Ishrat Jahan case: Intelligence won’t survive the investigation

[SURYA-1]

In 1988, the President of India handed Ajit Kumar Doval a small silver disc exactly one-and-three-eights of an inch in diameter, emblazoned with the great wheel of dharma, a lotus wreath and the words Kirti Chakra. It was the first time a police officer had ever received the medal, among the highest military honours our Republic can bestow.

He won that medal for unspeakable crimes.

Like many former intelligence officials, Doval considers himself bound not to discuss past operations. I have his permission, though, to speculate that it may have involved the cold-blooded execution of a Pakistani intelligence officer, the illegal detention of terrorism suspects, torture, the smuggling of arms and explosives across India’s borders, and the use of false identities.

Lawyers have numbers and words for these things: 302, 304, 364, 120B, the Arms Act, the Explosives Act. These are the laws India’s intelligence services break every single day — to defend the Republic.

To comprehend this is to comprehend why India’s intelligence services simply won’t — at least in their present form— survive the Ishrat Jahan Raza murder investigation. Ever since their inception, the Intelligence Bureau and its sister-services have functioned without any legal mandate. This means authorisation for anything they do. Every time an intelligence officer initiates a covert operation, launches agents across the border or engages in the lethal deceptions that constitute the warp and weft of spycraft, she or he breaks the law and violates the constitution.

It’s worked because of an unwritten consensus that has historically cut across political parties. Last week, it all fell apart.

Few in the Intelligence Bureau privately dispute the contours of the secret story behind Ishrat Jahan’s death. In February, 2004, the Intelligence Bureau was able to locate two Gujarat-based jihadists, trained in Pakistan, on the basis of information recovered from the body of a Poonch-based Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, Ehsan Illahi. The two Gujarat-based are men are referred to in Central Bureau of Investigation documentation simply as C1 and C2.

C1 and C2 were persuaded, possibly with bribery or threats, to change sides. They informed their Lashkar handler, Muzammil Bhat — the key military commander of the 26/11 plot — that they were ready to stage an attack against top political leaders in Gujarat, including chief minister Narendra Modi.

The Intelligence Bureau was thus waiting for Gujranwala-based Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Zeeshan Zohar, despatched to Gujarat in April on Bhat’s instructions. They were waiting for his Sargodha-born colleague Amjad Ali Rana — earlier injured in fighting in Jammu and Kashmir — who showed up the following month.

Intelligence officers, helped by the police, coerced the two men — it’s possible torture was involved — to continue communicating with Bhat, allowing him to believe the plot was going well.

From immigration records, we know this: on 29 March 2004, Pune resident Javed Sheikh flew to Oman, on passport E6624023, identifying him as Praneshkumar M Gopinath Pillai — a travel document obtained illegally, in addition to an earlier one in his Muslim name. He flew back to Mumbai on 11 April. He purchased the second-hand car that was to carry him to his death. And he repeatedly communicated with Bhat — who finally authorised him to travel to Gujarat in June, believing C1, C2, and the two Pakistani fidayeen were ready to initiate their attack.

It’s still unknown what Ishrat was doing with Sheikh; nothing, bar 26/11 convict David Headley’s claim she was a suicide bomber, is on record. Her family insists she was just an innocent teenager, hired by Sheikh for his — non-existent — perfume business.

This much, we can say: if the police had done what they ought to have done, arrested and charged C1 and C2 with terrorism-related crimes instead of illegally inducing them to cooperate, they’d never have got to Zeeshan Johar. If they’d arrested Johar, and produced him before a magistrate, they’d never have got to Amjad Ali Rana. If they’d arrested Rana, they’d never have got to Javed Sheikh. If they hadn’t got to these men, innocents might have died. And if they hadn’t killed the suspects, C1 and C2 would have been useless for further operations — and possibly dead.

Let there be no doubt about this: no democratic republic can countenance extrajudicial executions and torture. There’s just no way for what happened in Gujarat to be made acceptable. Leave aside all the ethical concerns. Police officials who the power over the life and death of terrorists today can, tomorrow, use it against political opponents and all the rest of us. Encouraging such acts isn’t patriotism: it is a sure-shot way of turning us into Pakistan, or worse.

Few ethical principles, though, survive encounters with the real world un-bruised — which is why only those who never exercise power have the luxury of moral pieties.

India has long confronted insurgencies and terrorism where state had to make a choice between law and order, after all its non-coercive institutions collapsed. KPS Gill’s campaign against the Khalistan insurgency was brutal—but the thousands of people not killed in Punjab since 1993 is surely some moral mitigation of that violence.

