RAW involvement in East Pakistan

[BanglaBhoot]

US report details direct RAW involvement in East Pakistan secession

Pakistan Daily - August 24, 2009

A sensational American report has confirmed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s most powerful intelligence agency, was directly involved in the secession of East Pakistan into Bangladesh, and is currently engaged in similar activities. RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh supporting both secular forces and the area’s Hindu minority, masterminding the break up of Pakistan in 1971,

says the report made available The report has been prepared by the innocent sounding Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a group which is however engaged in analysis and advocacy on science, technology and public policy concerning global security, especially about countries which have nuclear capability.

It is a privately funded non-profit policy organisation, whose Board of Sponsors includes 55 American Nobel laureates. FAS was originally founded as the Federation of Atomic Scientists in 1945 by members of the Manhattan Project, who produced the first atomic bomb. RAW is extensively engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage, sabotage and terrorism against Pakistan and other neighboring countries, reveals the sensational secret report. It also gives details of the truly alarming involvement of RAW in terrorist activities in Pakistan. The report reveals the involvement of RAW in Bangladesh dating from the 1960s, when it promoted dissatisfaction against Pakistan in the then East Pakistan, including funding Mujibur Rahman’s general election in 1970 and providing training and arming to the Mukti Bahini. The report claims an estimated 35,000 RAW agents have entered Pakistan at various times between 1983-99, with 12,000 having worked in the past or working presently in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5,000 in Balochistan. “As many as 40 terrorist camps are currently operating at Rajasthan, East Punjab, [occupied] Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India and are run by RAW’s Special Service Bureau [SSB],” the report reveals. The report further confirms that throughout the Afghan War, RAW was responsible for the planning and execution of terrorist activities in Pakistan to deter Islamabad from supporting the 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 report says. “The defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan did not end the role of RAW in Pakistan, as it established training camps in East Punjab, [occupied] Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan where agents are trained for terrorist activities,” it reveals.

It further says that 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, according to the report, 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 and 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 neighbours versus attention to domestic affairs to safeguard India’s security and territorial integrity,” the report says. It points out that 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.

RAW, it adds, has failed to neutralise freedom fighters in Kashmir and similar indigenous movements in Kerala, Karnataka and other places, along with economic and industrial espionage activities in New Delhi and Bombay. Giving a background of the intelligence agency, the American report says RAW was set up in 1968 “specifically targeted on Pakistan”.

Pakistan, the report says, has accused RAW of sponsoring sabotage in its Punjab province, where it has been supporting the Seraiki movement, “providing financial support to promote its activities in Pakistan and organising an International Seraiki Conference in Delhi in November December 1993″. It adds: “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.”

According to it, India is funding the current upsurge of terrorism in Pakistan “and has been behind the sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis, which has resulted in thousands of deaths in the last few years.” Terrorist activities in Pakistan attributed to the clandestine activities of RAW in the report include:

A car bomb explosion in the Saddar area of Peshawar on 21 December 1995, which caused the death of 37 persons and injured over 50 others.

An explosion at Shaukat Khanum Hospital on 14 April 1996, claiming the lives of seven persons and injuries 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 nine persons and injured 29 others on 08 May 1996.

An explosion near Alam Chowk, Gujranwala on 10 June 1996 which killed three 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 8 July 1996 killed 3 persons and injured 20 others.

Another startling claim made by the American report is that it was RAW that was behind the hijacking of an Indian airliner to Lahore in 1971, “attributed to the Kashmiris, to give a terrorist dimension to the Kashmiri national movement”.

The report continues: “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,” the report reveals. From 1981, RAW and the Intelligence Bureau, according to the report, established a network of as many as 30 training bases for these groups in India. Centres were also established at the high-security military installation of Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and in the Ramakrishna Puram area of New Delhi.

The report says that RAW and the Ministry of External Affairs are provided Rs. 250 million 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,” it says.

