india's external intelligence secrets of research and analysis wing (raw)

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and analysis Wing ( RAW) - 9788170493327 Hardcover – 1 January 2017

10 days replacement, replacement instructions.

Purchase options and add-ons

• Publisher Manas Publications
• Publication date 1 January 2017
• Language English
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08X45RSNN
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Manas Publications (1 January 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 452 g
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India
• Best Sellers Rank: #113,969 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books )

About the author

V. k. singh.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

Reviews with images.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from India

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Indias External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Hardcover – January 1, 2013

• Language English
• Publisher Manas Publications
• Publication date January 1, 2013
• ISBN-10 8170493323
• ISBN-13 978-8170493327
• See all details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B074CM9SRR
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Manas Publications; 2013th edition (January 1, 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8170493323
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8170493327
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds

About the author

V. k. singh.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

• Can we help you?
• +92-300-188-8897
• Store Location
• Track Your Order

• 0 ₨  0
• Non-Fiction
• VBL Publications
• Kalaam Books
• Salaam Books
• All Subjects

INDIA’S EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE

Secrets of research and analysis wing (raw).

₨  1,523

The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is India’s premier intelligence agency. Like the CIA in the USA 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 Indian who have written about RAW are outsiders, whose knowledge has been gleaned from 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 he 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. ISBN: 8170493323 Publisher: MANAS PUBLICATIONS Subtitle: SECRETS OF RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS WING (RAW) Author: MAJ GEN V. K. SINGH

• Product Details

Book Bargains

WHO WAS THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK?

TRANSLATION OF EASTERN POETRY AND PROSE

Related products

BACHA KHAN, CONGRESS AND NATIONALIST POLITICS IN NWFP

ISBN: 9694024978 Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS Subtitle: Author: JUMA KHAN SUFI

EXPLORING CIVIL SOCIETY

ISBN: 0415325463 Publisher: ROUTLEDGE Subtitle: POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS Author: MARLLIES GLASIUS

CIVIL LIFE, GLOBALIZATION, AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN ASIA

Academics and policy makers have grown increasingly interested in the ways that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) may encourage better governance, democratic politics, and perhaps ultimately a global civil society. However, critics of these organisations have pointed out that NGOs tend to be undemocratic in their internal politics, they speak for groups of people to whom they are not accountable through elections or financial support and they often represent the interests of people in wealthy countries at the expense of truly indigenous people. The main questions revolve around whether and how NGOs actually lead to democratisation, and the ways in which NGOs relate to broader global forces.

In Civil Society, Globalization and Political Change in Asia , Robert Weller has brought together an international group of experts on the subject whose chapters address these questions through a series of extensive case studies from east and southeast Asia including Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. ISBN: 0415343011 Publisher: ROUTLEDGE Subtitle: ORGANISING BETWEEN FAMILY AND STATE Author: ROBERT P WELLER

THE SHI’A OF LEBANON

ISBN: 1850437661 Publisher: I.B.TAURIS Subtitle: CLANS, PARTIES AND CLERICS Author: RODGER SHANAHAN

CONFLICT IN AFGHANISTAN

Conflict in Afghanistan provides a timely discussion of the concept of asymmetric warfare which has become one of the main issues of the day in the wake of the attacks of 9/11 and the ensuing invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Broadly speaking this describes a means of fighting where comparatively weak belligerents have been able to exploit successfully the vulnerabilities of their more powerful and sophisticated opponents. Two recent examples have been the Vietnam and the Soviet-Afghan wars, but the historical roots of the concept lie deeper, particularly in Afghanistan.

Conflict in Afghanistan , laying emphasis on contemporary documents and drawing on material from Soviet archives, centres on wars conducted in Afghanistan which have been of the asymmetric variety.

Subjects examined include:

• Five wars conducted in Afghanistan by an extemal invader over the past two centuries

• The decisions and actions of politicians and the military involved in the wars in question

• The successes and failures of diplomatic endeavours during the wars

This book is essential reading for those who have research interests in Asian studies, military studies and current affairs. ISBN: 0415341604 Publisher: ROUTLEDGE Subtitle: STUDIES IN ASYMMETRIC WARFARE Author: MARTIN EWANS

KURDISH NATIONALISM AND POLITICAL ISLAM IN TURKEY

ISBN: 041594998X Publisher: ROUTLEDGE Subtitle: KEMALIST IDENTITY IN TRANSITION Author: OMER TASPINAR

BRITAIN, THE SIX-DAY WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

ISBN: 1850434069 Publisher: I.B.TAURIS Subtitle: Author: FRANK BRENCHLEY

REFORGING NATIONS

“Reforging Nation” stands as a testament to the author’s exceptional literary journey, marking his third published work. Through this thought-provoking book, he offers unique insights into the process of reshaping and revitalizing a nation. Drawing from his extensive research and experiences, the author presents a compelling narrative that challenges conventional wisdom and invites readers to reconsider prevailing notions of nation-building. The author holds the distinction of being credited not only for crafting its content but also for undertaking various additional roles, such as composing, designing the title Cover, and even overseeing the publishing process. This multifaceted involvement showcases the author’s comprehensive contribution to the creation and production of the book. With a masterful blend of scholarly rigor and accessible prose, the author takes readers on a transformative intellectual expedition. His keen observations and nuanced analysis make “Reforging Nation” an indispensable addition to the field of political science and a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of nationhood. ISBN: 9786277706005 AUTHOR: RAHEEL AHMED

ISBN: 9786277706005 Publisher: KITAB WAADI Subtitle: THE DEFINITIVE CHRONICLES OF ZULFIKAR ALI BHUTTO, SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN AND INDIRA GANDHI Author: RAHEEL AHMED

• Politics, Philosophy & Social Sciences
• Government & Politics
• Countries & Regions

Your Amazon Prime 30-day FREE trial includes:

Unlimited Premium Delivery is available to Amazon Prime members. To join, select "Yes, I want a free trial with FREE Premium Delivery on this order." above the Add to Basket button and confirm your Amazon Prime free trial sign-up.

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, you will be charged £95/year for Prime (annual) membership or £8.99/month for Prime (monthly) membership.

Return this item for free

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. For a full refund with no deduction for return shipping, you can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition.

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing RAW Hardcover – 30 July 2007

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 185 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Manas Publications
• Publication date 30 July 2007
• Dimensions 20 x 5 x 25 cm
• ISBN-10 8170493323
• ISBN-13 978-8170493327
• See all details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Manas Publications (30 July 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 185 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8170493323
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8170493327
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20 x 5 x 25 cm
• Best Sellers Rank: 2,355,236 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books )

About the author

V. k. singh.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Top reviews from other countries.

• UK Modern Slavery Statement
• Sustainability
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell on Amazon Handmade
• Sell on Amazon Launchpad
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect and build your brand
• Associates Programme
• Fulfilment by Amazon
• Seller Fulfilled Prime
• Advertise Your Products
• Independently Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Instalments by Barclays
• Amazon Platinum Mastercard
• Amazon Classic Mastercard
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Payment Methods Help
• Shop with Points
• Top Up Your Account
• Top Up Your Account in Store
• COVID-19 and Amazon
• Track Packages or View Orders
• Delivery Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Amazon Mobile App
• Customer Service
• Accessibility
• Conditions of Use & Sale
• Privacy Notice
• Cookies Notice
• Interest-Based Ads Notice

Items related to India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research...

India's external intelligence: secrets of research and analysis wing (raw) - hardcover.

• 3.46 153 ratings by Goodreads

This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.

• About this edition

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

• Publisher Manas Publications
• Publication date 2007
• ISBN 10  8170493323
• ISBN 13  9788170493327
• Binding Hardcover
• Number of pages 185

Convert currency

Shipping: US$ 3.99 Within U.S.A.

Add to Basket

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

India's external intelligence.

Book Description Condition: New. pp. 185 Index 4th Reprint. Seller Inventory # 26245721

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Book Description Condition: New. pp. 185. Seller Inventory # 7602182

India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 8170493323-2-1

India's external intelligence

Secrets of research & analysis wing (raw), by v. k. singh.

• 7 Want to read
• 1 Currently reading
• 0 Have read

My Reading Lists:

Use this Work

Create a new list

My book notes.

My private notes about this edition:

Check nearby libraries

• Library.link

Buy this book

This edition doesn't have a description yet. Can you add one ?