The west has, for the most part, offshored these dilemmas. The Cold War was fought with great violence — but in other peoples’ countries. The Soviet Union and United States, unlike Pakistan and India, didn’t ever bomb each others’ cities through their intelligence services or proxies. In the post 9/11 world, the United States is known to have used third countries to torture.

For decades now, India has dodged a serious debate on what’s acceptable, what’s not and how to make the system to better. Indians need to ask what a functional counter-terrorism legal framework might look like, how it is to be administered and who will make sure it isn’t abused.

I doubt this is going to happen, though, because the status quo suits the political leadership. The same lack of regulation and oversight which has now put genuine national-security operations at risks also allows the Intelligence Bureau to be used for things that would invite criminal prosecution in most democracies.

Five of the Intelligence Bureau’s 28 joint directors in New Delhi, by my count, deal directly with counter-terrorism issues — but the rest are involved in various kinds of analysis and political surveillance. In stark contrast, the Intelligence Bureau’s operations directorate—the hub of its counter-terrorism effort—has some 30 analysts and field staff, all told; another 30-odd track Maoists. Local counter-terrorism teams set up in 2008 have had to be dismantled due to staff shortages.

This is true of the police services, of the Research and Analysis Wing and other specialist intelligence services, too—and when you expect people to deliver results without the necessary tools and resources, you’ll get crude solutions.

In 1975, Doval won the police medal for meritorious service after just six years in service instead of the usual seventeen; Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wrote a note on the file saying she wouldn’t normally do this, but the circumstances were unusual. It had something to do, it’s said, with the circumstances in which six of Mizo insurgent leader Pu Laldenga’s seven military commanders became Intelligence Bureau assets.

Gun-running. Bribery. Killing.

Doval was inside the Golden Temple in 1989, when Indian forces killed 41 terrorists and forced 200 to surrender, without damaging the revered shrine. The terrorists thought he was an Inter-Services Intelligence bombs expert, a misunderstanding that had some bearing on the eventual outcome.

Gun-running. Bribery. Killing.

Let’s accept that there are things that the republic must do to survive. Let’s have a serious conversation about how best to do these things.


Ishrat Jahan case: Intelligence won’t survive the investigation - Firstpost

@Raybot,@nonsuperstitious,@KS what's your take on this sensitive matter ??

 

[SURYA-1]

@Roybot , @notsuperstitious , @KS @janon , @Cherokee , @Dillinger@GR!FF!N , @harpoon , @Bang Galore what's your take on this sensitive matter ??

 

[SarthakGanguly]

The politicians are like witch doctors dictating surgeons how to go about doing a successful brain surgery.
End result -
Pre 2013 - IB vs Terrorist etc
Since 2013 -IB vs CBI (Terrorists can do their 'duties' better)

 

[SURYA-1]

The politicians are like witch doctors dictating surgeons how to go about doing a successful brain surgery.
End result -
Pre 2013 - IB vs Terrorist etc
Since 2013 -IB vs CBI (Terrorists can do their 'duties' better)

It must be Congress and Nitish vs IB.

IB need to pre-empt these sick politicos first who are weakening India from inside like termites just to latch on their chairs.

Unspoken code has been broken , we will feel it's fallout in comming days if PMO doesn't steps in to stem the rot.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

Alas! IB is only an intel gathering agency. They don't even have the powers to arrest someone. That is done by the Police et al. So IB is powerless against these powerful men. Another interesting and extremely damaging aspect is that the IB employees will now be paraded in public. What this means is that the entire internal intel cover will be blown. Next these officers will be targeted on a man to man basis and every issue will be politicized. IB will lose its teeth. NIA will get the upper hand.
The effects should be seen in around 6 months when terror strikes should begin unchecked.

It must be Congress and Nitish vs IB.

IB need to pre-empt these sick politicos first who are weakening India from inside like termites just to latch on their chairs.

Unspoken code has been broken , we will feel it's fallout in comming days if PMO doesn't steps in to stem the rot.

 

[Dillinger]

@Roybot , @nonsuperstitious , @KS @janon , @Cherokee , @Dillinger@GR!FF!N , @harpoon , @Banglorean what's your take on this sensitive matter ??

Legal stand on custodial killing and fake encounter is hundred percent correct. BUT, trying to label terrorists as innocents clearly marks this as a political move and the Congress would do well to heed Gandhi Ji's words "the ends do not justify the means". It becomes markedly clear as to what the motive is when they try to throw an IB officer under the bus for this. A fake encounter is not something which you hound your whole intelligence service for, take the offending the police officers to court and LET THE COURT DECIDE- Stop trying to malign them in public or issuing statements on it. Ergo my silence on the matter, largely, since both sides arguing here are mostly missing the woods for a single tree.

