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  • No pals in Nepal

    No pals in Nepal


    EXCLUSIVE

    THE WEEK puts together the inside story of the biggest covert operation abroad by the IB and RAW that flushed out terrorists planning strikes in India

    By Syed Nazakat

    August 4, 2008. Outside the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, the local police and Indian intelligence sleuths waited behind a low wall with Himalayan patience. Their quarry: tall, young Fayaz Ahmed Mir, arriving by the PIA flight from Pakistan that afternoon. Mir, the sleuths had been briefed, planned to travel to India after a short break in Kathmandu, where he was to be put up in one of the safe houses of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. He was no small fish. A trained Lashkar-e-Toiba militant fluent in many languages, Mir’s brief was to organise surgical strikes in India.

    The wait was worth every second of it. As soon as Mir stepped out of the airport, the sleuths scaled the wall and moved towards him. He ran for his life, but was not fast enough. The intelligence men whisked him away in a matter of seconds. Days later, they surfaced in India with their man. From here, the story takes a strange twist. On August 11, the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Uttar Pradesh Police produced him in court claiming that they had arrested the ‘Pakistani national’ from Ghaziabad. In a letter written from jail, which is in

    THE WEEK’s possession, Fayaz claims that he is from Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir and had crossed over to Pakistan at the age of 16. “I was arrested outside the airport in Nepal and then blindfolded,” he writes. “After a day’s travel, I was kept in a house without windows.” He was then taken in a vehicle the following day. “The vehicle stopped at a border entry point and I saw a hoarding with big letters, Welcome To India.”

    Welcome, indeed, to the biggest success story of the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing in a foreign land. It is an extraordinary story. Never told in the open, only whispered in the highest echelons of India’s spy ring. It concerns the compelling account of a massive covert operation by the IB and RAW to flush out terrorists planning strikes on India from their hideouts in Nepal.

    What’s more impressive, the terrorists—around 400 till date according to a top officer involved in the operation—were clandestinely brought to India for questioning, thanks to the absence of an extradition treaty between India and Nepal. Their interrogation revealed the sinister plot their handlers in Pakistan had designed for India, targeting key installations and prominent people including cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly and former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

    For the first time, the protagonists of India’s biggest covert operation in a foreign land shared with THE WEEK intimate details of the ongoing operation in Nepal. Their latest catch was Mohammed Omar Madni, Lashkar’s main man in Nepal, who was arrested from ‘Delhi’ on June 4 this year. Said to be very close to Lashkar founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, Madni, according to the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police, had recruited many youths from across India.

    Others picked up and brought to India include Mohammad Hassan alias Abu Qasim of Punjab in Pakistan (nabbed from Nepal on April 15, 2007), who was planning a fidayeen attack on Delhi on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of India’s first war of independence in 2007, and Asif Ali alias Anas, who was arrested from Hotel Jagat in Thamel area of Kathmandu on July 11, 2006. The operation, which continues to this day, has been so successful that India is replicating it in Bangladesh. India’s bonhomie with the Bangladeshi agencies has resulted in the arrest of top ULFA functionaries like Arabinda Rajkhowa and militants like T. Nasir, wanted in several terror-related cases in India.

    Nepal’s emergence as a terror transit point started in the late 80s. First it was the turn of the Khalistan militants at the height of the Sikh unrest in Punjab, when they were hosted by the ISI in hotels, gurdwaras and residential areas in Muslim-dominated areas of Nepal. The turning point came on December 24, 1999, when five Pakistani terrorists hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC814 to Kandahar. The Delhi-bound flight carried mostly Indians returning after enjoying their holidays in Nepal. They were released on December 31, after India agreed to set free three top terrorists including Maulana Masood Azhar, who went on to found the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

    “That [the hijack] was their [terrorists’] biggest success and mistake,” says former RAW chief Vikram Sood. “It was a defining moment for the intelligence agencies.” In an atmosphere of urgency and desolation, Indian intelligence agencies proposed and won approval for what a senior IB officer called a ‘Soft Op’, a secret operation classified at the highest level to find and destroy terror hubs in Nepal. Within the IB and RAW, it is considered their biggest and the most successful covert operation against terrorism.

    The IB’s former joint director M.K. Dhar, one of the creators of the rendition programme, told THE WEEK that the axis of terror spreading from Pakistan and Afghanistan to India was often bridged by an unstable Nepal, which was not prepared to deal with the problem of such proportion. “The rendition programme’s goal was to take in people who were planning to target India or have been involved in terrorist attacks in India,” says Dhar. “We had done that with the Sikh militancy. We picked terrorists and brought them to India but the rendition was limited.” According to Dhar, the ISI had made strategic advances into Nepal between 1985 and 2001. “At one time there were over 150 Kashmiri militants in Kathmandu alone,” says Dhar.

    In a complex arrangement with Nepal’s intelligence agencies, RAW and the IB started closely monitoring the movement of suspected terrorists in Nepal. The intent was there, backed by necessary action. Post IC814 hijacking, Nepal also woke up to the ISI operations on its soil. It was not news to the Nepali administration that there were safe houses for terrorists all round the country. Most of them were in Jhapa, Ilam, Tapleganj, Panchthar, the Tarai region, Birganj and Kathmandu city.

    It was in 1997 that the needle of suspicion began to point at the Pakistan embassy in Nepal. In August 1997, Sikh militant Bhupinder Singh Bhuda of the Khalistan Commando Force was arrested from a hotel in Kathmandu. He was secretly brought to India and during interrogation he gave details about the ISI network in Nepal.

    Two months later, six more terrorists were arrested in Nepal and brought to India. During interrogation they dropped the name of Pakistani diplomat Mohammad Arshad Cheema (reportedly then ISI unit chief in Kathmandu) as their point man in Nepal. “Cheema had been running a tight network in Nepal,” says Dhar. “From educational institutions to business firms, he used different ways to gain influence against India. He was kept under surveillance and once his connections with terrorists became evident, the Nepal government deported him.”

    According to Sood, there was no commercial justification in having four direct PIA flights a week between Nepal and Pakistan. “Our information was that the ISI was using the PIA flights to bring weapons from Pakistan to Nepal, which would then be passed on to the different terrorist groups in India,” he says.

    Mirza Dilshad Beg, a Nepali parliamentarian who had close links with the ISI, played a significant role in the spread of the ISI network in Nepal. With deep contacts in the Nepali establishment, he provided hideouts and other logistics for the terrorists till he was killed by ‘unidentified gunmen’ in 1998. In a report given to Nepalese authorities in 2000, India had revealed the details of Pakistan’s dangerous game in Nepal. Indian intelligence officers have long been aware of the ISI’s activities to fuel anti-India feelings in Nepal, which was all the more evident when actor Hrithik Roshan’s comments on Nepal were played again and again on a local TV channel just to flare up passions against India. The channel, the Indian agencies later came to know, had been funded by the ISI.

    The Nepal Police’s former additional inspector-general Rajendra Bahadur Singh admits that terrorists have been using Nepal as a hideout. “But we have cooperated fully with Indian agencies,” he says. “Every time India has brought a case to our notice, we have taken action. It has been a very special relationship.” That relationship froze when the Maoists came to power briefly.

    Interrogation of terrorists arrested from Nepal foiled many terror attacks and led to the arrests of their contacts in India. For instance, Mohammed Hassan, one of the terrorists picked up from Nepal, revealed the whereabouts of his commander in India whom he knew by the name Ammar. The information led to Ammar’s encounter killing in the Doda region of Kashmir three months later in April 2007.

    In the high-security Tihar jail is housed one of India’s bigger catches, Lashkar militant Tariq Mehmood, who was arrested from Nepal in 2001. In a letter written to the trial judge some time ago, Mehmood had claimed that he was befriended by an Indian spy in Nepal, who brought him to India through the India-Nepal border.

    Upon arrival, he was arrested on December 20, 2001, by the Special Cell of the UP Police. Mehmood allegedly told his interrogators that he was sent to India to abduct Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly and seek the release of Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami founder Nasrullah Langriyal, who is currently lodged in a Rajasthan jail. Langriyal’s name also figured in the list of terrorists to be released in exchange of passengers aboard IC814 but India refused to play ball. According to the chargesheet, Mehmood and his team were also planning to assassinate then Defence Research and Development Organisation chief A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and attack the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay.

    “Mehmood’s interrogation helped security agencies arrest six Pakistani terrorists besides the local operatives from different parts of India,” claims a police officer. Apparently, Omar Sheikh, one of the three terrorists released in the Kandahar drama, trained Mehmood and others in Indian lifestyle and food habits besides giving them a crash course in Hindi.

    THE WEEK has identified at least eight suspected terrorists in Tihar who were picked up from Nepal. Three former detainees who were held in jails in Bihar and UP told THE WEEK that they were made to sign papers showing they were arrested from within India. They said they had helped provide logistics to terrorists but were never directly involved in any terrorist attacks.

    The agencies go to great lengths to protect the secrecy of the rendition programme. “We’ve got an understanding with the Nepal government,” said Dhar. “We share information with them and get them on board [before operations]. We take their cooperation and when they feel satisfied about the information provided they allow us to take the terrorists to India.” Taking suspected terrorists to India is a cakewalk once Nepal cooperates. Some are flown in at the middle of the night. Some, like 32-year-old Jaish activist Fayaz Ahmed Mir, are brought by road.

    The programme follows a standard procedure, says an officer. Once a person is suspected with anti-India intentions, he would be picked up with the help of the Nepal Police, blindfolded, handcuffed and in some cases given sleeping pills. Once in India the first destination would be either an interrogation centre operated by the one of the intelligence agencies or one of the police stations referred to in classified documents as ‘black sites’. The interrogation could last a day or take many months. Once the questioning is over, their arrest is recorded and are produced in court.

    According to RAW’s former deputy chief Lt-Gen. V.K. Singh, a variety of factors has prompted the ISI to set up base in Nepal. “The long, porous border touching Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim makes it ideal for terrorists to enter India through Nepal,” he says. Going by the data obtained from the Union home ministry, as many as 5,571 smugglers have been arrested from the Indo-Nepal border since 2001. It is not clear whether they were just criminals or terrorists. “It is hard for us to verify the identity of a person,” says K.M. Cariappa, spokesman for the Shasastra Seema Bal, the paramilitary force that guards the border.

    The success of the operation has not slackened the vigil. “Suspected terrorists are still being rendered,” said a senior Nepal home ministry official. “There are people around here who keep watch on everything. Our joint mission is to refuse to give any space to terrorists.” According to Guna Raj Luitel, a senior Kathmandu-based journalist, Nepal has become a playground of spies. “An impression is gaining ground in Nepal that India is pressuring the police to hand over suspects wanted in India," he says. “You really don’t know who is doing what here.”

    As is the case with most wars against terrorism, human rights violations happen on a regular basis. A case in point, according to human rights organisations in Nepal, is that of two missing Kashmiri brothers, Mohammad Shafi Rah and Mushtaq Ahmed Rah, who were allegedly taken away from their residence in the Samakhusi area of Kathmandu on the night of August 27, 2000, by plainclothesmen. “They were handed over to Indian security agencies,” said one of their relatives. There has been no news about them since.

    A senior officer involved in the programme did not deny excesses. He told THE WEEK that he was bothered neither about his legacy nor about what others might think of him. “We are expected to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists so as to avoid further atrocities against civilians,” he says. “In Nepal, what we did was in the cause of India’s war against Pakistan-backed terrorism. We prevented so many terrorist attacks. We saved so many lives.” As they say, all is fair in war and love.
    No pals in Nepal
    Thought I'd post this since Indian intelligence agencies often receive a lot of flak of being incapable or not being able to do much. Also, a thank you to our Nepali friends. :)
    Cow is the only animal that not only inhales oxygen, but also exhales it.
    -Rekha Arya, Former Minister of Animal Husbandry

  • #2
    Originally posted by Tronic View Post
    Thought I'd post this since Indian intelligence agencies often receive a lot of flak of being incapable or not being able to do much. Also, a thank you to our Nepali friends. :)
    Ditto. And a Big thank you to our Nepali Brothers!
    Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'...till you can find a rock. ;)

    Comment


    • #3
      A very good job being done by RAW and IB.
      IIRC the killing of a controversial MP from Nepal, Beg, he was supposed to be the point man for the ISI in Nepal and was instrumental in the new Mosques which had sprung up along the Indian border.

      Comment


      • #4
        At least 4 spy agencies are active in Nepal:

        RAW
        ISI
        CIA
        MSS (Chinese Intel)


        Typically an ISI operation would take place as such:

        1. Use flights to and fro from Pakistan to smuggle in operatives, explosives, fake currency etc
        2. Store them in safe houses around Kathmandu, in the homes of the increasing number of Kashmiri refugees in touristy Thamel area in Kathmandu, and sometimes even in the Pakistani embassy. In a recent raid in the Pakistan embassy huge amounts of RDX was seized. The scumbag Pakistani embassy official was let go for the sake of diplomatic immunity.
        3. Transport the cargo and the operatives via the central lowland district of Kaspilvastu of Nepal using the innumerable Madrassas that dot the UP-Kapilvastu border.

        Ironically Kapilvastu is the birthplace of Lord Buddha! However, a large number of Madrassas have begun to pop up in Kapilvastu in recent years.

        Other "well known" facts:

        Allegedly, the 'senator' Mirza Beg was gunned down in a joint operation by Nepal Intelligence and RAW. The trigger person belonged to the Chota Rajan Gang. Mirza Beg was on the payroll of the ISI and Dawood Ibrahim.

        Also the Space-Time Network the largest cable TV network in Nepal is supposed to be one of the many investment of Dawood Ibrahim, the infamous Pakistan based gangster, in Nepal.

        The scumbag (ex)crown prince Paras, now based in Singapore, has hooked up with the D company and does the dirty work of the ISI using his criminal associates in Nepal to destabilize India.

        The two Mosques that line one of the main streets in Kathmandu at Kings Way were sponsored by ISI.

        I would write about the activities of other Intel Agencies (US, Chinese, Indian) in Nepal, but for now I have to go study for my tests. ;)
        Last edited by HillTribe; 08 Dec 09,, 15:25.
        Totalitarianism-Feudalism in new garbs

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        • #5
          A couple of months back Television News channels had exposed the links of the Ex-'Prince' Paras to the fake Indian money being circulated by the ISI.

          We have yet to hear a rebuttal from the side of the ex-Royal, which in my mind makes the charges look real.

          Comment


          • #6
            Now if they (IB & RAW) could only do a "soft op" on that worm Dawood
            "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" ~ Epicurus

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by antimony View Post
              Now if they (IB & RAW) could only do a "soft op" on that worm Dawood
              They both are helpless. You have to understand this, the biggest negative factor about Indian foreign intelligence and Israel style operations is, that Intelligence in India has no locus in law, especially for those who work in foreign Intelligence. India’s Intelligence agencies have not been created by Acts of the Parliament. The entire range of foreign operations is covered by just executive instructions. An instruction to operate in a foreign country ipso facto implies a requirement to break the local laws but no legal authority exists for issuing such instructions or indemnifying the would be violator under the laws of the home country.

              This is a very serious lacuna which does not seem to have caught the attention of anyone in authority. As the law stands today all those who issue such executive instructions and those who carry out these instructions, read intelligence agents, in a foreign country to spy, steal secrets or conduct operations, armed or un-armed, can be held accountable under the Indian laws.

              Foreign Intelligence is the only organization directed by the Govt. to violate the local laws of the country of operation but the Govt. can do so without enjoying any legal authority to do it. What we are achieving in Nepal is a direct result of diplomatic assistance provided by the Nepalese Govt, without requiring legal immunity for such operations. Now do you think the Paks or to that effect any other country beyond our sphere of influence would provide such unwritten assistance?
              Last edited by Deltacamelately; 10 Dec 09,, 15:46.
              sigpicAnd on the sixth day, God created the Field Artillery...

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by sumob View Post
                A couple of months back Television News channels had exposed the links of the Ex-'Prince' Paras to the fake Indian money being circulated by the ISI.

                We have yet to hear a rebuttal from the side of the ex-Royal, which in my mind makes the charges look real.
                He did attempt one in a local newspaper. It was a bunch of mumbo jumbo that made absolutely no sense. He is a drugged out, wannabe gangster, a spoiled brat who does not know hid d#c* from his thumb, to put it rather coarsely. He is a profligate dumbass who could have done one of the poorest nations in Asia a whole lot of good, had he used his position well. Now this...Disgrace!

                Now, update from my series Spy Agencies Active in Nepal:

                There is huge building inside a cordoned off compound in the heart of Kathmandu which supposedly is the office of the Xinhua News Agency. I am no conspiracy theorist, but no press release ever comes out of there, no press conference ever held inside the clandestine location, and no ordinary folks are allowed in. Contrast this with the US embassy which allows people inside the embassy compound, into its library and other archives that are always at full disposal of anyone who wishes to use them.

                Its quite puzzling why a mere news agency would need a big compound and a huge complex, that too in a supposedly non-happening place like Nepal? The site is about half the size of the entire Chinese Embassy itself! But it seems that rather than being unimportant Nepal, like Lebanon is a place of immense strategic interest to the big Intel agencies who are active in Nepal to further their myriad agendas-- namely US (and by association UK), China, India and Pakistan.

                Its always been argued in hush hush tone that the complex is a spying station for MSS (Chinese Intel). It could very well be the case since Nepal is the epicenter of pro-Tibet movement and MSS needs a permanent station in Kathmandu, albeit in the guise of a news agency, and keep track of any 'anti-China' activity in Nepal and stay one step ahead of the game in Tibet itself.

