Open Secrets: The Explosive Memoirs of an Indian Intelligence Officer (46 page)

The information was shared with Delhi and the High Commissioner personally briefed the Canadian foreign office. A sleek worded demarche was also despatched to the Canadian authorities. It was not known then to us in the Mission that the Canadian intelligence had also access to prior intelligence on the likely attack on Air India planes. It appeared to us that the security experts in Canada were still not motivated enough by their political masters to swoop down on the Sikh militants. The Canadian Human Rights lobby and a section of the media were still doubtful about the nature and extent of ‘Sikh terrorism’ in India.

But their fanciful deliberations on human rights violation against the Indian Sikhs received a severe jolt when Canada based Sikh militants carried out the dastardly act of sabotage by blowing out AI 182 from the skies over Cork, Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 lives on board.

I received a call from a London based friend at about 04.45 (Canadian) on 23.6.85 asking me if I had heard the BBC broadcast about the AI 182 crash. I jumped out of the bed, tuned in the TV and the radio and gathered sketchy information about the disappearance of the flight from Heathrow radar screen.

I woke up the High Commissioner and the Deputy High Commissioner and shared the information with them. I was asked to rush to the residence of the High Commissioner immediately. Later I visited Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to make preliminary enquiries about the act of sabotage. The shocked Indo-Canadian community and the Canadians could not bring themselves up to the truth that some people of Indian origin settled in Canada had really carried out the dastardly act.

The investigation was later formally taken over by the CBI and the Canadian police. I assisted them from within the limits imposed on me by my status in Canada. Under instruction of the High Commissioner I shared with the RCMP, from time to time, such information about the air-sabotage that could be pedalled as open information and information received from India. In the Mission we had succeeded in gathering good intelligence about involvement of the Babbar Khalsa and other Sikh militant elements.

The International Babbar Khalsa had carried out the sabotage with meticulous planning. On June 22nd Canadian Airlines had booked a passenger M. Singh from Vancouver to Delhi. He was supposed to take the AI flight at Toronto. His luggage was booked but he did not travel. The suitcase was later transferred to AI 182 for Delhi, though the actual passenger did not show up. The flight that carried the baggage of elusive M. Singh finally left the Canadian port at Montreal at 17.10 GMT. It disappeared from the radar screen at about 18.13 GMT over Cork, Ireland.

The Babbar Khalsa also planted another bomb to sabotage the AI flight from Narita to Delhi. A piece of baggage belonging to Lal Singh was booked by the Canadian Airlines flight from Vancouver to Narita. It was supposed to be shifted to a connecting Air India flight a little later. The elusive Lal Singh did not travel by the Canadian flight. The bomb exploded at about 07.13 GMT on ground at Narita killing two Japanese handlers, just an hour ahead of the unfortunate AI 182.

The intelligence input generated by me about the conspiracy and preparations were shared by the High Commissioner with the Canadian authorities. All that I can reveal is that in the year 2000 the Canadian authorities again approached me to give them expert advice about the remaining culprits, besides Inderjit Singh Riyat, incarcerated in UK and Talvinder Singh Parmar, who was killed in police encounter in India. It took 15 long years for the Canadian police to arrest Ripudaman Singh Malik, Ajaib Singh Bagri and Hardiyal Singh Johal and charge them for downing the AI flight. These arrests followed my visit to Canada in June 2000, 13 years after I left Canada on conclusion of my tenure. It was my last tribute to the departed souls of 330 victims of AI flight-329 passengers and my Vancouver based friend Tara Sigh Hayer, a journalist, who was gunned down by the Sikh terrorists in 1988, for the precise crime of betraying his ‘
quam
’ and collaborating with the Indians. I happened to meet him last in November 1987, when my services were requisitioned by the High Commissioner to generate intelligence during the visit of Rajiv Gandhi to Vancouver session of the CHOGM. This valiant Indian did not fail me then too. But he paid a heavy price for opposing the insane bunch of terrorists, who formed an integral part of Pakistan’s proxy war against India.