 

[GR!FF!N]

Ishrat Jahan case is politically motivated..as a member of a minor community,this issue simply played by minister for the minority vote bank..especially as the state was Gujrat.as for the truth,nobody other than intelligence agencies know either she was a suicide bombers or not..but when the intelligence agency and justice system is biased and play their part based on political party's diktat,how we'll ever know the truth???especially when another party's target isn't the killer officers,but its opposition party in the national politics..they spew more venom against the party that rules the state than the killers..

 

[SURYA-1]

Alas! IB is only an intel gathering agency. They don't even have the powers to arrest someone. That is done by the Police et al. So IB is powerless against these powerful men. Another interesting and extremely damaging aspect is that the IB employees will now be paraded in public. What this means is that the entire internal intel cover will be blown. Next these officers will be targeted on a man to man basis and every issue will be politicized. IB will lose its teeth. NIA will get the upper hand.
The effects should be seen in around 6 months when terror strikes should begin unchecked.

Nope, story is not that bleak as I heard that on IB's insistence PMO intervened and name of Joint Special Director Rajendra Kumar was removed from the chargesheet as of now but CBI is to file supplementary sheet possibly to hound Rajendra Kumar after his retirement on 28th of this month, thereby signaling that no serving IB personel will be prosecuted.

 

[Soumitra]

There is a saying "Ganda hai par dhanda hai yeah" the job of intelligence officers is to lie through their teeth, bend laws, break them, throw ethics to the dustbin all for the sake of the country. You need to fight fire with fire.

The unwritten consensus amongst political parties must be restored. India can't afford to have its intelligence agencies become toothless.

 

[SURYA-1]

There is a saying "Ganda hai par dhanda hai yeah" the job of intelligence officers is to lie through their teeth, bend laws, break them, throw ethics to the dustbin all for the sake of the country. You need to fight fire with fire.

The unwritten consensus amongst political parties must be restored. India can't afford to have its intelligence agencies become toothless.

Exactly, this should be the ideal path from here onwards, but do you think Congress will forego their lust for Power so easily ??They are just intimidating intelligence agencies operating in BJP ruled states so that due to intelligence failure some untoward incident may take place.Meanwhile MI was their first target since as of now at least 50 officers have been called in courts for witness and all of them said Col. Purohit kept them in loop while infliterating that far rightis org.

 

[Omtatsat]

The whole mess arises because there is a foreign woman in the country who enjoys absolute power with zero responsibility. Power with responsibility balances your action as the PM will always think about the consequences of a weak IB. But the woman has no stakes. For her -- the goodies of power come to her, blame goes to PM.

This itself, if nothing else, is enough reason to kick Congress out. Shame on us to be ruled by a foreigner, and that too by Italians who are considered mafia and beggars by Europeans. Better to be ruled by Mayawati -at least she is one of us.

 

[Bang Galore]

On every single instance on this topic, across threads, I have been hammering home this point, that this crazy political point scoring will be seriously damaging to national security. And for all the very same reasons given in the article. This has somehow become a pro-Modi v/s anti-Modi scrap. I really couldn't care less about who wins the election, What I do care about is undermining of the Indian state for petty political reasons. Unfortunately that rarely gets any traction here. Abusive name calling is all that happens here. Everyone is pretty much barking up the wrong tree.

 

[Omtatsat]

On every single instance on this topic, across threads, I have been hammering home this point, that this crazy political point scoring will be seriously damaging to national security. And for all the very same reasons given in the article. This has somehow become a pro-Modi v/s anti-Modi scrap. I really couldn't care less about who wins the election, What I do care about is undermining of the Indian state for petty political reasons. Unfortunately that rarely gets any traction here. Abusive name calling is all that happens here. Everyone is pretty much barking up the wrong tree.

Are you still in any doubt about who is doing that?

 

[Bang Galore]

Are you still in any doubt about who is doing that?

Unlike you, I don't have a set political preference. I can see the mud on both sides, though in this case, it is the Congress which is being both reckless & stupid bordering on dangerous.

 

[SURYA-1]

The whole mess arises because there is a foreign woman in the country who enjoys absolute power with zero responsibility. Power with responsibility balances your action as the PM will always think about the consequences of a weak IB. But the woman has no stakes. For her -- the goodies of power come to her, blame goes to PM.

This itself, if nothing else, is enough reason to kick Congress out. Shame on us to be ruled by a foreigner, and that too by Italians who are considered mafia and beggars by Europeans. Better to be ruled by Mayawati -at least she is one of us.

Not only power but the finances as well since she heads RGF ,RGCIF,NMML,JNMF,IGMF,IGNCA,SBT,KNMHS,ICCW

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