Open Secrets: The Explosive Memoirs of an Indian Intelligence Officer (72 page)

Preliminary studies carried out by the PCIU, mostly shared with the Ministry of Home Affairs, brought about qualitative changes in the thinking process of some of the key politicians and the bureaucrats. However, the political and administrative establishments reacted slowly to the requirements of texturing the security needs of the country with the diplomatic policies pursued with the neighbouring countries.

N. N. Vhora, the Union Home Secretary had responded favourably to these reports and reports compiled on immigration infringement by the Pakistani nationals. He had suggested action for initiation of bilateral dialogues with Nepal and Bangladesh and prodded the State and Central government enforcement agencies to augment security measures on the porous borders with the neighbouring countries. This was the time when decisions were made to raise border fencing on Indo-Bangladesh borders, though the Left Front government in Calcutta had initially exhibited uninformed concerns.

In fact, I had taken up informal and politically and diplomatically unapproved measures to raise intelligence talents inside Nepal and Bangladesh. Suitable communication channels were devised to communicate with the selected and productive talents. These measures had helped in mapping the degree of penetration by the ISI in Nepal and Bangladesh. A particular desk in the IB that looked after Nepal and Bangladesh had objected to my advance operations. I simply ignored them. They themselves were doing precious little and were reluctant to allow others to operate on a vital aspect of national interest.

Such transborder operations cannot be carried out with approval from the connected ministries, simply because each one of them is concerned with tunnel view of its limited interest and perspective. The MEA and the R&AW would have never agreed to allow the IB to operate in a neighbouring country. But on issues vital to the internal security threat from such neighbouring countries they were either incapable of gathering intelligence or sharing their knowledge with the sister agencies. Such incompatibility still exists on the ground, which hamper proper internal security planning by the IB and other Internal Security organisations of the government of India. My aggressive forward operations did not please anyone. But I was not there to please certain ‘portfolio masters.’ I was there to secure the country’s interest. I displeased many and pleased a very few.

N. N. Vhora was the first to respond to some of the burning issues thrown up by my study reports on irregularities and inadequacies in immigration control concerning the Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals. Methodical studies proved convincingly that certain category of Pakistani visitors:

·
        
repeat visitors through land and air route,

·
        
frequent
sawari
(smuggler) traffic through land boarder and

·
        
Multi station long-term visitors…

were involved with the ISI and as resident agents of Pakistan. The juggernaut of the official machinery finally moved and some attempts, though inadequate, were made to strengthen the immigration protocol with Pakistan. The Bureau of Immigration that came into position around that time had conferred upon the Intelligence Bureau greater responsibility to bring about perceivable improvement and modernisation in immigration control matters.

I was impressed by Mr. Vhora’s pragmatic approach and felt elated when I was directed to assist him in preparation of the materials to establish linkages between the politicians and criminals: in short, a poignant study on criminalisation of politics. His stupendous labour of love was later submitted as a report to the government, which, as usual, is gathering dust somewhere in the black hole of the North Block.

But, I was not fortunate enough with some of the officials in the PMO and the External Affairs. On one occasion I was summoned to explain my reports on Nepal and was told to restrain my ‘direct intelligence intervention’ for the sake of delicate bilateral relationship both with Nepal and Bangladesh. The point was not lost on me. A sister intelligence organisation was upset over my proposal to the government for appointing officers of the IB as undercover operatives to generate intelligence from within Nepal and Bangladesh. The approach was turned down. But intelligence inputs from the sister organisation did not show any qualitative improvement. It was a frustrating experience to live with the tardy intelligence production by the R&AW.

On a particular occasion the topmost bureaucrat in the PMO rang up to express his displeasure over the manner in which I had concluded a particular counter-intelligence operation. A non-diplomat functionary of the Pakistani High Commission was picked up by my boys while in the act of accepting defence related documents from an Indian contact. On a couple of previous such operations I had managed to record the incident of interception on clandestine video cameras. I had resorted to that methodology after I was harassed by the aides of Rajiv Gandhi in his presence after the interception of Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi, a Brigadier posted in Pak High Commission.

