India's first line of defence - RAW

[Bosch]

Is there estimate for now? It will be pretty good if around $4-5 billions.

Not able to find any recent estimates.

 

[Bosch]

The inside story of the Pakistan espionage ring

Senior army officers Lieutenant General (retd) Javed Iqbal, Brigadier (retd) Raja Rizwan, and Kahuta official Wasim Akram punished for spying

In separate Field General Court Martials (FGCM) of enquiry, results of which were made public, albeit in a guarded manner on May 30, Pakistan's Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa endorsed unusually severe punishments to two army officers and one civilian, on charges of espionage and leakage of sensitive information to foreign agencies prejudicial to national security.

The army officers were tried under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 (PAA). Lieutenant General (retd) Javed Iqbal Awan was awarded 14 years rigorous imprisonment while Brigadier (retd) Raja Rizwan was given the death sentence. Dr Wasim Akram, employed either at the Kahuta Research Laboratories or in the Strategic Plans Division, was tried separately under the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (applies in Pakistan) and also awarded the death sentence.

The case involving senior army officers came to light in October 2018 after Ali Rizwan, son of retired Brigadier Raja Rizwan, filed a habeas corpus petition in Islamabad High Court reporting that his father had gone missing on the evening of October 10 near a busy shopping centre of the city. Justice Aamer Farooq heard the petition and sought a report from the authorities.

This had forced Director General ISPR, Major General Asif Ghafoor, to admit while addressing a news conference in the last week of February this year that two senior officers were in military custody on charges of espionage and that the COAS had also ordered their Field General Court Martial. He also told media persons that the retired army officers were arrested in individual cases and there was no link between them.

On May 29, Ghafoor further disclosed in a statement, “The disposal of cases today by the COAS is testimony of strict across-the-board accountability system of armed forces. These were three separate cases. Punishment awarded to the officers is of maximum degree in the law corresponding to their respective offence”.

Lt Gen Javed Iqbal Awan hails from Chakwal. The son of a major, he is an Alamgirian, having studied at the popular Military College at Sarai Alamgir, Jhelum (alma mater of former army chief Gen Kayani) where he was an average student.

His elder brother too was in the army and retired as a colonel. Javed joined the 9th Battalion of the Frontier Force Regiment, otherwise famously known as the Fiffers Regiment, the same regiment of previous Army Chief, Gen Raheel Sharif. Among important assignments Javed held were those of 111 Brigade Commander, Rawalpindi (otherwise known as the 'Coup Brigade'), instructor In the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, and at the Command and Staff College, Quetta.


As a major general, he commanded infantry divisions at Bahawalpur and Jhelum (deployed also in Swat, KpK) before bagging the key assignment of director general, military operations at GHQ.

He remained DGMO till early 2011 during which assignment, he may have been privy to sensitive operational plans. He became adjutant general before commanding the 31 Corps at Bahawalpur. Javed retired in May 2015. He was regarded as a suave, soft-spoken officer with consummate networking skills. Sometime during his service career, Javed attended the US Army War College course in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The grapevine now has it that he may have been recruited by the CIA as early as in 2004.

Brig Rizwan is from Khanpur, Rahimyar Khan district, Punjab. His father was a junior commissioned officer (JCO, Engineers). He too had his early education from Hassan Abdal Cadet College, another popular nursery for army recruits.

He joined the 68 th PMA course at Kakul and was commissioned in the 10th Frontier Force Regiment. While in the army, he commanded a brigade in the Tribal Areas and, thereafter, held a prestigious appointment as Pakistan’s military attaché In Germany for three years, from 2009 to 2012. He retired from service in 2014. Peers within the Pakistan military speculate he may have been honey-trapped as he had the reputation of having a glad-eye. A video made by a Pakistani Pashtun website circulating on YouTube alleges Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) involvement. This seems unlikely. It is more probable he too may have been recruited by the Americans during his tenure there.

Though sources in Pakistan remain tight-lipped, it is understood that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) may have been the final customer in two different networks, one an attempt to breach the Kahuta nuclear research facility and the other linked to GHQ (plans). There was apparently a side-show as well, on army assistance to sectarian groups, which was being fed to the CIA possibly through US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in their embassies in Berlin and Islamabad. Investigation by the ISI’s counter-intelligence wing is understood to have found traces to foreign bank accounts and vast properties disproportionate to known sources of income of all the arrested officials.

The disclosure regarding these cases comes at a time when Imran Khan’s government is facing some flak over rather one-sided accountability of Opposition politicians, through the National Accountability Bureau headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal. Recently, he came under a cloud after a video surfaced on social media, showing a woman allegedly close to PTI politicians meeting the judge.

