Some Declassified RAW Operation
We don't really get to hear or read much about them. They operate
undercover to make sure we are safe from forces conspiring against us. It's
never fun and games for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India,
but they surely have some truly epic tales to tell. We managed to find some
declassified covert operations carried out by RAW in the past, and they are
nothing short of extraordinary.
Operation Kahuta
After India’s Pokhran test in 1974, an arms race was triggered
between India and Pakistan. After operation Smiling Buddha, there was a
continuous race of creation of nuclear reactors between India and Pakistan.
Just as US and Canada helped India with nuclear
processing plants, china helped Pakistan in supplying
the same technology in the 1970s. China provided the blueprints
of the nuclear bomb and as well as the highly enriched Uranium and Tritium,
they even passed the complete technology to Pakistan.
By the late the 1970s RAW had already established a
good network inside Pakistan and had heard
rumors about the Kahuta plant
The India had a slight knowledge of the Pakistan’s nuclear plans as
India had a wide network in Pakistan by 1970s. The challenge
was how to crack it and establish that Pakistan is actually
working on expanding its plans. They found a way, they tracked
the nuclear scientists and went to the barber shops in Kahuta
where these they got their haircut and stole the hair samples.
The hair samples were analyzed and they indeed had radiation
traces and India was sure that Kahuta nuclear plant was a
plutonium refining plant and Pakistan was indeed developing
their nuclear bomb.
Even Israel wasn’t happy with the Pakistan’s nuclear reactor and
Pakistan was scared that Israel may bomb their nuclear reactor
like they bombed Iraqi Nuclear reactor in 1981.
There was a conversations of Pakistan and India’s nuclear plan and
how India was making plans to even bomb the nuclear reactor
and Israel would be using The Jamnagar airbase to do that.. But
there was a big screwup on the Indian side
But the biggest mistake happened when Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai in a
talk on telephone call told Zia-Ul-Haq that he is aware of Pakistan’s best kept
secret. Zia-Ul-Haq was alerted and soon, all agents of RAW at Kahuta were
killed and India lost all connections with Pakistan’s nuclear plan.
Ganga Hijack Drama
In one of India’s most popular lore of spying, the story goes how
RAW used a teenaged Kashmiri boy as a double agent who would go
on to facilitate the isolation of Pakistan from East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh).
An Indian agent of RAW, Hashum Qureshi in Srinagar was working in
league with the BSF. In Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, a Pakistan-
sponsored terrorist organisation, launched the Al-Fatah organisation
for liberation of J&K from India. 36 of these members were arrested
by J&K Police with the help of Indian Intelligence Agencies. In order
to get more inside information, RAW decided to infiltrate Qureshi
into this organization as he was well aware of the terrain of POK.
But he was won over by the Pakistani Intelligence, the ISI. There, he
was given training to hijack a plane by a former Pakistani pilot.
When he was sent back to India, the BSF arrested him and he
cracked upon interrogation. The plan was to hijack the plane which
would be piloted by Rajiv Gandhi, son of Mrs. Indira Gandhi then
Prime Minister of India. When this startling disclosure was reported
to the head of BSF and RAW, India decided to beat Pakistan at their
own game!
RAW and BSF persuaded Qureshi to work for them in order to save
him from execution by the Indian authorities. According to the plan,
Qureshi would hijack an Indian Airlines aircraft flying from Srinagar
to Lahore. In return, he would demand the release of 36 members of
the Al-Fatah who were in jail in India. A Fokker Friendship aircraft,
Ganga, which was retired from Indian Airlines was inducted for this
operation. The plane was hijacked and he was allowed a toy pistol
and a fake grenade inside the plane.
Here on, everything went accordingly; Qureshi, along with his cousin
Ashraf Qureshi hijacked the Srinagar-Jammu bound Ganga aircraft
on 30 January 1971 to Lahore. He was armed with a mere toy pistol
and a fake grenade! Security checks during those days were
unheard of.
Once in Lahore, the two hijackers demanded the release of 36 jailed
members of JKNLF of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (POK), besides
seeking political asylum in Pakistan. To render authenticity to the
incident, India’s national radio AIR broadcasted the news of the
hijacking.
On surface, it all seemed India had nothing to do with the hijack,
except negotiate the safety of its flight passengers. This was the
time when terror was unheard of, and the hijack raised great
curiosity in the masses of Pakistan. All the passengers were given a
warm welcome in the Pakistani soil, offered teas and snacks, and
given shelter at a grand hotel in Lahore, before they were
transported back to the Indian border.
In the meanwhile, the two young hijacking cousins were given the
rousing welcome of heroes in Pakistan. And for some inexplicable
reason, the plane was burned down by the Pakistani authorities.
Three months after this incident,
The Indian government banned all the flights of Pakistan flying over
our territory and it exposed that Pakistani state openly and actively
supporting terrorists. Pakistan was trying to suppress the civil unrest in
East Pakistan by sending men and other resources in planes. With the ban,
they had to slow down their exercise
Finally, when on November, 1971 a joint force of Bangladesh and Indian
troops took on the Pakistani soldiers, the role of India in the hijack became all
too clear. The Pakistani Air Force deployed in Dhaka was isolated and
cornered, and the disadvantage was fully utilised by India to liberate the
region, what came to be known as Bangladesh.
The Black Tiger
After finishing his training in New Delhi, he flew to Saudi Arabia and
finally ended in Pakistan. He enrolled in Karachi University under the
disguise “Nabi Ahmad Shakir” and obtained LLB degree. Within no
time he successfully entered into Pakistan Army, initially, he served
as civil clerk and later rose to the rank of Major. From 1979-1983 for
4 years, he passed on critical and sensitive information about
Pakistan movements to Indian establishments. It saved nearly
millions of Indians. India spoiled almost every covert operation of
Pakistan successfully.
It is said that Indira Gandhi herself conferred the title “Black Tiger”
to Ravindra Kaushik. Pakistan officials failed to trace this tiger, who
is popular even among them. During these years only he got
married to a local Pakistan girl. His exceptional expertise in
deceptive skills turned him to be a vital asset for the Indian
agencies.
The last days
Unlike movies, real stories always don’t have happy endings. This
turned to be true even in the case of Ravindra Kaushik. “Inyat
Masiha” a RAW agent who was sent to get in contact with Ravindra
was caught by Pakistan security forces while crossing the border to
Pakistan. Inyat Masiha was forced to disclose the information about
“Black Tiger “, finally he gave all the information regard to Black
Tiger. Ravindra Kaushik’s cover was finally blown. He was tortured
barbarically and awarded with a death sentence on espionage
charges. With the efforts of Indian government behind the scene this
was changed to life imprisonment. After spending all his precious
years between four walls of the jail, he was succumbed to
Tuberculosis and died in 2001.
Finally, he was buried behind Central Multan jail in a nowhere land.
He spent his last years in many hardships: His wife and son were
killed; he never got a chance to see his parents and siblings. Above
all, he was not awarded with any honorary for his remarkable
achievements.