The high functionary wanted to know if I had video taped the incident. I hadn’t. The location of conclusion of the operation was so awkwardly situated that I could mobilise a video team only at the cost of scuttling the operation. The PMO boss called me names and asked me to appear before him. I did. He was made wiser about the tradecraft of the intelligence trade and was told in no uncertain words that the nitty-gritty of intelligence operations should be left to the professionals. It did not amuse him, I believe, as this category of bureaucrats feign to be direct descendants of God Almighty Himself.

On most occasions I gave such honeybees of bureaucrats a patient hearing but did not restrain my efforts to penetrate the intelligence targets in the two neighbouring countries and to pursue my other professional commitment. They often frowned upon my defiant actions. But I had my own way of outmanoeuvring them and pursuing my professional goals. The constraints of professional ethics and diplomatic cobwebs restrain me from revealing some of the achievements of the Intelligence Bureau in studying, analysing and counteracting the ISI intelligence and sabotage and subversion thrusts against India directed from the soils of Nepal and Bangladesh. I can add that my Darjeeling and Gangtok day’s personal rapport with the leaders of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party and the Nepali Congress paid high dividends. Bangladesh was a different ball game, which I played according to the rules of remote controlling of talents through trusted intermediaries.

DEEP INSIDE THE FAULT LINES

It is required for the Imam (leader) of the Muslims to despatch the army routinely once or twice a year towards the kufr countries. It is also the duty of the Muslim public to assist the Imam in this noble cause. If the Imam does not send an army, he will be considered sinful.

Fatwa Shami. (On offensive Jihad).

The ruling Establishment of Pakistan have fashioned itself as the Imam of the entire Ummah in our geopolitical region, if not all over the world. The present study does not offer the scope to elaborate upon the trans-national operations of the ISI and Pakistan based jihadi
tanjims
. Nevertheless Pakistan has made untiring efforts to whip up the ghost of Islamism amongst the Muslims of India.

The growth of ‘Muslim militancy’ and ‘Islamic terrorism’ inside India are inseparable parts of the diabolical game played by the Pakistani Establishment and the ISI. The JIM and the JIX have achieved another spectacular breakthrough in India. The Iranian revolution and the
mujahideen
wars in Afghanistan had transcended the concept of geopolitical nationalism and revived the era of multinational militant Islamism, which embraced the Ummah as well as the
kafir
countries. It was different from the national struggle of the Palestinians and simmering growth of nationalist identity amongst the Balkan and Central Asian Muslims. Besides Pakistan’s renewed foray into the killing fields of Kashmir, which is the proxy-war area of responsibility of the JIN, the ISI made systematic efforts to inject the Jihadist poison amongst a vulnerable section of the non-Kashmiri Indian Muslims. The thrust went beyond the parameters of the oneness of the Ummah. It was directly spawned in the hatcheries of the multinational Jihadist identity of Pakistan. The post 9/11 and post Afghan war diplomatic cooperation by Pakistan with the USA should not make the rock-hard observers to assume that the cat has become vegetarian. Pakistan still has the potential of exploding on the faces of the ‘free world’. The latest disclosures about clandestine transfer of nuclear technology are the best instances of such danger from a failed and instable country.

The special cell in the PCIU made sincere efforts to understand this new Islamist thrust from the Imam of the geopolitical Ummah-Pakistan. It was not an easy task. The insulated and isolated Muslim community was segregated from the mainstream by the narrow apartheid interpretation of secularism. Indian Muslims have always used religion for furtherance of their political objectives. They are still doing the same, though India continues to swear by the apartheid policy of secularism. I faced resistance from the Muslim community as well as from the ‘secular’ Hindu leaders in carrying out the studies on growth of Islamic militancy in a section of Indian Muslims. The politicians did not want any prying eyes to look into their captive harem like vote bank.

There are some impressions that militant Islam had established toehold in India after the demolition of the Babri Mosque by a fanatic Hindu fringe and after the retaliatory serial bomb explosions in Mumbai. This observation by the ‘secularist’ historians reflects partial truth. In fact, the ongoing process of ‘Islamisation’ of the ‘secular Muslims’ of India by the Pan-Islamic forces did not cease with the partition of India. The fundamentalists loathed the ‘assimilistic’ tendency in Indian Islam and socio-religious practices of the Hindus polluting their ‘khalis’ (pure) identities.