Showing 1 featured edition. View all 1 editions?

Add another edition?

Book Details

Published in, edition notes.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [177]-178) and index.

Classifications

The physical object, community reviews (0).

• Created November 4, 2008
• 5 revisions

Wikipedia citation

Copy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?

• Discussions
• Reading Challenge
• Kindle Notes & Highlights
• Favorite genres
• Friends’ recommendations
• Account settings

Udit Bhatnagar's Reviews > India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing

Reading Progress

Post a comment » comments.

Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India

The White House went to extraordinary lengths last year to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a state visit meant to bolster ties with an ascendant power and potential partner against China.

Tables on the South Lawn were decorated with lotus blooms, the symbol of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. A chef was flown in from California to preside over a vegetarian menu. President Biden extolled the shared values of a relationship “built on mutual trust, candor and respect.”

But even as the Indian leader was basking in U.S. adulation on June 22, an officer in India’s intelligence service was relaying final instructions to a hired hit team to kill one of Modi’s most vocal critics in the United States.

The assassination is a “priority now,” wrote Vikram Yadav, an officer in India’s spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW, according to current and former U.S. and Indian security officials.

Repression’s long arm

Yadav forwarded details about the target, Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, including his New York address, according to the officials and a U.S. indictment. As soon as the would-be assassins could confirm that Pannun, a U.S. citizen, was home, “it will be a go ahead from us.”

Yadav’s identity and affiliation, which have not previously been reported, provide the most explicit evidence to date that the assassination plan — ultimately thwarted by U.S. authorities — was directed from within the Indian spy service. Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of a sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modi’s inner circle.

In reports that have been closely held within the American government, U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel. That finding is consistent with accounts provided to The Washington Post by former senior Indian security officials who had knowledge of the operation and said Goel was under extreme pressure to eliminate the alleged threat of Sikh extremists overseas. U.S. spy agencies have more tentatively assessed that Modi’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAW’s plans to kill Sikh activists, but officials emphasized that no smoking gun proof has emerged.

Neither Doval nor Goel responded to calls and text messages seeking comment.

This examination of Indian assassination plots in North America, and RAW’s increasingly aggressive global posture, is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former senior officials in the United States, India, Canada, Britain, Germany and Australia. Citing security concerns and the sensitivity of the subject, most spoke on the condition of anonymity.

That India would pursue lethal operations in North America has stunned Western security officials. In some ways, however, it reflects a profound shift in geopolitics. After years of being treated as a second-tier player, India sees itself as a rising force in a new era of global competition, one that even the United States cannot afford to alienate.

Asked why India would risk attempting an assassination on U.S. soil, a Western security official said: “Because they knew they could get away with it.”

The foiled assassination was part of an escalating campaign of aggression by RAW against the Indian diaspora in Asia, Europe and North America, officials said. The plot in the United States coincided with the June 18 shooting death of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver — an operation also linked to Yadav, according to Western officials. Both plots took place amid a wave of violence in Pakistan, where at least 11 Sikh or Kashmiri separatists living in exile and labeled terrorists by the Modi government have been killed over the past two years.

The Indian intelligence service has ramped up its surveillance and harassment of Sikhs and other groups overseas perceived as disloyal to the Modi government, officials said. RAW officers and agents have faced arrest, expulsion and reprimand in countries including Australia, Germany and Britain, according to officials who provided details to The Post that have not previously been made public.

The revelations have added to Western concerns about Modi, whose tenure has been marked by economic growth and rising global stature for India, but also deepening authoritarianism. A recent report by Freedom House, a human rights organization, listed India among the world’s practitioners of “transnational repression,” a term for governments’ use of intimidation or violence against their own citizens — dissidents, activists, journalists — in others’ sovereign territory.

India is part of an expanding roster of countries employing tactics previously associated with China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other repressive regimes. It is a trend fueled by factors ranging from surging strains of nationalism and authoritarianism to the spread of social media and spyware that both empower and endanger dissident groups.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs declined to respond to detailed questions submitted by The Post or provide comment for this article. Responding to questions raised by a Post reporter at a news briefing last week, spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said that India was still investigating the allegations and that the Pannun case “equally impacts our national security.”

Jaiswal referred reporters to previous ministry statements that targeted killings are “not our policy.”

For the Biden administration, which has spent three years cultivating closer ties with India, the assassination plots have pitted professed values against strategic interests.

Last July, White House officials began holding high-level meetings to discuss ways to respond without risking a wider rupture with India, officials said. CIA Director William J. Burns and others have been deployed to confront officials in the Modi government and demand accountability. But the United States has so far imposed no expulsions, sanctions or other penalties.

Even the U.S. criminal case reflects this restraint. Senior officials at the Justice Department and FBI had pushed to prosecute Yadav, officials said, a step that would have implicated RAW in a murder-for-hire conspiracy. But while a U.S. indictment unsealed in November contained the bombshell allegation that the plot was directed by an Indian official, it referred to Yadav as only an unnamed co-conspirator, “CC-1,” and made no mention of the Indian spy agency.

Justice Department officials who took part in the White House deliberations sided against those urging criminal charges against Yadav. Administration officials denied any undue influence. “Charging decisions are the prerogative of law enforcement alone,” said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, “and the Biden NSC has rigorously respected that independence.”

The only U.S. charges made public to date are against an alleged middleman, Nikhil Gupta, who is described in the indictment as an Indian drug and weapons trafficker enlisted to hire a contract killer. Gupta, an Indian national who has denied the charges, was arrested in Prague on June 30 and remains in prison. He is awaiting a Czech court ruling on a U.S. request for his extradition.

Even in recent days, the Biden administration has taken steps to contain the fallout from the assassination plot. White House officials warned the Modi government this month that The Post was close to publishing an investigation that would reveal new details about the case. It did so without notifying The Post.

Laying a trap

For decades, RAW was regarded as a regional player, preoccupied by proxy wars with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. Under Modi, however, RAW has been wielded as a weapon against dissidents in India’s vast global diaspora, according to current and former U.S. and Indian officials.

The U.S. operation shows how RAW tried to export tactics it has used for years in countries neighboring India, officials said, including the use of criminal syndicates for operations it doesn’t want traced to New Delhi. It also exposed what former Indian security officials described as disturbing lapses in judgment and tradecraft.

After the plot against Pannun failed, the decision to entrust Yadav with the high-risk mission sparked recriminations within the agency, former officials said. Rather than joining RAW as a junior officer, Yadav had been brought in midcareer from India’s less prestigious Central Reserve Police Force, said one former official. As a result, the official said, Yadav lacked training and skills needed for an operation that meant going up against sophisticated U.S. counterintelligence capabilities.

Attempts by The Post to locate or contact Yadav were unsuccessful. A former Indian security official said he was transferred back to the Central Reserve Police Force after the Pannun plot unraveled.

The U.S. affidavit describes Yadav as an “associate” of Gupta who procured the alleged drug trafficker’s help by arranging for the dismissal of criminal charges he faced in India. Gupta had a history of collaborating with India’s security services on operations in Afghanistan and other countries, according to a person with knowledge of his background, but he had never been used for jobs in the West.

Petr Slepicka, a lawyer in Prague who represents Gupta, declined to comment on the case except to say that his client denies the charges against him. In court filings in India, Gupta’s family members described him as an innocent “middle-class businessman” whose arrest was a case of mistaken identity. They said he traveled to Prague “for tourism” and to explore new markets for a “handicraft” business, according to the court filings.

Yadav and Gupta spent weeks trading encrypted texts about the plot to kill Pannun, according to a U.S. affidavit filed in support of the request for Gupta’s extradition. To find a willing assassin, Gupta reached out to someone he had been in touch with for at least eight years and understood to be a drug and weapons dealer. In reality, according to the affidavit, the supposed dealer was an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The two were discussing “another potential firearms and narcotics transaction,” according to the affidavit when, on May 30, Gupta abruptly asked “about the possibility of hiring someone to murder a lawyer living in New York.”

From that moment, U.S. agents had an inside but incomplete view of the unfolding conspiracy. They orchestrated Gupta’s introduction to a supposed assassin who was actually an undercover agent, according to court filings. They captured images of cash changing hands in a car in New York City — a $15,000 down payment on a job that was to cost $100,000 when completed.