*

We visited India on a short stint of ‘home leave’ in 1985 winter. Rajiv Gandhi was riding the crest of popularity and for a while it appeared that this one Nehru-Gandhi was the correct choice for Indira Congress and India. I was aware of the harassment and persecution meted out to my friend Dhawan. Rajiv Gandhi had removed the ‘loyal servant of the family’ on suspicion of his linkages with the killers of Indira Gandhi and the contrived Thakkar Commission was manipulated to pronounce a jaundiced verdict against him.

Dhawan was the loneliest person in Delhi. India’s political and bureaucratic who’s who had abandoned him. His Golf Links home was put on surveillance and his phones were on tap. I visited him while on a morning stroll, covering my face with a cape. But my camouflage did not befool the IB watchers. I was summoned to the North Block and advised not to keep company of the ‘enemy of the Gandhi family’. I refused to oblige my bosses and told them that my friendship had nothing to do with my official work and my personal bondage did not militate against my loyalty to the government and the country. I proffered the same advice to Vincent George when he tersely ‘requested’ me to shun the company of my old friend. Fortunately the watchers of the ‘establishment’ did not bug me thereafter.

*

My involvement in intelligence generation in Canada militated against the terms of my tenure. It pleased a few but irritated many. The funny incident of withdrawal of the total R&AW set up from Canada in 1986, at the request of the Canadian authorities exemplified the seamier side of inter-departmental relationship and cooperation between the prime Indian intelligence organisations.

In July 1985 I was graced with the posting of a private secretary to assist me in my work. The nice guy appeared to be too nice and submissive to be borne on the rolls of MEA’s baboodom. The High Commissioner dismissed my initial suspicion that he might be a plant from the R&AW. But I had failed to figure out the gracious action of the MEA, who had refused to provide me with a secretarial staff for about last two years.

That the R&AW was heading for a crash was discernible in mid 1985. Karnail Singh Gill, an important leader of the Canadian chapter of the World Sikh Organisation, was not fond of fraternising with the Mission staff. He appeared in my office a little before the AI episode and requested for Indian visa. I directed him to Sundar Kumar, the consular officer and escorted him to my colleague’s room. Karnail paused for a while and broke into an exclamation. He had undergone Indian Forest Service training at Dehradun with Sundar Kumar. The dialogue continued somewhat in the following line:

“Aren’t you Sundar? When did you join the Foreign Service?”

“Do I know you?”

“Don’t kid. You’re the same Sundar Kumar Sharma, my course mate at Dehradun? What are you doing here? Are you in the R&AW?”

“Sorry. I don’t know you. I am not a Sharma. I never attended forest service training. I belong to 1968 batch of the IFS.”

Karnail’s visa was not serviced, as it was a referral category case. His name figured in the black list and he was not supposed to be favoured with visa. But the damage was done. Sundar Kumar’s cover was blown up and he was identified as an R&AW officer.

Col. Grewal, the R&AW representative in Toronto, committed the other act of blatant indiscretion. A former Army officer, Grewal had drifted into the R&AW through one of the secret paramilitary forces controlled by India’s external intelligence organisation. At the fag end of his career he was preoccupied with the obsession of settling his children and himself in the USA. I could not vouch on his competence, as an intelligence operator, but that he was not properly exposed to finer nuances of tradecraft was apparent from his style of functioning. The Canadian Sikh community was ready to accept an Indian Christian and Muslim face but the Hindus and visible pro-government Sikhs were as allergic to them as red rug to bulls. Grewal was not trained to operate as a low-key intelligence agent. He preferred to function in paramilitary fashion.

Grewal invited one of his targets, an editor of a Punjabi vernacular weekly, to a luncheon meeting at a downtown restaurant, not very far from the Consulate premises. The CG S.K. Malik and I had earlier noticed the editor, a rabid supporter of Khalistan movement for being in touch with certain ISI operatives located in Toronto. The clever editor enjoyed the luncheon and recorded his conversation with Col. Grewal and gave somewhat wide publicity in his paper. Grewal’s cover was blown up.

The incidents were brought to the notices of the High Commissioner, Joint Secretary (Personnel) and I happened to personally brief the Secretary R&AW during my home leave to Delhi in early 1986. Under normal circumstances both the officers should have been posted out of Canada under some ruse or other. But the Cabinet Secretariat did not listen to friendly advices. On the other hand I was baffled to be briefed by the High Commissioner that my intelligence operations were causing concern to the R&AW bosses in Delhi. Reports forwarded by me and the HC received better appreciation from the PMO, MEA and the IB.

But I was not at all prepared for the biggest surprise when the Canadian government declared the entire R&AW set up in Canada persona non grata (PNG) and requested their immediate withdrawal. It came as big shock when my private secretary Shyamsundar too was declared a PNG. It dawned on me that the secretary was either an R&AW plant on me or he was won over by Sundar Kumar. I probed into the matter and was surprised to know that Shyamsundar was ‘bought over’ by Sundar Kumar at a monthly ‘fee’ of C$400.00. He religiously passed on to his extra-departmental employer copies of all intelligence documents that I dictated to him. It was a unique way of intelligence generated by my R&AW colleague sitting in the next room.

The Canadians did not punish Shyamsundar for betraying his parent department, the MEA. He was compromised on several occasions while accompanying Sundar Kumar for ‘agent meeting’ in not so cleverly selected rendezvous. I interrogated Shyam, in my capacity as the ‘security officer’ of the Mission. He readily admitted to have fallen for easy cash and bonus Scotch. The findings were shared with the HC and other slotted recipients in Delhi.

The R&AW, I was told, had finally reached a conclusion that I was responsible for exposing their representatives in Canada. It pained me but I was more amazed by the monumental ostrich back in Delhi, which preferred to burrow deeper into the sand instead of looking straight into the problem. Not a single senior officer of the R&AW cared to visit Canada to analyse the causes for the debacle.

We left the Canadian shores in July 1987 with a sense of fulfilment and an emptier pocket. The common belief that foreign postings fill up the coffers of the poorly paid officers did not shower manna on me. We invested some money in acquiring an apartment home in Delhi and the rest were spent on bringing up the kids and living the life of a diplomat. Lack of dough did not embitter me. I was happy with my professional performance, educational achievement of the kids and betterment of health of my wife. She, more than me, had earned the friendship of a large number of white and Indian Canadians. This relationship continued even after we settled down in Delhi.

I do not intend to write an ode to Ottawa and in praise of the Canadian people. The city, way back in 1984, looked like a well-composed picture postcard. While my work filled in my professional cavities the cultural milieu and the open hearted friendship of the Canadian people enchanted us. The bountiful nature of the vast nation with sparse population had many wonders to reveal and many colours to imprint everlasting portraits in the gallery of my cranium.

My relationship with Canada did not snap with my posting out. I was again summoned to visit Vancouver in early October 1987, to help generation of intelligence during Rajiv Gandhi’s visit for the CHOGM meeting. I think I discharged my duties satisfactorily but for an unexpected hitch. My presence in Canada, on a questionable errand, not sanctioned by diplomatic protocol, was compromised by a queer development. The RCMP and the CSIS confused me with my namesake, M.K. Dhar, a reputed journalist, who lodged in the same hotel where I was billeted by the Consul General. The journalist friend sniffed around, for valid reasons, to gather stories about the Sikh militants. The CSIS had hooked up his and my phones to their juice boxes and intercepted our communications. The minor irritant was sorted out without any embarrassment to the High Commissioner and casting any shadow over the event for which we were gathered at Vancouver.

I enjoyed the error of judgement but felt a little gurgling inside my stomach when T.N. Seshan, the untrained security watchdog called me to a corner and wanted to verify my credentials as an intelligence operator. His inflated ego and self-righteousness had blinded his inner vision that enabled normal people to recognise deserving virtue in human beings around them. He had bullied around his way and made the Indian and Canadian security officers gesticulate at his back. But he chanced to belong to the charmed circle of the Prime Minister and was better known as the hammer and bulldozer man. I did not want my assiduously built up intelligence career to snap simply because an untrained sniffer did not like my smell and was prone to baring his teeth sans any provocation. Timely intervention by the High Commissioner, S.J.S. Chhatwal, rescued me from the holiest of the holy, who had refused to look straight into my eyes. In my estimate he was an utter pseudo turned bully, who roared a lot but snapped at the slightest intimidation.