It further reveals: “An Extensive network of Indian operatives is controlled by the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC whose covert activities include the infiltration of US long distance telephone carriers by Indian operatives, with access to all kinds of information, to blackmail relatives of US residents living in India”. Citing an example, it says that 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 US $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, the report says. It adds that illicit campaign money received in 1995 went to Democratic candidates including US Senators Charles S Robb (D-VA), Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD) and US Representatives Benjamin L Cardin (D-MD) and Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) — (May 24, 1998).

RAW involvement in East Pakistan | Pakistan Daily

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Deccan Chronicle, 28 Jan 2000

India plots against Pak, says US report

From Ashish Kumar Sen

San Francisco:

India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, has been engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage and sabotage against Pakistan and other neighbouring countries, according to a report put out by the Washington DC-based Federation of American Scientists. The report says India’s external intelligence agency 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 and Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament. 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 United Kingdom, Canada and the US,” it says. John Pike, the author of the report, told this correspondent in a telephone interview from his office in Washington DC that the number of reports supporting claims that the RAW was involved in disruptive activity in Pakistan were abundant and in “sufficient detail to lend credibility to that claim.”

“Everything I read made it clear this was anti-Pakistan clandestine political warfare. Its (the RAW’s) motivation and the Indian government’s motivation was easy to understand,” Pike said. The FAS is a privately funded non-profit policy organisation whose board of sponsors includes half of America’s living Nobel laureates. Interestingly, Islamabad had accused the RAW of playing an active role in the recent hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane.

Pike, however, brushed aside such charges as being frivolous. “It would be very unusual for an intelligence agency to mastermind an operation which had the potential of endangering its own country’s citizens,” he reasoned.

“If something did go wrong, it would have been an awfully big disaster. And if a subsequent investigation were to show the RAW was behind it, it would decimate the organisation,” he said, adding: “Intelligence agencies have an instinct for self-preservation. They wouldn’t want to destroy themselves.”

He, however, said the amount of information on the hijacking could not “confidently sustain” charges of Pakistan’s role in the incident. Pike denied the existence of a “foreign hand” in any of the violence in either India or Pakistan saying it was not in the interest of any other country to cause trouble in the region.

While admitting Russia might be providing training and assistance to the RAW, he said it was not directly participating in the trouble making. Similarly, the Chinese may also be training Pakistani security personnel.

“China might have a small hand in the political violence in India, but this is purely speculative,” Pike said. Current policy debates in India have generally failed to focus on the relative priority given by the RAW to activities directed against India’s neighbours versus attention to domestic affairs to safeguard India’s security and territorial integrity, the report observes, adding the RAW has had “limited success” in dealing with separatist movements in Manipur, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Kashmir.

“In 1968, India established this special branch of its intelligence service specifically targeting Pakistan. The formation of the RAW was based on the belief that Pakistan was supplying weapons to Sikh terrorists, and providing shelter and training to the militants in Pakistan,” Pike said. Pakistan has accused the RAW of sponsoring sabotage in Punjab, where the agency is alleged to have supported the Seraiki movement, providing financial support to promote its activities in Pakistan and organising an International Seraiki Conference in New Delhi in November-December 1993.

The report says the 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 working in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab 8,000 in the North West Frontier Province and 5,000 in Baluchistan. As many as 40 terrorist training camps at Rajasthan, east Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India are “run by the RAW’s Special Service Bureau.”

Throughout the Afghan war, “the RAW was responsible for the planning and execution of terrorist activities in Pakistan” to deter Pakistan from supporting the Afghan liberation movement against India’s ally, the Soviet Union. The assistance provided to the RAW by the KGB enabled it 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 the RAW in Pakistan, with reports that suggest India has established a training camp in the town of Qadian, in east Punjab, where non-Muslim Pakistanis are trained for terrorist activities,” Pike said.

Touching on the ISI’s role in disruptive activities, the report describes Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence as having become “a state within a state,” answerable neither to the leadership of the Army, nor to the President or the Prime Minister.

The result is there has been no real supervision of the ISI, and corruption, narcotics and big money have all come into play, further complicating the political scenario. Drug money is used by the ISI to finance not only the Afghanistan war, but also the proxy war against India in Punjab and Kashmir.