The DG, ISPR’s statement on the army officers’ arrests ironically enough, seeks to wrest mileage by stressing across-the-board accountability in the armed forces, which has been an exception rather than the norm in Pakistan. Questions are being asked why the nature of punishment meted out is different for sons of JCOs and civilians while generals are spared, though crimes damaging national security may be similar. The army’s sanctimonious stance is unlikely to convince cynics in civil society there.

Rana Banerji is Special Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat
https://www.firstpost.com/world/the-inside-story-of-the-pakistan-espionage-ring-6798771.html

 

[Bosch]

No bail for Brahmos Aerospace engineer accused of leaking info to Pakistan's ISI

Aggarwal was enrolled at the NIT in 2009 and passed out in 2013. Faculty members recall Aggarwal as a bright student.

“He was a gold medallist and a student of exceptional research capabilities. It is shocking to learn that Aggarwal is named in a highly sensitive case concerning national security. It is a sad day for us,” said Prof PC Tewari, a senior faculty member from the mechanical branch.

Another teacher, requesting anonymity, said Aggarwal was recently awarded the Young Scientist Award 2017-18 by the DRDO.

“He had the potential to make it big in his career. The allegations of leaking information of an important missile programme to an enemy country has jeopardised his life and profession,” the teacher said.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/nit-shocked-at-alumnus-arrest-in-spying-case/665795.html

 

[Bosch]

Most common way through which ISI gets Indians to do their work is through honey traps. Lowest level of sophistication needed. But still some Indians fall for it.

 

[Bosch]

That Brahmos guy was the college batchmate of one of the DFI members.

--------------------------------------------removed as I am not sure if it is the same person

 

[Deathstar]

That Brahmos guy was the college batchmate of one of the DFI members.

He is screwed for life tbh , good asset wasted
Gaddari is worst of the crimes

 

[Bosch]

Scorpene submarine data leak: Here’s what we know so far about the case
(2016)
“The Australian” report claimed the data was most probably leaked not from India but from DCNS in France as it also includes separate confidential DCNS files on plans to sell French frigates to Chile and the French sale of the Mistral-class amphibious assault ship carrier to Russia. Since these projects of the DCNS have no link to India, there is high probability that the data files were removed from the company in France.

But DCNS implied that the leak might have occurred at India’s end, rather than from France.

“Uncontrolled technical data is not possible in the Australian arrangements,” the company said.

“Multiple and independent controls exist within DCNS to prevent unauthorised access to data and all data movements are encrypted and recorded. In the case of India, where a DCNS design is built by a local company, DCNS is the provider and not the controller of technical data,” the company said.

The data on the submarine was written in France for India in 2011 and is suspected of being removed from France in that same year by a former French Navy officer who was at that time a DCNS subcontractor.

“The data is then believed to have been taken to a company in Southeast Asia, possibly to assist in a commercial venture for a regional navy. It was subsequently passed by a third party to a second company in the region before being sent on a data disk by regular mail to a company in Australia…It is unclear how widely the data has been shared in Asia or whether it has been obtained by foreign intelligence agencies,” the report said.

 

[Bosch]

Break-in at IAF Rafale team office in France(2019)

 

[Bosch]

How India secretly armed Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance

Former envoy has a word of caution on Delhi’s role in a post-U.S. Kabul
India must not commit the error of placing Indian troops on Afghan soil, says the diplomat who coordinated New Delhi’s secret military assistance to Ahmad Shah Massoud, the military commander of the Northern Alliance, who fought the Taliban and U.S. forces till his assassination in 2001.

For four years, between 1996 and 2000, till he left the Tajik capital Dushanbe to take up his new posting, Ambassador Bharath Raj Muthu Kumar coordinated military and medical assistance that India was secretly giving to Massoud and his forces.

It all began, says Mr. Muthu Kumar, exactly a week after September 26, 1996, when the Taliban, backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), took over Kabul, shot former President Najibullah dead, castrated him, and hung his body from a lamp post. Just hours before, Indian Embassy staff had scrambled into the last plane out of a country that had begun its descent into hell.

Amrullah Saleh, who looked after Kabul’s interests in the Tajik capital, called Mr. Muthu Kumar to inform him that the “Commander” would like to meet him.

“Commander” was a reference to Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir, who made his name guerrilla-fighting the Soviets when they occupied Afghanistan for 10 years. The Indian ambassador sought instructions from New Delhi on what was to be done. The response: “Listen carefully, report back faithfully, and play it by ear.”

Over chai and dry fruits
Massoud maintained a house on Karamova Ulitse in Dushanbe. He had his own staff and Mohammed Saleh Registani looked after the affairs of his house. It was here that the Indian ambassador regularly began meeting Ahmed Shah Massoud, discussing, over endless chai and dry fruits, the bewilderingly shifting fortunes of the battles in Afghanistan where money was enough to swing fighters. The Commander did not speak English and Amrullah, who would later go on to become Intelligence Chief, interpreted for him. The Indian ambassador subsequently had his number two in the mission, Dr S.A. Qureshi on hand for interpretation.

