases will remain in
separate silos, but information from these databases can and will be
shared. Along the way was born the Unique Identity project, headed by
Nandan Nilekani, which could result in biometric cards.
Everyone will welcome the sharing of intelligence, and such
initiatives as Mr Chidambaram’s move to network the country’s 16,000
police stations so that information can be exchanged by them real-
time. India has suffered for far too long from an uncoordinated, turf-
driven system of gathering and using intelligence, and from managing
information as though the information technology revolution never
happened. However, it also goes without saying that the moves to
modernise these systems and network them raise serious questions
relating to privacy, data security and identity theft.
India does not have a proper privacy law. The right to privacy is not
explicitly recognised in the Constitution, and is only seen to be
derived from the right to life and liberty. The laws that do exist
relate to the privacy of data held by public financial bodies (like
banks) and cyber-data (the Information Technology Act of 2002). The
privacy of personal communication, including telephone calls, is
protected under the Telegraph Act of 1885, but has been frequently
violated by the intelligence agencies, leading to Supreme Court
strictures and directives in 1996. This situation is completely
unsatisfactory when a massive amount of extremely personal and private
information is to be made available to a much broader group of people
than has been the case so far, and when a biometric card system might
result from the Unique Identification project. A proper law
guaranteeing privacy is therefore an urgent and vital matter that
needs the government’s immediate attention, and should incorporate
careful safeguards against the misuse of information, and stringent
punishment for cases where there is misuse.
Equally, the danger of centralising access to information is that you
present a more attractive target to hackers. The security of various
databases and communication networks therefore becomes a matter of
vital concern, not just to government intelligence agencies but to
every private citizen. Identity theft is a growth industry in many
countries, and the last thing anyone would want is for it to
materialise in India. Finally, while mandating the sharing of
intelligence is fine, how will the government ensure that intelligence
is in fact shared, and used effectively (it might be worth checking
how effectively the tax information network is being used by the
revenue department)?