Research and Analysis Wing RAW: terrorist organisation

The role of an intelligence agency should be different from that of a terrorist organization. The CIA, the Mussad, the ISI and the Raw must not be mixed up with LTTE, the Black Water Force and particularly the detracted groups of Taliban & Al- Qaida which are defaming not only Islam but also the Muslims all over the world. If an intelligence agency is trying to forget its prescribed aims and objects by surpassing its limits, it should not be ranked as an intelligence agency but a terrorist organization.

A few days back the Federation of American Scientists FAS issued a report which confirmed that the Research and Analysis Wing RAW, was directly involved in the secession of East Pakistan into Bangladesh, and is currently engaged in similar activities in Balochistan. The FAS is a group which is engaged in analysis and advocacy on science, technology and public policy concerning global security, especially about the countries having nuclear capability. It is a privately funded non-profit policy organization whose Board of Sponsors includes 55 American Nobel laureates. The report says ‘“The assistance provided to RAW by the Russian 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, as it established training camps in East Punjab, Indian Held Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan where agents are trained for terrorist activities.” Pointing towards the role of Raw in the formerly East Pakistan the report says, ‘The involvement of Raw in East Pakistan started in 1960s when it began with promoting dissatisfaction against Pakistan . Later on Raw funded at a large scale Mujeebur Rehman’s general election of 1970. This organization not only funded Mukti Bahini but also trained and armed the workers of Mukti Bahini.’There is another shocking revelation in the report that Raw staged the drama of hijacking a plane of Indian Airlines proceeding to Lahore in 1971. The hidden aim behind this hijacking was to put all blame on the Kashmiri Freedom Fighters and to introduce them throughout the world as terrorists. In the light of the above disclosure it won’t be wise to rank Raw as an intelligence agency. Hijacking of airplanes, massacre of innocent citizens and patronizing training camps of terrorist are certainly never the job of an intelligence agency. These are the actions of a terrorist organization. It is not only Pakistan which has been suffering from the childish misdeeds of Raw since long; the list of the afflicting countries is endless.

A few months back, in one of its editorials the leading newspaper of Sri Lanka, Daily Mirror criticized RAW by saying that this agency is playing a heinous role in the regional countries to destabilize them.. Commenting on the RAW’s role in Sri Lanka, the editorial said: “The RAW in Sri Lanka has a pretty colorful record. Having raised, nursed and fortified the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, it later went through phases where it adopted ‘rock the baby, pinch the baby’ approach towards the LTTE.” The paper is of the opinion that Raw never works on serious grounds because this organization is nothing more than a vase weeded with bitter thorny and discolored wild flowers. Its workers and employers are morally bankrupt and spiritually barren. The newspaper wrote: “In 2007, ripples were created in the spy agency when one of its Colombo-based officers, Ravi Nair of 1975 batch, was found allegedly carrying on an affair with a woman working for another country’s spy agency. The ‘crime’ was considered only second to what was committed by the RAW Joint Secretary, Rabinder Singh, in 2004 when he escaped with copies of several highly-confidential documents and is believed to have passed them on to the CIA. This was after Singh’s superiors confronted him with evidence that he had spent time with a Delhi-based female US embassy officer at a resort down the New Delhi-Jaipur highway.”

According to the sources RAW and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs are provided Rs. 250 million annually as “discretionary grants” for foreign influence operations. These funds are meant for supporting the organizations fighting Sikh and Kashmiri separatists in the UK, Canada and the US. An Extensive network of Indian operatives of Raw 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. 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 naturalized 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 organizations for funneling campaign contributions to influence US lawmakers. Over US $46,000 from the Indian Embassy were 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. Now Raw is adopting the same philosophy and mode of action in Balochistan by patronizing the so called ‘separatist elements’ which originally do not belong to the ‘soil’.

Talking to the media men, on the second last day of August, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yusuf said that involvement of external elements; including the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing in the current acts of terrorism in Balochistan could not be ruled out. As long as Kashmir issue is not settled these elements will continue to create difficulties for Pakistan. Jam Yusuf referred to various training camps in which, according to him, terrorists were being harboured and paid huge sums to create trouble. He said that none of the Baloch ‘waderas’ had the capacity to finance such an operation. RAW had been running terrorist camps in Iran and Afghanistan since long and now it has set up 30 to 40 such camps in Balochistan, each with training facility for 30 people who are paid Rs10,000 monthly.

If we compare the East Pakistan episode and the present situation of Balochistan with reference to the report issued by the FAS, we can very easily analyze the scenario. Raw is repeating the same story of ‘divide and disperse’ in Balochistan which was once employed in the formerly East Pakistan. The situation calls for a very serious attitude on the part of Pakistani politicians. They must not waste their time and efforts in digging old graves .International forces are trying their best to divert the attention of the Pakistani politicians to some very trivial and valueless issues so that they may not be able to concentrate upon the worsening situation in Balochistan. Raw is craving for giving birth to another ‘East Pakistan’ out of its old barren and out worn womb. The Pakistani politicians must keep in mind like sensible fathers that we can no more afford another pregnancy.