At the first meeting, the Commander had dramatically thrown his trademark cap down on the table, and declared, that was all the space he required — the circumference of his headgear — to stand and fight for his country. He put it simply: “I need India’s support.” He then set out a list of items he needed.

What is in it for us? Delhi queried. Mr. Muthu Kumar explained, “He is battling someone we should be battling. When Massoud fights the Taliban, he fights Pakistan.”

Expanding list
The Commander’s wish list kept growing, and when once, New Delhi agreed to send only a fraction of the requirement, Mr. Muthu Kumar sent a message explaining Massoud’s predicament with an Ajit joke: “We have thrown him in liquid oxygen: the liquid won’t let him live and the oxygen won’t allow him to die.”

Jaswant Singh, a former soldier, and then BJP leader, who had become External Affairs Minister, read the cables the first thing. He directly called Mr. Muthu Kumar and gave him a message to deliver to the Commander: “Please assure him that he will have his requirements.”

Short of sending heavy equipment, India provided extensive assistance to the Northern Alliance — uniforms, ordnance, mortars, small armaments, refurbished Kalashnikovs seized in Kashmir, combat and winter clothes, packaged food, medicines, and funds through his brother in London, Wali Massoud. Assistance would be delivered circuitously with the help of other countries who helped this outreach.

Mr. Muthu Kumar does not recall the quantities and the detailed itemisation. The logistics of procurement and delivery was handled by the Military Intelligence wing in New Delhi. The supplies arrived regularly at Dushanbe, and the Tajik customs ensured the smooth transfer to Farkhor, at the border between Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan, where Massoud maintained around 10 helicopters for his war efforts. New Delhi also helped maintain the helicopters with spares and service. Between 1996 and 1999 India gifted two Mi-8 helicopters.

Frontline hospital
The wounded arrived incessantly from the battlefront in helicopters at Farkhor. Those requiring sustained treatment were sent to Delhi via Farkhor and Dushanbe, the visas furnished in double-quick time. Also, at Farkhor, where the embassy had scouted for a hospital, an isolation clinic had been refurbished with two operating theatres, twenty-four beds for the convalescing and an ICU of between six to eight beds, depending on the requirement. Five doctors and twenty-four paramedics ran the hospital, which also had an OPD for locals. The medical outreach project had been valued at that time at $7.5 million.

When Ambassador Muthu Kumar wanted to build a helipad right next to the hospital for the convenience of the wounded, New Delhi jokingly admonished him, “Now you are getting carried away!” He found a convenient solution. Farkhor was in the cotton belt and for ginning cotton, they used reinforced concrete slabs seven or eight inches thick and large enough to comfortably land an MI8. So the medical facility had a helipad as well. Indian officials began flying up to Dushanbe to meet Massood and also have themselves photographed with him.

The policy grew more substantial when President Emamoli Rahmon indicated he would like a technical halt in New Delhi on his way back from Vietnam, on January 22, 1999. Prime Minister Vajpayee invited him for lunch at his residence and ways were discussed to deepen the ties.

New Delhi was interested in an airbase in Aini to maintain forward presence in the area. It had been used by the Russians who maintained Su-25 aircraft, subsonic, heavily armed. After they withdrew, it fell into disuse, and India lengthened the runway, upgraded the airbase, did a ferry run, and flew a flag there too and stationed a Commandant with the rank of a Group Captain with four officers under him. The Aini airbase has no IAF aircraft on ground but is a part of India’s well-equipped training mission in Tajikistan.

It was to the Farkhor medical facility run by India that Massoud was brought when he was assassinated on September 9, 2001. Registani, who had become a general, called Mr. Muthu Kumar who had been posted to Minsk in Belarus, to say that the Commander had been attacked, and was beyond help.

The date coincided with the diplomat’s wedding anniversary, and he was throwing a dinner; he promptly cancelled the event without assigning any reason.

It was days later that Massoud’s death was announced. The first military attaché arrived after the RAW man in the embassy had arrived towards the end of Mr. Muthu Kumar’s tenure. Almost as soon as the first American military boot hit the Afghanistan soil, the hospital in Farkhor was ordered to be wound up and shifted to Mazar-e-Sharif.

Echoes today
This nearly hidden chapter in New Delhi’s relationship with Afghanistan grows in salience as the talks between Taliban and the Americans veer around to formulating a way forward, combined with the repeated and open American request to India to participate more robustly in the security matrix in Afghanistan.

Barely three months before he died, towards the end of May, Commander Massoud visited New Delhi. He was there for four days, at New Delhi’s invitation. Jaswant Singh records, in his book, A Call to Honour, “This had to be a closely guarded visit, as any number of terrorist groups from Afghanistan and Pakistan were vying to take his life.” He noted that, “India’s co-operation with the Northern Alliance is still largely an untold account. A more complete narration of it has to wait.”

Is there a take-away from India’s experience that is relevant now? Mr. Muthu Kumar quotes Massoud as saying in August 1998, before the U.S. launched cruise missile attacks on Kandahar and elsewhere, says, “I recall Commander Massoud telling me in August 1998 before the U.S. launched cruise missile attacks on Kandahar and elsewhere that “The problem in Afghanistan — more than the Taliban — is the presence of foreign forces. so I am also fighting these forces who are with the Taliban. After the massacre of Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif this summer, Iran massed more than 2,50,000 soldiers on our border to punish the Taliban, so I advised the leadership in Iran, do not invade Afghanistan as I am fighting foreign forces, so just give me material assistance to defeat the foreign forces and the Taliban.”

Given his experience, Mr. Muthu Kumar says, “Taking note of Masood’s exchange, my thinking is that we must not commit that gross error of placing Indian boots on Afghan soil. What will Indian troops do? What could we achieve and who will we fight and defend? The leaders of the present Government and the Taliban are only two major facets of Afghan politics — they have to resolve their differences for that elusive peace and stability.”

 

[WARREN SS]

Their failure in countering Naxalism says otherwise. IB was Congresses perosnal bitch not too long ago. Their Inter Departmental rivalry with RAW is an infamous one. I don't know what has changed from back then.

Credit goes to Interstate Rivalry And Political patronage

 

[Bosch]

India's spy agency RAW behind my poll defeat, says former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa (2015)

Sri Lankan President Sirisena alleges that RAW is plotting his assassination(2018)

Sri Lankan President dials Modi, rejects 'RAW assasination plot' report(2018)

India’s RAW had issued precision intelligence warnings ten days before the weekend’s murderous serial bombings in Sri Lanka.(2019)

 

[Bosch]

A fictional novel about Nepali politics by a former RAW officer is being touted as a work of nonfiction by the Nepali press and social media.(2019)

 

[Bosch]

Ex-diplomat reported to be in relationship with ISI official sentenced to 3 years in jail for spying(2018)

 

[Bosch]

Regd the Madhuri Gupta case

Sources say Madhuri’s first act of indiscretion was to let on to Rana(ISI Agent) that her boss, R.K. Sharma, who headed the press division, was not from the IFS but was in fact station chief in Islamabad of R&AW, India’s external spy agency. Once Sharma became aware that his cover was blown, presumably after being snitched on by Indian moles in the Pakistani establishment, he lodged a complaint against Madhuri with his R&AW bosses in Delhi. Madhuri was immediately put under surveillance

At a crucial juncture, it was decided to subject Madhuri to a ‘litmus test’ to establish her betrayal beyond doubt. She was made the exclusive recipient of spurious information, and once it was confirmed that the Pakistanis were privy to this information, it was decided to bring Madhuri back to India.

 

[Bosch]

Would do it all again, says Punjabi spy who came in from the cold

 

[Deathstar]

Would do it all again, says Punjabi spy who came in from the cold

Oh man world of spying and espionage is so hard and brutal , pure love for the country and nothing else. If i get a chance i will definitely work for their families left behind. Its every patriotic citizens duty

 

[Bosch]

Oh man world of spying and espionage is so hard and brutal , pure love for the country and nothing else. If i get a chance i will definitely work for their families left behind. Its every patriotic citizens duty

It is very hard for us to help families of spies because government usually may not announce their deaths/captures. Maybe government can start a website like bharatkeveer but with identities hidden?

 

[Deathstar]

It is very hard for us to help families of spies because government usually may not announce their deaths/captures. Maybe government can start a website like bharatkeveer but with identities hidden?

Probably some funds might be already going, we wont be knowing.

 

[Bosch]

Before Kulbhushan Jadhav: Pakistan had hanged another alleged Indian 'spy' back in 1999

 

[Bosch]

On 28 March 2017, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Hansraj Ahir, told Rajya Sabha that India had arrested 33 Pakistani spies in 2016. India, however, does not execute Pakistani spies. But Jadhav has been sentenced to death in a Field General Court Marshal. Sarabjit Singh was murdered in a Lahore jail in 2013.

Sheikh Shamim was hanged in 1999. A very few like Kashmir Singh were lucky; he spent 35 years on death row and was pardoned by Pak President Pervez Musharraf in 2008. “I was a spy and did my duty,” declared Kashmir Singh, who had pretended to be deranged while in prison.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2018/jun/10/the-secret-battlefield-1825074.html