This new ‘war’ is aimed at transforming ‘nationalism’ of the Indian Muslims to trans-Arab ‘Islamism’; the concept of Islam wedded more to the fundamentalist values of Sunni Wahabism of Saudi variety. The hard-core Islamists had never ceased to operate once they realised that even in a democratic British India they would be ruled by the ‘once ruled upon’ Hindus. They were not ready to accept the ‘Ferengi Raj’ to be substituted by Hindu Raj. That historical mechanism, conceived way back around 1898 finally took the shape of Pakistan. Since 1925 the Islamists continued to make conscious efforts to erase the ‘Indianness’ of the sub-continental Muslims and link them up with the Indus variety of Islamic identity; as opposed to the Ganga-Jamuna-Narmada-Kaveri and Brahmaputra variety of Indian identity. The people of the Indus, they said, were different from the people pf the Ganges.

Pre-Zia forces in Pakistan pursued this policy with dogged determination. Zia had turned Pakistan into a theocratic state and he fortified the efforts of Islamisation of the Indian Muslims with the help of some of the Afghan veteran Mujahidin organisations and a few freshly spawned fundamentalist Jihadist groups, that were being readied for the on-coming ‘liberation struggle’ in Kashmir. Her democratic façade notwithstanding, Benazir Bhutto gave a free hand to the ISI to diversify the ‘Afghan veteran’ Islamists to infuse militancy amongst the ‘nationalist’ Muslims in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

The JIM and the JIX have deftly exploited the flimsily carpeted fault lines reopened by the Hindu chauvinists through their accentuated religion-tinted political activities from mid 1987. Like their Congress predecessors the extreme Hindu fringe failed to recognise that the Afghan experience had infused a new Islamist identity amongst the radical Muslims all over the world and the Indian Muslims were as vulnerable targets as the Muslims of Indonesia and the Philippines were. A couple of Indian Muslims had taken training in the ISI and Al Qaeda run camps. They had fought in Afghanistan. Like the Malayan and Indonesian jihadis they returned to India for spreading the messages of universal jihad. Pakistan was no more a simple neighbourhood hostile nation. It had emerged as the Imam of the Islamist fundamentalists. The geopolitical interests of Pakistan coincided with the neo-Islamist thrust propelled by Al Qaeda-al-Sulbah and its worldwide affiliates.

The ‘Hindu forces’ did not appreciate that Jihadist thrust from Pakistan could be contained only by balanced and pragmatic state policies and not by reenergizing the ‘Hindutwa’ forces. Hindu chauvinism was not the answer to the reenergized Islamic jihad. Genuine non vote bank secular state forces are the only weapons that can thwart Pakistan’s Islamisation thrust in India. Hindu unity and not belligerence could help strengthening the secular edifices of the country.

The growth of ‘Hindutwa’ forces was a historical necessity of the mid nineteenth century and the period that witnessed rapid engineered growth of ‘different nationalities inside the Indian nation’. Assertion of Hindu identity is an essential building block of the nation. But the idea of fighting the Islamist Jihadist forces with equally powerful religiously fired political weapon can only give rise to civil turmoil. It cannot fight the enemy that targets the vulnerable sections of the Indian Muslims. Hindu consciousness can at best unify the Hindu society and strengthen the building blocks of the nation. The job of fighting the Jihadist thrusts is better left to the secular machineries of the state.

The JIM and the JIX had taken full advantage of this emerging contradiction and due to their untiring efforts the Islamist strain of jihadism has come to root in firmly on Indian soil with possible devastating consequences. The symptoms of Jihadist infection have been characterised by:

·
        
Rapid growth of linkages with the multinational Jihadist forces and proliferation of secret modules and cells.

·
        
Acquisition of ways and means to use violence for reassertion of distinct Islamist identity.

·
        
Rapid retaliatory and pre-emptive response to perceived acts of injustice and offensive actions emanating from the majority community.

·
        
Formation of underground
tanjims
and armed groups etc.

·
        
Delinking of the Indian Muslims from the ‘acquired Indian traits and symbols.’

·
        
Revitalisation of the Tabligh institutions and madrasas to teach and preach pure tenets of Islam.

·
        
Secret hate campaign.