At one point, the indictment said, U.S. agents even got footage of Gupta turning his camera toward three men “dressed in business attire, sitting around a conference room,” an apparent reference to Indian operatives overseeing the mission. “We are all counting on you,” Gupta told the purported assassin on the video call, according to the indictment.

Yadav indicated that there would be more jobs after Pannun, including one “big target” in Canada. But a separate hit team got to that assignment first, according to the U.S. indictment, suggesting that RAW was working with multiple criminal elements.

Hours after Nijjar was gunned down in his car on June 18 outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, Yadav sent a video clip to Gupta “showing Nijjar’s bloody body slumped in his vehicle,” according to the indictment.

The message arrived as U.S. authorities were laying a trap for Gupta. Seeking to draw him out of India and into a friendly jurisdiction, U.S. agents used their DEA informant to persuade Gupta to travel to the Czech Republic for what he was led to believe would be a clandestine meeting with his American contact, according to officials familiar with the operation.

Gupta arrived in Prague on June 30 — 11 days after Czech authorities, acting at the behest of U.S. officials, had secretly issued an arrest warrant for him.

As he exited Vaclav Havel Airport, Gupta was intercepted by Czech police, who ushered him into a vehicle in which two U.S. federal agents were waiting, according to court filings submitted by Gupta’s family in India. He was questioned for hours while the car meandered around the city. His laptop was seized and his phone held to his face to unlock it, according to the family petition.

Gupta was eventually deposited in Prague’s Pankrac Prison, where he remains awaiting possible extradition. Seeking help, Gupta’s family tried to reach Yadav last year but could find no trace of him, according to a person familiar with the matter. After months of near-constant contact with Gupta, the person said, CC-1 had “disappeared.”

Engaging with the underworld

Though Yadav served as RAW’s point man, current and former officials said the operation involved higher-ranking officials with ties to Modi’s inner circle. Among those suspected of involvement or awareness are Goel and Doval, though U.S. officials said there is no direct evidence so far of their complicity.

As RAW chief at the time, Goel was “under pressure” to neutralize the alleged threat posed by Sikh extremists overseas, said a former Indian security official. Goel reported to Doval, and had ties to the hard-line national security adviser going back decades.

Both had built their reputations in the 1980s, when the country’s security services battled Sikh separatists and Muslim militants. They were part of a generation of security professionals shaped by those conflicts much the way their U.S. counterparts came to be defined by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Doval, 79, has claimed roles in undercover missions from the jungles of Myanmar to the back alleys of Lahore, Pakistan — tales that contributed to his frequent depiction in the press as the “James Bond of India.”

He also exhibited a willingness to engage with the criminal underworld. In 2005, after retiring as head of India’s domestic intelligence service, he was inadvertently detained by Mumbai police while meeting with a reputed gangster. Doval was seeking to enlist one crime boss to assassinate another, according to media reports later confirmed by senior Indian officials.

Before being tapped as national security adviser by Modi in 2014, Doval publicly called for India’s security apparatus to shift from “defense” to “defensive offense” against groups threatening India from other countries, especially Pakistan.

Goel, who was then rising into the senior ranks at RAW, shared Doval’s instincts. Police forces under Goel’s command in the early 1990s were tied to more than 120 cases of alleged extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances or torture, according to a database maintained by Ensaaf, an Indian human rights group based in the United States. Goel was so closely associated with the brutal crackdown that he became an assassination target, according to associates who said he took to traveling in a bulletproof vehicle.

Former Indian officials who know both men said Goel would not have proceeded with assassination plots in North America without the approval of his superior and protector.

“We always had to go to the NSA for clearance for any operations,” said A.S. Dulat, who served as RAW chief in the early 2000s, referring to the national security adviser. Dulat emphasized in an interview with The Post that he did not have inside knowledge of the alleged operations, and that assassinations were not part of RAW’s repertoire during his tenure.

U.S. intelligence agencies have reached a similar conclusion. Given Doval’s reputation and the hierarchical nature of the Indian system, CIA analysts have assessed that Doval probably knew of or approved RAW’s plans to kill Sikhs his government considered terrorists, U.S. officials said.

A fierce crackdown

India’s shift to “defensive offense” was followed by a series of clashes between RAW and Western domestic security services.

In Australia, two RAW officers were expelled in 2020 after authorities broke up what Mike Burgess, head of the Australian intelligence service, described as a “nest of spies.”

Foreign officers were caught monitoring “their country’s diaspora community,” trying to penetrate local police departments and stealing information about sensitive security systems at Australian airports, Burgess said in a 2021 speech. He didn’t name the service, but Australian officials confirmed to The Post that it was RAW.

In Germany, federal police have made arrests in recent years to root out agents RAW had recruited within Sikh communities. Among them, German officials said, were a husband and wife who operated a website purportedly covering local Sikh events but who were secretly on RAW’s payroll.

In Britain, RAW’s surveillance and harassment of the Sikh population — especially a large concentration near Birmingham — became so egregious in 2014 and 2015 that MI5, Britain’s domestic security service, delivered warnings to Goel, who was then serving as RAW’s station chief in London.

When confronted, Goel scoffed at his counterparts and accused them of coddling Sikh activists he said should be considered terrorists, according to current and former British officials. After further run-ins, British authorities threatened to expel him, officials said. Instead, Goel returned to New Delhi and continued to climb RAW’s ranks until, in 2019, he was given the agency’s top job.

RAW’s record of aggressive activity in Britain has fanned suspicion that the agency was involved in the death of Sikh activist Avtar Singh Khanda, who died in Birmingham last year, three days before Nijjar was killed in Canada. British officials have said Khanda suffered from leukemia and died of natural causes, though his family and supporters have continued to press for further investigation.

A U.S. State Department human rights report released this month catalogued India’s alleged engagement in transnational repression. It cited credible accounts of “extraterritorial killing, kidnapping, forced returns or other violence,” as well as “threats, harassment, arbitrary surveillance and coercion” of overseas dissidents and journalists.

RAW’s operations in Western countries during Modi’s tenure have been overwhelmingly aimed at followers of the Sikh religion, especially a minority faction seeking to revive the largely dormant cause of creating a separate state called “Khalistan.”

That movement had peaked in the 1980s, when thousands were killed in violent skirmishes between the Indian government and Sikh insurgents. One brutal sequence beginning in 1984 included an Indian assault on the Sikh religion’s holiest site, the Golden Temple; the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by Sikhs in her security detail; and the bombing of an Air India flight widely attributed to Sikh extremists. A fierce crackdown quashed the insurgency, prompting an exodus of Sikhs to diaspora communities in Canada, the United States and Britain.

As Sikhs settled into their new lives abroad, the Khalistani cause went quiet until a new generation of activists — whose leaders included Pannun and Nijjar — sought to rekindle the movement with unofficial referendums on Sikh statehood and with protests that at times have seemed to glorify violence. A parade in Canada last year included a float depicting Indira Gandhi’s assassination, and Khalistan supporters have stormed and defaced Indian diplomatic facilities in Western cities.

The effort has seemed to gain little traction beyond a minority within the diaspora community. Even so, it has been portrayed as a resurgent menace by Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Indian officials have accused Canada and the United States of harboring Sikh separatists who they say have plotted attacks and smuggled weapons into India.

Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi and an expert on the insurgency in Punjab, said BJP depictions of the Sikh threat are “far in excess of what actually exists.” Officials have political incentive to exaggerate, he said, “because it is useful to polarize and to keep a threat alive so the state can present itself as a guarantor of security to 80 percent of the country — the Hindus — who are supposedly in danger.”

In recent years, Pannun and Nijjar had come to personify that alleged danger. In 2020, both men were declared terrorists by Modi’s government under an amended law that was denounced by U.N. officials and human rights groups for depriving suspects of due process. Their organization, Sikhs for Justice, was accused of leading “a concerted secessionist campaign.”

In an interview with The Post, Pannun denied engaging in terrorism and said he was targeted because of his activism on behalf of Sikhs. “They wanted to assassinate me so they can stop the ongoing Khalistan referendum movement for the secession of Punjab from Indian occupation,” he said.

In his few public remarks on the plots to kill Pannun and Nijjar , Modi has been dismissive. “If a citizen of ours has done anything good or bad, we are ready to look into it,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times published in late December. “Our commitment is to the rule of law.”

U.S. and Western security officials said it is unlikely that RAW would have launched such operations without a clear understanding that doing so would be met with approval by the prime minister.

Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has cultivated the aura of a Hindu strongman. He has jailed dissidents, released photos of himself riding in tanks and flying fighter jets, and boasted of ordering an airstrike in 2019 against nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Pro-Modi media outlets have burnished this bellicose image. Last year, as 11 alleged militants were killed in a wave of unclaimed attacks in Pakistan, favored Indian TV stations celebrated the “professional” killing of Khalistanis outside India’s borders. Among those killed was Paramjit Singh Panjwar, 63, a leader of a militant group called the Khalistan Commando Force, who was shot dead last May near a park in Lahore by two gunmen who fled on motorcycle, according to media reports.

Resolving the matter internally

Even as the alleged RAW assassination plots reached their final stages, officials in both the United States and Canada remained unaware of the full dimensions of the conspiracy.

In Canada, Nijjar’s death was at first assumed to be a case of score-settling between rival Sikh and criminal factions in British Colombia. In the United States, the Pannun plot was for weeks treated as a DEA case.

It wasn’t until Gupta’s arrest that U.S. officials obtained evidence that an officer in India’s spy service was behind the conspiracy, officials said. Devices seized from Gupta provided a trove of new intelligence, including his extensive communications with Yadav, officials said.

Shortly afterward, in July, the White House convened a series of “deputies committee” meetings led by deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and involving Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Deputy CIA Director David Cohen.

Those assembled confronted evidence of a grave violation of U.S. sovereignty by a nation seen as increasingly indispensable in the global competition with China. After weeks of deliberations, administration officials settled on a plan they hoped would ward off future plots without causing deeper ruptures with India.

In early August, the administration dispatched CIA Director Burns to New Delhi to confront his counterparts with intelligence on the Pannun plot and give Modi’s government a chance to resolve the matter internally. The United States would refrain from punitive responses but pushed India to hold those responsible accountable. The message was reinforced in subsequent closed-door conversations, including a private meeting in New Delhi in September between Modi and Biden, officials said.

There would be no expulsions of RAW officers or economic sanctions against India. A deal to sell up to $4 billion in U.S. armed drones to India, briefly put on pause, was allowed to proceed when key congressional leaders signed off. Justice Department officials opted for at least the time being not to file charges against Yadav.

The approach has struck some as too accommodating. Several current and former officials noted that, in contrast to the decision on Yadav, the United States has in recent years filed charges against Russian and Iranian intelligence officers in alleged plots on American soil.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the India case, saying it is an “ongoing matter.”

The treatment of India does, however, have echoes of how the United States dealt with Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was implicated in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post contributing columnist who was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

White House officials defend their actions, saying that in private meetings Modi and his closest advisers have taken the matter seriously and pledged accountability. Officials noted that Yadav could still be charged and other penalties imposed if New Delhi fails to follow through on these commitments.

Canada, which has the world’s largest Sikh population outside India, took a more forceful approach. In September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused India of complicity in the killing of Nijjar and expelled RAW’s station chief in Ottawa.

Relations between the countries went into a tailspin. Canada withdrew 41 diplomats from India after Modi’s government threatened to revoke their legally protected status. Canadian officials who traveled to New Delhi for meetings with Doval and others said they were greeted with denials of Indian involvement and lectures on alleged Sikh terrorism.

Canadian intelligence agencies saw a surge in communications from Indian officials in Delhi to Indian diplomats in Ottawa conspicuously professing ignorance about who was responsible for Nijjar’s killing — exchanges that Canadian officials came to regard as disinformation intended to be intercepted and confuse investigators, officials said.

The standoff eased over the ensuing months, officials said, as Modi officials facing U.S.-provided evidence came to realize that their denials were untenable.

‘The New India’

There are indications that India planned a broader wave of killings in the United States and Canada.

Yadav had told Gupta there were “three or four” other people RAW wanted dead once Nijjar and Pannun had been assassinated, according to the affidavit. Gupta, in turn, told a U.S. agent posing as a hit man that there are “so many targets.”

In the past two years, at least five Sikh activists in the United States and five in Canada were warned by law enforcement to take precautions. Among them was Pritpal Singh in Fremont, Calif., who said he was visited by FBI agents days after Nijjar was killed.

India continues to treat the matter with a mixture of indignation and resignation.

The government appointed a special panel to investigate the attacks and report its findings to the United States. A U.S. delegation that traveled to New Delhi several weeks ago for an update on the probe, however, returned with little evidence of meaningful progress. Indian officials gave no indication that their investigation would implicate senior officials in Modi’s government, said officials briefed on the trip, and pressed their U.S. visitors to supply more information supporting their allegations.

Goel stepped down as RAW chief on June 30 — the day Gupta was taken into custody. Weeks earlier, Goel had sounded confident about securing a contract extension, a friend said.

RAW has called back officers in Washington, San Francisco and elsewhere with ties to Goel. But others remain overseas, including operatives assigned to the consulate in Vancouver whom Canadian officials said they suspect of having provided logistics or intelligence support to Nijjar’s assailants. An investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is ongoing.

Some in India have bristled at what they perceive as a Western double standard. Citing the campaigns of targeted killings carried out by the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, they question why Delhi should not be entitled to take similar measures against those it deems terrorists.

Western officials reject the comparison, noting that U.S. counterterrorism operations, including drone strikes, were largely confined to ungoverned territories — not major cities in partner democracies.

For Modi, the assassination allegations appear to have only bolstered his political standing.

Almost a year after he was feted at the White House, the Indian prime minister is poised to clinch a third term in national elections that began this month. At a recent campaign rally in Rajasthan state, Modi told thousands of cheering supporters, “Today, even India’s enemies know: This is Modi, this is the New India.”

“This New India,” he added, “comes into your home to kill you.”

Cate Brown, Souad Mekhennet and Aaron Schaffer in Washington, Karishma Mehrotra in New Delhi and Ladka Bauerova in Prague contributed to this report.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

India's external intelligence: Reforms in R&AW and DIA

2016, Strengthening India's External Intelligence Infrastructure: An Assessment

It is need of the hour that India revamp its external intelligence set-up based on number of advance national security threats to the country.

Related Papers

Mahima Duggal

India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and its intelligence community at large are direly under examined subjects. Little is known about the history, mandate, structure and budget of the the intelligence wing; and even less has been written analysing its functioning and capacity. This dissertation seeks to deepen our understanding of R&AW by exploring how it was established and how it has evolved over its five decades of existence. It presents an account of India’s virtually non-existent intelligence capabilities after its independence. With a political leadership which had little faith in intelligence and new challenges associated with the formation and establishment of a sovereign state, Indian intelligence faced difficult times in its early days. The paper demonstrates that although R&AW may have grown in terms of staff and budget, it remains woefully stagnant today. Through an enquiry into key events in R&AW’s history, particularly its failures, the dissertation argues that India has rarely engaged in adequate intelligence reviews in the aftermath of crisis. Assessments of intelligence services have hardly ever resulted in direly needed comprehensive and effective reforms. Their piecemeal and ad hoc solutions, such as the creation of additional intelligence agencies, have only resulted in increased problems of overlapping directives, turf wars and lack of coordination. Consequently, the dissertation seeks to promote a debate on intelligence reform through evaluation of areas of Indian intelligence that require holistic and radical revisions. Firstly, it argues that as an organisation operating in a democracy, R&AW must be open to introducing legislative oversight and external supervision that can put in place much needed checks and balances. Granting it legal status through a parliamentary act is essential to clarify the agency’s function in India’s intelligence community. Secondly, it asserts that R&AW must overhaul its recruitment and training mechanisms in order to improve its man force and thereby its capacity. Lastly, the paper contends that R&AW must make an effort to be more transparent so as to improve its impression amongst the public and foreign entities. Therefore, the paper concludes that significant and wide-ranging reforms in aforementioned areas are the first step to an effective intelligence agency as India looks towards expanding its global presence and faces security challenges that hold the potential to derail its economic and social progress.

Manabrata Guha

This is a brief presentation on the problems and prospects of the Intelligence function in the context of National Security. It examines - albeit superficially - the case of the US and the Indian nuclear weapons test in May 1998.