                The recent pro-Tibet demonstrations before the Chinese embassy, that were completely peaceful btw, were brutally crushed by the police. The protests before the 'Xinhua News Agency' were even more swiftly broken up than the ones before the embassy. I saw the brutal methods the police used on the protesters staging a sit in before the supposed Xinhua News Agency office. Witnessing firsthand the swift crackdown left me wondering why the Chinese authorities be so perturbed with a peaceful protest by a bunch of monks just sitting there before Xinhua with a coupe of placards and doing virtually nothing else. What could possibly be inside the complex that could move the Chinese government to press the Nepalese Government to dislodge the protesters from the site so swiftly and so brutally? Hell, not even during the mass movement that overthrew the king were the protesters dealt with so inhumanely.

                Oh, and not to mention how the whole thing beamed over and over the news networks all over the world reflected on Nepal. Buddhists beating fellow Buddhists at the behest of the atheist big brother.
                Totalitarianism-Feudalism in new garbs

                Comment


                • #9
                  I genuinely fear posting these things here. Seriously!

                  Hope they do not monitor all the internet traffic that flows in and out, like they do in China especially traffic that contains key words like Chinese Intel, MSS, Xinhua...
                  Totalitarianism-Feudalism in new garbs

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    HillWarrior

                    I have been posting stuff like that for years.....
                    “the misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all” -- Joan Robinson

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by HillWarrior View Post

                      Hope they do not monitor all the internet traffic that flows in and out, like they do in China especially traffic that contains key words like Chinese Intel, MSS, Xinhua...
                      Thats a smart move typing them all in one post then :P
                      When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? - George Canning sigpic

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by xinhui View Post
                        HillWarrior

                        I have been posting stuff like that for years.....
                        That was just my attempt to make myself feel important! :P
                        Totalitarianism-Feudalism in new garbs

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Knaur Amarsh View Post
                          Thats a smart move typing them all in one post then :P
                          I was hoping that they would target me all at once... and in the ensuing mess, the truth in its pure and undivided resplendence would reveal itself! Enough of half truths and conjectures already.;)
                          Totalitarianism-Feudalism in new garbs

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by HillWarrior View Post
                            That was just my attempt to make myself feel important! :P
                            Well go to the doc, he may be able to help you over it , if he cant get yourself a big car , at least you will look impotent

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Its useless to just keep blaming Chinese agencies for their covert activities directed against Nepalese or Indian interests. India and Nepal have failed to put up a strong security filter to screen the activities of Chines sponsored or Pakistan sponsored terrorist and criminal elements. Over the years, the GoI, overriding the concerns and warnings of the Indian security establishment, has been treating Nepal in the same relaxed manner as the US treats Canada. There is no effective border control, no immigration control, no passport control, no visa control, no security control and no foreign exchange control. Indian currency is legal tender in Nepal and any Indian citizen can travel to Nepal without travel documents and without foreign exchange legally drawn from an authorised Indian bank, which will have record of his travel. Till here, it looks all right and demonstrates a unique and brotherly relation between India and its Himalayan cousin.

                              However, the flip side of this arrangement is, that any Indian citizen can clandestinely go to Nepal by road, from there go to Pakistan by the PIA with ISI assistance and return to India by the same route without any record of his travel anywhere. Similarly, any ISI operative or Jehadi terrorist can travel from Karachi to Kathmandu by the PIA, deposit his Pakistani passport with the Pakistani Embassy or Dawood Ibrahim's set-ups, acquire a forged Indian driving licence as a Hindu with the help of Dawood Ibrahim's set-ups, travel to India to commit a terrorist act and then escape back to Pakistan without Nepalese or Indian security authorities having any clue of their heineous designs.

                              Successive governments in New Delhi were aware of the concerns of the security bureaucracy over the way the ISI and other foreign intelligence agencies were exploiting the security vacuum in Nepal to indulge in anti-India activities, but were reluctant to exercise adequate pressure on the Nepalese political leadership to put an end to this state of affairs, lest such pressure strengthen the anti-India political forces in Nepal to the benefit of China and Pakistan. These anti-indian forces inturn, overlook the fact, that Nepal's interest as a working democracy, free of security concerns is intimately entwined with India's own security concerns and these two countries proximity in their heritage, culture, religion or economics can not be matched with either Pakistan or China.
                              sigpicAnd on the sixth day, God created the Field Artillery...

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