This strain of ISI sponsored Jihadist virus is different from the one generally described as ‘proxy-war’ and ‘communal divide.’ Pakistan’s proxy-war against India had started way back in 1958, in the North East. It had hit the Punjab like a devastating tornado and it is still tormenting the country in Kashmir. Hindu-Muslim communalism is as old as the history of Muslim occupation of India. But the process of assimilation was characterised by rapid social cohesion.

The PCIU researched out that the Indian Muslims, mostly converted from Hindus had assimilated non-Islamic social, cultural and religious practices of the respective provinces they inhabited. The Muslims of Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar etc provinces had assimilated several social practices and despite Islamist propaganda continue to be Bengalis and Maharashtrians first and Muslims next. Pan-Islamism dreaded these polluting factors more than ‘ferengi’ influence. These forces had never ceased working on purification of the sub-continental Muslims out of such impurities.

Pakistan’s efforts to inject ‘Islamist’ militancy have traversed beyond the Pan-Islamic efforts of unifying the Ummah. The JIM and the JIX, in collaboration with the fundamentalist organisations have penetrated the madrasas where Middle East brand of fundamentalism and jihadism are taught more than any other secular or vocational subjects.

Attacks on Hindu temples in Gujarat, Jammu, Uttar Pradesh and violent incidents in West Bengal, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Rajasthan and in Delhi etc landmarks are symptomatic of the ‘Islamist’ war against the Dar-ul-
Kafir
and
Jahiliya
Hindu society. This new war is aimed at rekindling the religious fault line that had resulted in the division of the country and it now aims at creating ripples and waves of a ‘second two nation’ movement, demanding formation of Mughlistan and Osmainistan (former Hyderabad).

History is often made in a second and very often it takes several decades to peak the events up that generate devastating tectonic forces leading to assertion of ‘new national identity’. This has happened in the Balkans and the same process is bursting forth in the Central Asian Republics. The Pakistani Establishment and the ISI have researched well on these intelligence operation projects, for which they draw support from whichever government happens to be in power in Islamabad and international Islamist organisations like the World Muslim League and Al Qaeda-al-Sulbah etc. These operations are carried out by Pakistan based mujaheeds and mujaheeds recruited from the madrasas and over 5000 Islamist modules set up all over India and Islamist associates in Bangladesh and Nepal.

Countries like India where the Muslims constitutes an integral part of the secular democratic system are most vulnerable to the Islamist and Jihadist thrusts of the type espoused by the Pakistani Establishment and the Al Qaeda. Similar tectonic fissures are being infused amongst the traditionally secular Muslims of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. The symptoms of the most important dimension of ISI operations in India are palpably perceivable and visible. These symptoms are not a part of the proxy-war. These are integral parts of the ISI’s multinational and geo-political role in South and South East Asia.

It was suggested to the government that the Indian masses should be appraised of this emerging trend and a well-planned strategy should be devised to wage psychological warfare against the Jihadist expansionism of Pakistan and its associates. Unfortunately no tangible step was taken in the name of the Holy Ghost of secularism.

As a grassroots researcher I feel that it is high time for the Indian social scientists, the political breed and politicised religious fringes to understand the intricacies of the corrosive changes that Indian Islam has undergone in the wake of Zia-ul-Haq’s transformation of Pakistan to a theocratic state and the Afghan experience and exposé to competitive religious dogmatism and fundamentalism. Islam in India has started gathering the storm particles sown by the ISI and other Pan-Islamist forces. The same trend has been noticed amongst the alleged impure Muslims of Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Only good political, economic and social management can dissipate these contaminated storm dusts.

Way back in 1992-93 the ‘Islamisation’ process and the process of ‘transplanting armed modules’ in the heartland of India had started taking cognisable shape. Some of these cells were identified in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kota/Ajmer region of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) had already started deputing ‘volunteers’ to Pakistan for training alongside the
Mujahideen
, Taliban and Al Qaeda cadres. They established firm linkages with the leaders of the Islamic Chhatra Shibir; Al Qaeda affiliated Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (HUJI), Al Badr and Al Jihad etc organisations in Bangladesh. A couple of misguided Muslim youths from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Assam were trained in facilities located inside Bangladesh and under the very noses of the DGFI and BDR.

My tryst with the growth of Islamism in post 1980 period gave me to understand that the key to generating intelligence on this front depended on: