Behind India’s Bust Of A Pakistan Spy

In this undated handout photo, Madhuri Gupta, 53, an Indian diplomat who worked as second secretary in the Indian high commission in Islamabad is seen

“At 53, she was bored, alone and attractive. Single, but definitely one step ahead to mingle.” That’s how the man who led the operation to bust Madhuri Gupta, the first Indian diplomat to be found spying for Pakistan, described her. For most of her two years in espionage, Gupta was a lone-wolf, conducting a classic spy operation from her base in Islamabad. Old-school “dead drops,” in which she passed off information without even meeting her Pakistani handlers, were her signature style. Yet it was a silly indiscretion — sending e-mails to her spy bosses from her office computer — that finally led to her arrest.

Gupta has not exactly been near the center of Indian decision-making, posted as a second secretary in the media section of India’s high commission in Pakistan’s capital, where her job had been to provide English and Hindi summaries of Pakistan’s Urdu-language newspapers. On April 22, the 53-year-old was summoned back to New Delhi ostensibly to help colleagues prepare for the ongoing South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit in Bhutan. After landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport, she was whisked away by officials of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (IB), India’s internal intelligence agency, straight to an interrogation chamber in an undisclosed location. Twenty-four hours later, she was handed over to Delhi police, charged with treason and accessing confidential documents under India’s Official Secrets Act.

“Her spy game was up the moment a Joint Secretary — an IB officer — inside the Islamabad mission suspected her around October 2009 and reported back,” a high-level IB case officer in New Delhi told TIME. The IB launched a massive counter-intelligence operation, in which even its counterparts in the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the country’s external intelligence agency, were kept out of the loop.

Over the next six months, Gupta’s every step was monitored. She was found to be taking undue interest in informal discussions among the senior embassy officials regarding important policy matters, including India’s strategic plans in Afghanistan and resuming a dialogue with Pakistan. She was even fed with incorrect information to be passed on to her Pakistan handlers, suspected to be from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Pakistani authorities refused to comment on the case, but analysts in Islamabad saw her arrest as an attempt to scupper upcoming planned talks between India’s and Pakistan’s prime ministers. “The timing was supposed to send a signal that India is not ready to talk to Pakistan yet,” said Cyril Almeida, an editor and analyst at Pakistan’s
Dawn newspaper. “India has not moved beyond its post-Mumbai [the terror attack which Indian and Western authorities say originated in Pakistan] phase. It is not looking for talks with Pakistan any time soon.”

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, this week, although the purpose of such talks is contested. After breaking off all dialogue with Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Indian officials had suggested a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the SAARC summit to discuss a long-running water dispute, but Pakistan has made clear that it wants a formal, open-ended peace talks. As Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told the India’s CNN-IBN network on Tuesday, “We need to go beyond a handshake.”

Asked whether the two prime ministers would still hold talks in Bhutan this week, Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Malik Amad Khan told TIME, “Maybe, maybe not, but that’s totally independent of [the spying] allegations.”

Almeida notes that espionage efforts to “turn” the other country’s diplomats are par for the course between the long-time rivals, “But given [Gupta's] relatively junior position it is unlikely that she would have had access to sensitive documents, unless there was a real breakdown internally.”

Indian government sources say Gupta had been spying for Pakistan since September 2008. “We have reasons to believe that she was not recruited inside Pakistan,” says a senior officer in R&AW. “Possibly she was picked up and nurtured either in Baghdad or Kuala Lumpur where she was posted earlier.” The agency also says this could have been a reason why she was keen for a Pakistan posting — usually a last choice among Indian diplomats and intelligence officials.

Vishnu Prakash, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, says that Gupta “is co-operating with the investigations and inquiries.” Sources told TIME that she has told interrogators that she spied for Pakistan to settle scores with senior Indian diplomats who mistreated her during her early career. She has also reportedly confessed that a prominent Pakistani journalist put her in touch with Pakistani intelligence officers.