Rajiv Narayanan

Commonwealth & Comparative Politics

Christine Fair

Arun Vishwanathan

isara solutions

International Res Jour Managt Socio Human

India was partitioned in the backdrop of large-scale communal riots, but the partition of the country on religious lines, without taking into consideration its multiple identities, instead of bringing the communal tensions down, in fact, worsened the situation. The continuing tensions between India and Pakistan have a direct bearing on the internal situation in India. They have further complicated the internal security situation. India is comprised of a rich mosaic of ethnicities, cultures, and religions. As the Economist notes, "Outside the cosseted places where rich Indians and foreigners gather, Indians have long been used to conflict and terror." 1 India's emerging threat environment, including compulsion and imperatives from the changing dynamics of power and global order, encompass military challenges. The prime focus among these objectives is economic development, technology, political and social stability, capacity building for current and future threats and the importance of indigenous development for defence. India's land borders exceed 15,000 km which it shares with seven countries including a small segment with Afghanistan (106 km) in northern Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). China is likely to remain the long-term challenge and Pakistan a receding threat, but China-Pakistan collusion has always raised the gravest concerns. Issues related to Afghanistan such as increasing sub-conventional threats from within and outside the country are enunciated. India's national objectives have evolved out of multifaceted components of 'Comprehensive National Power' that connect defence and diplomacy. Pakistan's future strategy and India's response options, and also the motivations and actions of Pakistan's 'deep state', have amplified the security concerns. Intelligence, internal security, financial support, India's space programme, cyber security, defence research, development strategy, economic warfare, energy security and defence production address important, intricate, and complex issues are requiring very detailed comprehension by those in charge at ministerial and other bureaucratic levels as the state's prime function is to provide the political good of security, to prevent cross-border invasions, infiltrations, any loss of territory, to eliminate domestic threats or attacks upon the national order and social structure, to prevent crime and any related dangers to domestic human security and to enable citizens to resolve their disputes with the state and with their fellow inhabitants without recourse to arms or other forms of physical coercion. 2

Niloy Biswas

Intelligence, National Security, and Foreign Policy: A South Asian Narrative, an edited volume by ASM Ali Ashraf, examines the linkages between the local understandings of intelligence, national security and foreign policy in the backdrop of the post-9/11 international politics. This book is a product of three seminars organized in 2014 by Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) in collaboration with the Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka.

Strategic Analysis

Rand Europe

Greg Hannah , Kevin O'Brien

RELATED PAPERS

Julia Salgado

Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry

Fridha Yulia

Emily F. Henderson

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Orawan Monthakantirat

Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability

Rich Lobron

Documents d'Anàlisi Geogràfica

Ignacio López Moreno

FEMS Yeast Research

Beata Lehka

Jurnal Ilmu Keuangan dan Perbankan (JIKA)

Lilis Puspitawati

Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan

Takuya Maruyama

J. Mukalama

Fahrudin Ahmad

Mammal Review

Matt Hayward

Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 1st Seminar and Workshop on Research Design, for Education, Social Science, Arts, and Humanities, SEWORD FRESSH 2019, April 27 2019, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia

Winarno Narmoatmojo

Pakistan Journal of Botany

iskender parmaksız

Italian Journal of Pediatrics

Aldo Agnetti

Felipe Cuamea Velazquez

Polonia Sacra

Sydney Sadowski

Elvira Carpintero

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Fiz Fernandez

Joaquim Manuel Trigo Marquês

Asian Journal of Biological and Life Sciences

Danica Mae Arciaga

Douglas Hynd

Marta Motta

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Geopolitics
• Non State Actors
• Organised crime
• Intelligence School

Operation Nimrod: The Iranian Embassy Siege

Russian espionage in poland: an intelligence overview, canada’s intelligence community: an overview, iran and north korea: a situational assessment, kidon: mossad’s tip of the spear , the growing uae
interest in somalia, research and analysis wing (r&aw): inside india’s foreign intelligence agency.

1. Introduction to RAW

Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is one of the key intelligence agencies in India . The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) stands as one of India’s key intelligence agencies. It initially focused primarily on China and Pakistan, but over the past forty years, it has expanded its mandate, significantly bolstering India’s global influence. RAW’s primary responsibility is to provide the government with strategic and comprehensive information to facilitate challenging decision-making. Collaborating with numerous intelligence services globally, such as the CIA, MI6, and Mossad, RAW actively plans, executes, and exchanges intelligence.

2. Organisation

2.1 structure .

The Prime Minister of India directly oversees RAW through its director. Assisting the director is a deputy director and other senior officers responsible for overseeing various operational units and departments. RAW divides its operational sections based on specialisation and area of competence. The primary divisions of RAW are:

• External Intelligence : This section is in charge of compiling and analysing data that originates from sources outside of India.
• Technical Support Division : This division seeks to collect and process intelligence through the use of technology. Furthermore, it offers technical assistance to other RAW departments.
• Aviation Research Centre : This division manages a fleet of aircraft and conducting aerial surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
• Joint Intelligence Committee : The Joint Intelligence Committee coordinates all Indian intelligence institutions’.
• Operations : The department bears the responsibility of planning and executing covert operations to fulfil India’s national security goals.

Besides these divisions, RAW comprises several other operational units. An example is special teams, a highly competent group of individuals conducting clandestine operations. RAW accepts applications from both military and civilian organisations in India.

In the end, the primary goals of RAW’s operational structure include gathering outside intelligence, carrying out covert activities, and advising the government on matters pertaining to national security. Thus, to safeguard India’s security interests, all of RAW’s sub departments convene and address threats to the country’s issues. [ source ].

2.2  Ranks 

There are many types of ranks in RAW, and each rank has its own importance. According to the post, the officer has many responsibilities.

2.2.1 Class I/Group A Officer

• 1. Secretary/Additional Secretary (R)
• 2. Joint Secretary
• 3. Director/Deputy Secretary/Attach

2.2.3 Group A Officer

• 1. Senior Field Officer
• 2. Field Officer
• 3. Sub Area Officer
• 4. Assistant Field Officer 

2.3  Job Profile of RAW Agent

A RAW agent’s duties include keeping tabs on military and political developments in the nations surrounding India. In essence, RAW agents in India have the principal duties and roles outlined below:

• 1. Gathering foreign intelligence
• 2. Conducting anti-terrorism operations
• 3. Advising policymakers in the country
• 4. Counterpropagation
• 5. Securing the country’s nuclear program [ source ].

2.4 Recruiting

In India, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) hires personnel from a variety of government agencies, armed forces, intelligence services, police departments, and administrative services, among others. However, this does not imply that these services are the only ones available for choosing in RAW. 

It takes a significant amount of professional experience, besides strong educational credentials to become a RAW agent. Joining India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is an extremely tough task. Candidates aspiring to join this esteemed organisation must maintain good physical and mental health to qualify. Additionally, they need to possess a graduating degree from a recognized institution or organisation to be eligible for job opportunities at RAW. The candidate must be proficient in at least one foreign language. Indeed, applicants should be proficient communicators with a keen recall. In addition, the candidates must be younger than 56 years old. In addition, the applicant ought to have over 20 years of service experience, a citizen of India and no criminal history or an active court case. Otherwise, they will not be qualified to work as a RAW agent

2.4.1 RAW Selection

RAW frequently selects talented applicants who have passed the UPSC Civil Services Test and opted to become IPS and IFS officials to serve as RAW officers. Only after completing the foundation course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration does a government servant become eligible for selection in RAW.

The instructors administer a psychological exam and conduct a raw interview at the end of the course. Those that make the shortlist begin a one-year internship at RAW. Appropriate people are recruited by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the Indian civil services, which include the IAS, IPS, IFS, and other related services. Given that, the UPSC Civil Services Test is divided into three phases. UPSC Mains and Personality Test, UPSC Interview, and UPSC Preliminary Examination [ source ].

3.0  RAW Operational Information

3.1 foreign intelligence.

RAW supports numerous significant operations on foreign land with intelligence. It collaborates closely with intelligence agencies in India, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Through both overt and covert missions, the agency gathers military, economic, scientific, and political intelligence. Additionally, it keeps an eye on gangs involved in importing weapons and ammunition into India and terrorist groups. The primary focus of RAW is India’s neighbors. Additionally, RAW also provides Indian officials with gathered information, which they then utilize to modify the country’s foreign and national security policies. [ source ].