“Personnel working for both the RAW and the ISI are getting paid huge salaries. It would be very difficult to understand what else they have been doing, other than creating trouble in each other’s countries,” Pike said, defending his charges against the intelligence agencies.

He admitted that both the ISI and the RAW are far less active than allegations made by Indian and Pakistani governments suggest. “There is plenty of spontaneous domestic trouble in both countries that gets blamed on either the RAW or the ISI.”

He felt the recent decision by Washington and New Delhi to set up a joint working group on terrorism would, to some extent, curb the activities of both the intelligence agencies. “Both organisations are the main cause of tension between the two countries.

It’s easier for governments to discuss nuclear missiles, but then there is no talk of the clandestine political warfare these two intelligence agencies are involved in,” Pike said. He underlined the seriousness of the activities both organisations indulge in saying in conclusion: “People are actually getting killed in such operations. Nuclear weapons are just a threat so far, here it is difficult to monitor such violence which has a potential to escalate into something much bigger.”

India plots against Pak, says US report

 

[BanglaBhoot]

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

Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] - India Intelligence Agencies

 

[TsAr]

well atleast after some 30 years they have acknowledged that RAW and India were involved in the east pakistan secession

 

[hack]

RAW, it adds, has failed to neutralise freedom fighters in Kashmir and similar indigenous movements in Kerala, Karnataka and other places, along with economic and industrial espionage activities in New Delhi and Bombay. Giving a background of the intelligence agency, the American report says RAW was set up in 1968 “specifically targeted on Pakistan”.

 

[eastwatch]

Any intelligence agency has its missions to accomplish. RAW, CIA, KGB, MOSSAD, DGFI all had or have certain missions. Some are accomplished and some are not. RAW definitely wanted a division of Pakistan, but it could not have been accomplished without Yahya Khan and Z. A. Bhutto not being played into the hands of RAW.

These two rejected the verdict given by the population in the general election held in 1971. The majority leader was not handed over the power of the govt, and he was arrested, instead. The army was ordered a crackdown, they killed more than 10,000 persons, mostly innocent bystanders, in Dhaka on the first hours of 26th March. They again killed people in Jinjira on a false premise that rebels with guns were hiding there. 2,000 innocent people were gunned down with machine gun fires.

These events changed the minds of east Pakistanis, they rebelled against the union of Pakistan. So, why it is now that when many of the new generation young men do not know the real history some people are coming with all those RAW theories to please whom I do not know.

They are citing the CIA report of those days when USA was against a free country called Bangladesh. USA was then a strategic partner of Pakistan and an enemy of Soviet Union and India. So, this CIA report is an example of a biased thinking by the then US administration.

I propose a new investigation by some people fond of playing doctrine games. They should find out the following:

1) Why Bhutto objected to and Yahya Khan did not relinquish power in favour of the majority Awami League? Did these two people receive a big money from RAW of India to do something that would divide the nation?

2) Sheikh Mujib was kept arrested for long nine months, but why these two leaders did not meet him to talk about a compromise? Could it be that they themselves were under the direct influence of RAW? Otherwise, why they did not sit with him for a negotiated settlement? A settlement could have been a continued union or an amicable separation. Was it because these two people were fully under RAW control?


Why it is that some people are blaming RAW for everything when our own leaders themselves were responsible to initiate acts in 1971 that resulted in the separation of the eastern wing of Pakistan. If RAW was indeed involved, then it must be true that the two west Pakistani leaders themselves were under the influence of RAW.

These two leaders had thrown the east Pakistanis to India. Only because of these two leaders, Bangalis were forced to ask for Indian arms and supports, and only because of them Bangladesh is a separate country. Someone should check the RAW connection with these two leaders instead of trying to say that RAW was the 'Father of BD.'

Without a RAW hand, they would have done things that could have united the two wings. Instead of a peace dialogue, these two waged war against their own people in the east. Someone should find out the truth.