TIME

60 years of Sino-Pakistan friendship: Trade to $15 billion

• The two countries had set a target of enhancing their bilateral trade from the present US$7 billion to US$15 billion over the next two/three years.
• The Foreign Minister said that the exchange of high level visits between the two countries being planned this year would give further momentum to this upward bilateral trajectory.
• China had achieved tremendous improvement in its education system and Pakistan could benefit from their advancement. Accordingly, it would be useful if more and more students could get higher education in China either on the basis of scholarship or on self finance basis.
• The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister welcomed the suggestion saying that his country would explore all possible avenues to encourage Pakistani students to come to China and benefit from their education facilities.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China will celebrate 60th anniversary of their bilateral relations next year in a befitting manner demonstrating the unique and all weather relationship between the two countries.

This understanding was reached at a meeting between Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya on the sidelines of the 16th SAARC Summit at Thimphu, Bhutan on Wednesday.

They reiterated their mutual resolve to continue injecting further substance into Pakistan-China relations to their mutual benefit. The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister stated that Pakistan-China relations would continue to strengthen regardless of any regional or global developments.

Foreign Minister Qureshi expressing full satisfaction at his recent visit to China said that in the last two years the two countries had further augmented the interaction in all spheres of life. It was particularly encouraging to see increased activities in the economic sector.

The two countries had set a target of enhancing their bilateral trade from the present US$7 billion to US$15 billion over the next two/three years. The Foreign Minister said that the exchange of high level visits between the two countries being planned this year would give further momentum to this upward bilateral trajectory.

The Chinese Minister said that they were keenly looking forward to a working visit by President Asif Zardari to China sometime in summer this year. The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister assured that China would always be supporting Pakistan on important regional and international issues.

Appreciating Pakistan’s efforts against violent extremism Guangya said that it was incumbent upon the international community to stand by Pakistan and extend full support to it in the pursuit of its counterterrorism strategy.

The Foreign Minister said that Pakistan was looking forward to focusing especially on enhancing people-to-people contacts. In this regard, it was necessary that more and more opportunities were created for the youth of the two countries.

China had achieved tremendous improvement in its education system and Pakistan could benefit from their advancement. Accordingly, it would be useful if more and more students could get higher education in China either on the basis of scholarship or on self finance basis.

The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister welcomed the suggestion saying that his country would explore all possible avenues to encourage Pakistani students to come to China and benefit from their education facilities.

The Foreign Minister Qureshi briefed the Chinese Foreign Minister about developments in Pakistan-India relations underlining that it was imperative for the two countries to get back to the negotiating table and resolve all their bilateral disputes. The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister appreciated Pakistan’s efforts aimed at creating normal and peaceful relations with India. Pakistan, China to celebrate 60th anniversary of bilateral Ties ‘Pakistan Times’ Diplomatic Correspondent

How India-Israel created Bangladesh

Former head of counter-terrorism branch of India’s intelligence Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), B. Raman, in his book ‘The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane’ documents the major part played by India-Israel intelligence agencies in the dismemberment of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh in the Eastern part of Pakistan in 1971.

The book give most credit to the first Chief of RAW, Rameshwar Nath Kao (died 2002) from 1969 to 1977, whose photo adorns the front-cover of the book. According to the book the breakup of East Pakistan was carried out by Indira Gandhi government in two phases. Phase one was coordinated by RN. Kao and phase two by Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw (a Parsi, died 2008) – both reporting directly to Indira Gandhi (died 1984).

According to Raman, in the late 1960s, Indira Gandhi, deployed RAW into action as the East Pakistan crisis deepened. RAW trained and supplied arms to the Bengali anti-Pakistan guerrillas and organized phsychological-warfare campaign against Islamabad-based central government. Almost every day Indira Gandhi had at her disposal bugged conversations of top Pakistani officials on Islamabad’s plaaning in East Wing of the country. She did not make a single decision concerning military action in East Pakistan without the advice of RAW’s Chief R.N. Kao.

The Illustrated Weekly of India (1923-93), had posted an article, titled “The Spymaster” in its December 23, 1984 edition, which stated:

“One of the most glorious chapters in the history of RAW, was the operation leading to the creation of Bangladesh. That country would never have been born but for the operation carried out by RAW for several years before the Indian Army action. The first meeting between IB operatives and Sheikh Mujib had taken place as early as 1963, and after RAW was set up in 1968, it anticipated virtually every major military and political development that took place in what was then East Pakistan during a meeting in India with Mrs. Gandhi, at which the master spy (Kao) was also present, Mujib’s successor, Zia-ur-Rahman is reported to have remarked: “This man (Kao) knows more about my country than I do.”