3.2  Achievements of RAW 

Over the years, the leading foreign intelligence agency in India, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has been instrumental in numerous noteworthy accomplishments. Among its notable accomplishments are:

• Role in the creation of Bangladesh : Early in the 1970s, RAW played a significant role in supporting the Bangladeshi independence movement against Pakistan, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. [ source ].
• Strategic Intelligence in Kargil War : RAW gave crucial intelligence regarding the opponent’s military coordinates, position, force size, etc. during the 1999 Kargil conflict. This aided the Indian Army in organizing and hitting the military locations of the adversary. [ source ].
• Pakistan’s Nuclear Programme : In the 1980s, Pakistan was developing a nuclear program that posed a major threat to the Indian government. RAW was instrumental in providing intelligence about this program, which finally led to Pakistan’s arrest. Other nations put pressure on them to cease their nuclear activities. [ source ].
• Surgical Strike : Numerous Indian troops were killed when Pakistan assaulted India’s Uri military camp in 2016. The counterattack was skillfully orchestrated and executed by the Indian Army. The RAW agency supplied details regarding the enemy’s personnel, positions, and other aspects [ source ].
• Balakot Airstrike : 2019 saw attacks on Indian Army soldiers in Pulwama. RAW assisted in organizing and carrying out the 2019 Balakot Airstrike as a counterattack. The bombing resulted in the destruction of a terrorist training facility in Pakistan, causing significant damage and deaths. [ source ].
• RAW has been instrumental in a number of noteworthy achievements that have significantly impacted India’s national security. It made significant contributions to the Kargil War, the Bangladeshi independence movement, and the discovery of Pakistan’s nuclear program, to name a few. RAW is still needed to conduct clandestine operations, get outside intelligence, and counsel the government on matters pertaining to national security.

4.0 Recent Operations

4.1  ‘the print’ article on raw .

The Delhi High Court denied a request asking the Central Government to order the publication of an article on Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) by the digital news site “The Print” to be blocked. In essence, it stated that publication encompasses both the right to know and elements of press freedom. 

The appeal of lawyer Raghav Awasthi to establish norms prohibiting media outlets from publishing any source-based speculation regarding the whereabouts of government officials or diplomats sent overseas was denied by a division bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora. employed by an Indian spy agency.

The Print released the contentious piece on 30 November of last year. The article is titled “Nijjar-Pannun effect: RAW closes doors in North America for the first time since founding in 1968.” According to Awasthi, the report jeopardises the careers of the officers it mentions because they are now stigmatised as intelligence officers and therefore cannot serve for any other Indian mission [ source ].

The Government of India keeps the right, under applicable law, to take action against any magazine or to remove any article which, in its opinion, compromises national security. “In the prima facie opinion of this Court, the impugned article does not compromise the career of the officers, or cause any physical harm to the lives of their family members.” It stated that intelligence matters and the relationship between the Indian government and foreign governments should be handled extremely cautiously and that the Central Government does not need any advisory support from Awasthi. [ source ].

4.2  Canadian Sikh Leader’s Killing Sparks Diplomatic Tensions

In the midst of the escalating diplomatic crisis between India and Canada after New Delhi accused him of assassination, the death of a Sikh leader with Canadian citizenship on 18 J2023, close to Vancouver, western Canada, where a large number of Sikhs reside, highlights the growing work of the Indian intelligence agency and its reliance on expanding its network in the West under the rule of Narendra Modi.

The Canadian government announced the expulsion of an Indian diplomat it claimed was engaged in the assassination, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of being involved in the death of Hardeep Singh Nigar.

Rejecting these charges, New Delhi stated that terrorists and extremists who it said threatened India’s security are given sanctuary in Canada.

According to R. said K. Yadav’s memoirs, India’s foreign intelligence agency “transformed into a bold organization, capable of carrying out its operations across the globe to protect the interests of Indian citizens.” Yadav was an officer in the agency for nearly forty years [ source ].

4.3 Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan

There has been a notable increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The most recent incident was a suicide bombing on 29 September 2022, which targeted a religious gathering in the Mastung area of Balochistan province, southwest Pakistan, during the Prophet’s Mohamed Birthday celebration. The attack claimed the lives of sixty people. Numerous people suffered injuries.

A few hours later, another explosion rocked a mosque during Friday prayers in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwest Pakistan, resulting in the deaths of at least five people and injuries to twelve others.

Although no one has yet claimed responsibility for the two most recent attacks, Pakistan’s Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti alleges Indian involvement in the Balochistani attack. In Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, he briefed reporters, implicating the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of the Indian Intelligence Agency in the recent terrorist attacks in the Karachi region, located in the south of the country. [ source ].

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) stands as a crucial pillar in India’s intelligence infrastructure, dedicated to providing strategic intelligence crucial for national security decision-making. Moreover, its structured organisational setup, comprising various departments and operational units, underscores its multifaceted approach towards gathering external intelligence and executing covert operations. Notably, RAW’s achievements, spanning from its pivotal role in the creation of Bangladesh to its contributions during conflicts like the Kargil War and operations against terrorism, highlight its significant impact on India’s security landscape.

Recruitment into RAW demands stringent criteria, including educational qualifications, experience, and expertise in foreign languages, thereby ensuring a highly skilled and capable workforce. Furthermore, collaboration with other intelligence agencies and governmental bodies, coupled with its proactive stance in gathering intelligence, serves to strengthen India’s defence and policy-making capabilities.

However, recent events, such as the diplomatic tensions following accusations of RAW involvement in incidents abroad and the escalating terrorist attacks in neighbouring Pakistan, underscore the ongoing challenges and complexities faced by intelligence agencies in maintaining regional stability and safeguarding national interests.

As the geopolitical landscape evolves, RAW’s adaptability and effectiveness in addressing emerging threats while upholding principles of transparency and accountability will remain paramount. Moreover, collaborative efforts, both domestically and internationally, are essential to counteract evolving security challenges effectively. Therefore, RAW’s continued commitment to excellence and innovation will be instrumental in shaping India’s security paradigm in the years to come.

• Intelligence
• intelligence Agency

Table of contents

Get the weekly email from Grey Dynamics that makes reading intel articles and reports actually enjoyable. Join our mailing list to stay in the loop for free!

Related contents

Grey Dynamics is an Intelligence firm based out of London with a network of analysts, researchers, and investigators worldwide.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions

• Middle East
• Eastern Europe
• Southeast Asia
• Central Asia
• International Law
• New Social Compact
• Green Planet
• Urban Development
• African Renaissance
• Video & Podcasts
• Science & Technology
• Intelligence
• Energy News
• Environment
• Health & Wellness
• Arts & Culture
• Travel & Leisure
• Hotels & Resorts
• Publications
• Advisory Board
• Write for Us

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi granted a year-long extension in service to retiring heads of India’s Intelligence bureau (Arvind Kumar) and the Research and Analysis Wing (Samant Kumar Goel). Both officers are specialists in the art of disinformation and insurgency.  They masterminded the so-called Blakote strikes inside Pakistan. Besides, they mounted a world-wide Pakistan-bashing campaign that resulted in Pakistan’s isolation in comity of nations. Pakistan FATF woes could veritably be attributed to the machinations of the said two officers. They are protégé of India’s national security czar Ajit Doval. Doval himself boasts of having carried out covert activities in Pakistan for about eleven years. He did not care a fig for violating the diplomatic norms while posted in Pakistan.

Difference between the Intelligence Bureau and RAW

The common belief is that the IB and the RAW have separate domains. But, in actual fact, the both organisations coordinate their activities. Like the RAW, the IB also has its offices abroad. In his book, RAW: A History of India’s Covert Operations, Yatish Yadav make startling disclosures about activities of India’s intelligence agencies. In a chapter titled “ Hunting the RAW traitor ”, he reveals the career of the RAW agent Rabinder Singh, an ex-Army man who sold national secrets to the CIA for money. Singh was outwardly a religious person who had a penchant for quoting from Hindu religious book Bhagwad Gita. He led parallel lives and passed on classified information to the foreign power. Although given asylum in the U.S., he was soon forsaken by the CIA and met with an unexplained road accident there. The accident was masterminded by the RAW.

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is the national domestic internal security and counter-intelligence agency that works under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was formed as the ‘Central Special Branch’ on December 23, 1887, which was later renamed as ‘Intelligence Bureau’ in 1920. The organisation mainly focused on National Security activities. According to an article published in Jagaran Josh , the Intelligence Bureau (IB) is said to be the oldest surviving intelligence organisation in the world.

About Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)

Initially, the IB was only responsible for India’s internal and external intelligence, but in 1968, it was bifurcated and left with internal intelligence only. While it’s external branch was handed over to the newly created Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

The bifurcation took place after IB lapse in the intelligence about the Sino-Indian War of 1962, and India-Pakistan War of 1965. So the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was founded in 1968 to counter external security threats. The RAW provides intelligence to policymakers and the army and it keeps a close eye on the activities of the neighbouring countries (China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, etc.) of the nation.

Generally, the IB is the national internal intelligence agency that maintains the internal security of the nation, while RAW is an external intelligence agency that keeps an eye on international threats. The main functions of the IB include counterintelligence, counterterrorism, VIP Security, anti-secession activities and intelligence collection in border areas. RAW on the other hand collects secret information about the activities of neighbouring countries. IB functions under the governance of the Ministry of Home Affairs, while RAW has been placed directly under the Indian Prime Minister’s office. IB gets its employees from the Indian Police Service, law enforcement agencies and the military, while RAW has its own service cadre known as the Research and Analysis Service (RAS). Initially RAW was also dependent on the services of trained intelligence officers from the military, police and other services for its candidates.

The RAW’s objectives include:

Monitoring the political, military, economic and scientific developments in countries which have a direct bearing on India’s national security and the formulation of its foreign policy. Mould international public opinion and influence foreign governments. Covert Operations to safeguard India’s National interests. Anti-terror operations and neutralizing elements posing a threat to India.

To control and limit the supply of military hardware to Pakistan, from mostly European countries, America and more importantly from China.

RAWS exploits

The RAW stoked insurgency in East Pakistan that led to dismemberment of Pakistan. The Indian army and other agencies acted in tandem.

Another event shows that Indian diplomats developed deep ingress in Islamabad. On May 29, 1988, a senior official of the Pakistan Intelligence Bureau was abducted in Islamabad. India alleges that his abductors were personnel from the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). According to their own account of the incident, narrated in the news magazine Herald, they beat up the IB official until he revealed the location of a secret telephone exchange that was monitoring calls made by Zia-ul-Haq.

Kalbushan Jhadav’s story speaks volumes on how India penetrates even its serving officers to carry out sabotage and subversion in Pakistan.

Disinformation

‘Disinformation’ (Russian deziinformatzia) is a concept that finds mention in Sun Tzu’s Ping Fa (Principles of War). Even before Sun Tzu, Kautilya in Arthashastra supported disinformation as a civil and military warfare tool within his concept of koota yuddha (unprincipled warfare as distinguished from dharma yuddha, righteous warfare).

Tzu’s and Kautliya’s principles were used not only in World War II but also in the Cold War period (to hoodwink own and foreign people). Richard Deacon says, ‘Truth twisting…unless it is conducted with caution and great attention to detail, it will inevitably fail, if practiced too often… It is not the deliberate lie which we have to fear (something propaganda), but the half-truth, the embellished truth and the truth dressed up to appear a something quite different’ (The Truth Twisters, London, Macdonald & Company (Publishers) Limited, 1986/1987, p. 8).  He gives several examples of disinformation including subliminal disinformation by which the truth can be twisted so that the distortion is unconsciously absorbed, something which both television and radio commentators have subtly perfected’ (Ibid., p. 9).  In the USA, the Creel Committee, through false anti-German propaganda turned pacifist Americans against Germans.

Disinformation influenced even independent-minded Americans who laid down a constitution, beginning with words `we the people’. Yet Chomsky says the American masses are like a “bewildered herd” who have stopped thinking ( Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, p.16). He asserts that in a “properly functioning democracy”, there is a “small percentage of the people”, a “specialised class of citizens” who … analyse, execute, make decisions and run things in the political, economic, and ideological systems”. Chomsky reminds, ‘Woodrow Wilson was elected President in 1916 on the platform “Peace without Victory”, right in the middle of World War I.  The American population was extremely pacifistic and saw no reason to become involved in a European War.  The Wilson administration established a government propaganda commission, called the Creel Commission [Committee], which succeeded, within six months, in Chomsky reminds, ‘Woodrow Wilson was elected President in 1916 on the platform “Peace without Victory”, right in the middle of World War I.  The American population was extremely pacifistic and saw no reason to become involved in a European War.  The Wilson administration established government propaganda commission, called the Creel Commission, which [through fake news, films, etc.] succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to destroy everything German, tear the Germans limb from limb, go to war and save the world….  After the war, the same techniques were used to whip up a hysterical Red Square…’ ( ibid.page 12).

Fifth-generation war is believed to be a vague term. George Orwell (Politics and the English Language) suggested that that trying to find a clear-cut definition of fifth-generation or hybrid war would reveal exactly that kind of vagueness, with the use of important-sounding, pseudo-technological words to impress readers and convince them that this war is being fought at a level the layperson cannot comprehend. However, India has proved that it understands the dimensions of the fifth generation war or fake news. It knows how to apply its techniques to achieve its objectives. It is time for Pakistan to wake up

EU Lab belatedly discovered a world-wide network that spread disinformation against Pakistan. Even prestigious Indian newspapers sometimes publish reports or articles that smack of being pieces of state-sponsored disinformation.  Harvard’s criteria for detecting fake news could be applied to disinformation bloomers. Harvard suggests `everyone should vet a publisher’s credibility first and then check all the sources and citations’. James Carson offers tips in his article ` Fake news: What exactly is it – and how can you spot it ‘? (Telegraph January 31, 2019)

Disinformation camouflaged in Op-Eds is hard to detect as they do not usually quote their sources of information. A case in point is Shishir Gupta’s article ‘In Imran Khan’s 18-point Kashmir plan for Aug 5, outreach to Turkey, Malaysia and China’, published in Hindustan Times dated July 28, 2020.

RAW officers speak many languages such as Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Sinhalese, German, Polish and Urdu. By the time of Morarji Desai, RAW had a staff of “more than five thousand on its payroll”. Desai turned out to be inhospitable to RAW and Kao, and K. Sankaran Nair left the organisation. N.F. Suntook took charge and “saved the agency”. RAW “recruited trained and deployed informers and covert action teams in the USA, Iran and several European countries as well as in India’s immediate neighbours. It also employed analysts, polygraph examiners, cartographers, linguists, economists and political analysts to defend the country from internal foes and external enemies. While the I.B.’s mandate was essentially within the country, it also opened offices at times on foreign soil. As is to be expected, the two agencies joined hands, and at times fought over turf to the detriment of the common cause.

In Bangladesh, RAW combated the influence of the CIA and Pakistan. The assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a big blow and a much-chastened RAW regrouped to regain its lost influence in Bangladesh. By November 1988, RAW’s station head, code-named Krishna Patwardhan, had set up the necessary network in Bangladesh, to target elements that were hostile to India.

RAW saw spectacular action in other theatres as well. On March 20, 1988, RAW operative Anupam Malik began to carry out Mission Fiji’, “aimed to disrupt and dismantle Fiji’s military regime” that threatened to upset the ethnic balance in Fiji. Attempts were being made by this regime to deny political rights to ethnic Indians, most of whom had been immigrants to the country during the British Raj. Deporting all ethnic Indians to India’ was a distinct possibility. By the 1990s Sitiveni Rabuka, the strongman, was honey-trapped and compromised by RAW agents in Fiji and had to abdicate political power.

Similarly, RAW’s involvement in Afghanistan, we learn, began with the Soviet Union’s invasion of the country. The agency’s operatives carried out missions right through the chequered regimes of Tarki, Amin and Karmal encountering opposition from Pakistan’s Zia ul-Haq and the Taliban at different times.

In Sri Lanka, RAW propped up the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and had to follow the contradictory path of support and opposition following the dictates of the political masters in Delhi.

In the chapter titled “Shadowy War in Washington”, we see the RAW operative code-named ‘Blue Sky’ track down the Khalistani leader Jagjit Singh Chouhan and successfully penetrate the World Sikh Organisation, the International Sikh Federation and the Babbar Khalsa International. While the traditional rivalry between the I.B. and RAW continued, according to RAW operative Krishna’s candid opinion, “the I.B. proved to be far superior in the Canadian theatre than the RAW.”