Soon after RAW’s establishment in 1968, Kao arranged a secret liaison with Israeli intelligence agency Mossad – to “learn from its counter-terrorism techniques”. Father Bush as director of CIA (1975-77) cultivated a close friendship Kao. As vice-president, Bush, turned off Washington’s support for the Sikh seperatists in Indian Punjab on the advice of Kao. Later, India’s Hindutva leader and Home Minister LK Advani visited the Zionist entity in June 2000, during which the two Muslim-hating governments agreed that the Israelis would make India and Israel partners in threatening the Muslim world with diabolic conspiracies to fragment and cripple it as a political force in the world. The details of his meetings with Zionist-regime, particularly the heads of the Israeli Home Ministry and its intelligence agencies, Mossad and Sabak, revealed that the arrangements he has made for joint Indo-Israel espionage operations in key areas of the Muslim world would make the Indian embassies in these Muslim countries the eyes and ears of the worldwide cloak-and-dagger of Israeli spy network.

Ed Blanche writes in Janes’ Security on 14 August 2001:“Israeli intelligence agencies have been intensifying their relations with India’s security apparatus and are now understood to be heavily involved in helping New Delhi combat Islamic militants in the disputed province of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state which lies at the core of the conflict with neighboring Pakistan. Israel has several teams now in Kashmir training Indian counter-insurgency forces to fight the dozen separatist guerrilla groups operating in the Indian-controlled sector of the disputed state. The exact extent of the involvement in Kashmir by Israel’s intelligence agencies is far from clear, but it fits into Israel’s increasing focus on events in Central Asia, and as far field as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim state, to counteract Islamic fundamentalism, which it perceives as a major threat. We have been reading the name MOSSAD and its role in destroying Muslims around the world and especially in South East Asia with the help of India RAW wraps, in a fascinating plot, full of intrigue and betrayal. It is said that it is the joint venture of the trigone that is the core point of consideration. Mossad, RAW and Israeli Russian Ukrainian drug mafia have been performing these functions as coalition partner previously”.

Asoka Raina in book “Inside RAW: The Story of India’s Secret Service” wrote:

The involvement of RAW in East Pakistan is said to date from the 1960s, when RAW promoted dissatisfaction against Pakistan in East Pakistan, including funding Mujibur Rahmanh’s general election in 1970 and providing training and arming the Mukti Bahini. Indian intelligence agencies, were involved in East Pakistan now, Bangladesh, beginning, in the early 1960’s.

Its operatives were in touch with Sheikh Mujib for quite some time. Sheikh Mujib went to Agartala in 1965. The famous Agartala case was
unearthed in 1967. In fact, the main purpose of raising RAW in 1968 was to organize covert operations in East Pakistan. As early as 1968, RAW was given a green light to begin mobilizing all its resources for the impending surgical intervention in erstwhile East Pakistan. When in July 1971 General Manekshaw told Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that the army would not be ready until December to intervene in Bangladesh, she quickly turned to RAW for help. RAW was ready. Its officers used Bengali refugees to set up the guerilla force Mukti Bahini. Using, this outfit as a cover, the Indian military sneaked deep into Bangladesh. The story of Mukti Bahini and R.A.W.’s role in its creation and training is now well known. RAW never concealed its Bangladesh operations.

Mohammd Zianul Abedin in “RAW and Bangladesh” wrote: “RAW retained a keen interest in Bangladesh even after its independence. RAW was involved in training of Chakma tribes and Shanti Bahini, who carried out subversive activities in Bangladesh. It also unleashed a well-organized plan of psychological warfare, created polarization among the armed forces, propagated false allegations of the use of Bangladesh territory by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, created dissension among the political parties and religious sects, controlled the media, denied the use of river waters, and propped up a host of disputes in order to keep Bangladesh under constant political and socio-economic pressure.

How India-Israel created Bangladesh