Concluding reflections

RAW’s cover officers, including RK Yadav and B. Raman, make no bones about India’s involvement in Bangladesh’s insurgency. They admitted that India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi, parliament, RAW and armed forces acted in tandem to dismember Pakistan. Raman reminds us that the Indian parliament passed a resolution on March 31, 1971, to support the insurgency.

Indira Gandhi had then confided with RAW chief R.N.Kao that in case Sheikh Mujib was prevented ruling Pakistan, she would liberate East Pakistan from the clutches of the military junta.

In order to sabotage the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a cell had been established in RAW with the sole objective of disrupting it and the cell worked ‘under the supervision of the Indian Prime Minister’.

Yet another book ( Terror in Islamabad ) has been published by an officer Amar Bhushan who happened to have served as a diplomat at the Indian High Commission Islamabad. Before being posted to Islamabad, Bhushan had served as an officer of India’s premier intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing, Border Security Force Intelligence, and State Special Branch for a quarter of a century. His book mentions another RAW officer, Amit Munshi (real name Veer Singh) posted as Cultural Attache.

Since times immemorial diplomats have enjoyed immunity in countries where they are posted. International conventions govern their conduct in host countries. If a diplomat is caught red handed violating norms of diplomatic conduct, he is declared a persona non grata. Bhushan’s book reveals that Singh’s assignment was to “identify potential Pakistanis for subversion”. The familiar elements of intelligence craft are espionage, sabotage and subversion. India added one more element “insurgency” to the intelligence craft if we go through another RAW officer’s book The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane . B. Raman makes no bones about India’s involvement up to the level of prime minister in Bangladesh’s insurgency.

Introduction to Digido – your trusted partner for microloans and financial assistance

Our rights, our future: report on democracy, human rights, and rule of law in europe, how modern hr systems are giving businesses a competitive edge, russia-africa: what next speakers question at the 3rd mgimo university’s youth forum, navigating the transgender legal battlefield:  education as arena.

• Cookie Policy (EU)

MD does not stand behind any specific agenda, narrative, or school of thought. We aim to expose all ideas, thinkers, and arguments to the light and see what remains valid and sound.

• Fine Living

© 2023 moderndiplomacy.eu. All Rights Reserved.

Indian intelligence official, ex-RAW chief involved in Pannun assassination bid: US media report

NEW DELHI: An investigative report published by The Washington Post on Monday alleged the involvement of a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official identified as Vikram Yadav in the assassination plot of Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US. The report also suggested that the plan to assassinate Pannun had been approved by the then-chief of the intelligence agency, Samant Goel.

Pannun is a key leader in the Khalistan movement and serves as the legal advisor and spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), an organisation advocating for a separate Sikh state. He has been designated as a terrorist by the Indian government.

The report says it is investigating a global surge in campaigns of cross-border repression as well as the global forces leading India and other countries to adopt such measures.

Until now, the only charges made public in the US with respect to the Pannun assassination case were against an alleged middleman named Nikhil Gupta , who has been accused of working at the behest of the Indian government. The indictment describes Gupta as an Indian drug and weapons trafficker recruited to engage a contract killer.

The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration has refrained from making charges against Yadav. However, the naming of the official in the middle of the ongoing election process in India has raised eyebrows.

"The assassination is a priority now," says the Washington Post report, quoting Yadav. According to the report, which cites last year's indictment, Yadav is alleged to have forwarded details about Pannun (which included his address in New York).

"Yadav’s identity and affiliation, which have not previously been reported, provide the most explicit evidence to date that the assassination plan—ultimately thwarted by US authorities—was directed from within the Indian spy service," says the report, adding that the operation was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel.

"Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of a sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modi's inner circle," the media report said.

That finding is consistent with accounts provided to The Washington Post by former senior Indian security officials who had knowledge of the operation and said Goel was under extreme pressure to eliminate the alleged threat of Sikh extremists overseas.

"US spy agencies have more tentatively assessed that Modi's national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAW's plans to kill Sikh activists, but officials emphasised that no smoking gun proof has emerged," it said.

Quoting officials, The Washington Post said, the foiled assassination was part of an escalating campaign of aggression by RAW against the Indian diaspora in Asia, Europe and North America.

The alleged plot to kill Pannun in the US coincided with the June 18 fatal shooting of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, Canada's British Columbia province, in June last year.

That operation was also linked to Yadav, according to Western officials.

Both plots took place amid a wave of violence in Pakistan, where at least 11 Sikh or Kashmiri separatists living in exile and labelled terrorists by the Modi government have been killed over the past two years, the report said.

Senior Indian government officials named in the Washington Post report did not respond to it seeking comment, the daily said.

However, when asked about the investigation into the allegations made by the US in the Pannun case, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last week, "We have set up a high-level committee. The committee is looking into information that was shared by the American side with us, because they also equally impact our national security."

The high-level committee is looking into those aspects and that is where it is right now, Jaiswal said in New Delhi on April 25.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on April 1 had said that India's national security interests are involved in its investigation into the alleged involvement of a government official in the assassination plot aimed at Khalistani extremist Pannun.

Subsequent to the indictment, the US court had implicated Nikhil Gupta for working at the behest of the Indian government to proceed with the killing. Gupta was arrested on June 30, 2023, in Prague, Czech Republic, after being indicted by the US Justice Department. The 52-year-old continues to be in the Czech Republic, though the US has been trying to extradite him.

For this story, Post reporters conducted dozens of interviews with officials, experts and targeted individuals in New Delhi, Washington, Ottawa, London, Prague and Berlin, it said.

India has denied the allegations until now and the Modi government had set up a high-level inquiry committee in November to look into the allegations. No official response has been issued on the latest report.

It may be recalled that accusations of India being involved in the killing of slain Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar first surfaced when Canadian PM Justin Trudeau visited India for the G20 Summit and made some allegations. This led to a diplomatic row between India and Canada, where visa services were suspended by India for Canadians and Canadian diplomats were asked to downsize their staff in India.

Earlier this month, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said that India would not spare any terrorist, even if it meant crossing the border.

"Ghar me ghus ke marenge," Singh had in a television interview in response to a question on a report by British newspaper "The Guardian" that claimed Indian intelligence agencies carried out assassinations of terrorists in Pakistan as part of an emboldened approach to national security after 2019.

(With inputs from Yeshi Seli, Online Desk and PTI)

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp  

Download the TNIE app to stay with us and follow the latest

Related Stories

'Unwarranted, unsubstantial imputations': India on US report naming RAW agent involved in plot to kill Pannun

N EW DELHI: India on Tuesday reacted to an article by the Washington Post claiming that a member of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was involved in a plot to kill a Khalistani separatist and said that the report makes 'unwarranted and unsubstantial imputations' on a serious matter.

The report claimed that RAW member Vikram Yadav purportedly directed a contracted hit squad to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a separatist based in the United States.

READ ALSO: US report names RAW man involved in alleged plot to take out Pannun

The report suggested that US intelligence agencies have concluded that the mission aimed at Pannun received approval from then-chief of RAW Samant Goel. It further notes that Yadav was reassigned to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) after the failed Pannun operation came to light last year.

READ ALSO: RAW official was involved in assassination plot of Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun: Media report

Highlighting that India is already investigating into the security concerns raised by the US government, India spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal tweeted, "The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter. There is an ongoing investigation of the High Level Committee set up by the Government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists and others. Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful.”

India taking this seriously: White House

The White House stated that India is taking the allegations regarding the plot to assassinate Pannun in the US seriously. However, it refrained from commenting on the FBI probe into the matter and the criminal case filed by the Department of Justice.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, addressing reporters on Monday, said that the investigation is ongoing, with the Department of Justice conducting a criminal probe. She emphasised the importance of India as a strategic partner and highlighted ongoing cooperation between the two nations.

Regarding the alleged assassination plot, Jean-Pierre reiterated the seriousness of the matter and noted India's commitment to investigating it. She stated that the US will continue to raise concerns directly with the Indian government and expects accountability.

Pannun is a prominent figure in the Khalistan movement and serves as the legal advisor and spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice, advocating for a separate Sikh state. The Indian government has designated Pannun as a terrorist.

The reported plot to kill Pannun coincided with the fatal shooting of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada last year, also allegedly linked to Yadav.

For more news like this visit TOI . Get all the Latest News , City News , India News , Business News , and Sports News . For Entertainment News , TV News , and Lifestyle Tips visit Etimes