India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is extensively involved in Pakistan’s, and neighboring countries’, affairs along with other foreign spy agencies such as the Israeli Mossad and the Afghani NDS. Based on the principle of conducting uncover battles through well-trained agents, RAW has assumed a significant role in Indian foreign policy since its inception in 1968.

RAW’s operations include the use of espionage, ethnic divisions, sabotage, terrorism and propaganda campaigns through the establishment of a massive network in target countries. The RAW leaders obtain critical information to satisfy Indian strategic interests and classify the data with the assistance of advanced technology and computer networks. Lately, RAW has been held accountable for being involved in Karachi and Balochistan unrest along with the assistance of foreign intelligence agencies.

RAW’s involvement in Karachi: confirmed

More than 1 million weapons are imported to Karachi by the foreign intelligence agencies, contributing to violence and broader unrest in the area. The CIA, Mossad, and RAW are jointly working towards the ethnic division of Karachi by providing funds to military groups to conduct terrorist activities and destroy Pakistan’s nuclear assets. Through the establishment of a collective network in Pakistan, the foreign spy agencies give the local population financial incentives, thus promoting their strategic interests in the area.

The poor, unemployed youth of Karachi is an easy target for the foreign secret agencies that recruit criminals, journalists, and security personnel and train young agents to execute targeted killings. Also, RAW supports Indian Muslims who join the Taliban regime in order to enhance religious schisms in Pakistan.

Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has evidence of RAW’s involvement in unrest in Karachi. After conducting terrorist activities, militants went to RAW’s offices to collect their fee and get further directions. Friends and relatives of Maulana Fazlullah (a Pakistani Taliban) frequently meet with RAW leaders at the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan and collect money to support terrorist acts in Pakistan.

RAW’s Involvement in Balochistan: very likely, yet not confirmed

Pakistan views India’s growing diplomatic involvement in Afghanistan as an effort to cover for RAW’s undercover operations toward Pakistani destabilization. Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) accused RAW of training and arming nationalists in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province in the Afghan border, to conduct terrorist attacks and cause havoc in the area.

India denies the accusations, but strong evidence suggests that RAW cooperates with NDS, Afghan intelligence agency, to provide weapons to the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and other Baloch militant groups. Several sources confirm that secret agents receive training from Afghan national forces and RAW to conduct terrorist activities. BLA and BLF are involved in sabotage activities and targeted killings, are terrorizing citizens and are spreading propaganda against the central government, the Army and the ISI to the Baloch youth. With the assistance of the Afghan government, Baloch separatists are hiding in Kabul, Nimroz and Kandahar training camps in Afghanistan under the protection of NDS and are provided with fake passports and travel documents for moving to India, UAE and Western countries. RAW organizes Baloch language courses with Baloch teachers in India for agents who possess the skills to create further unrest through terrorist activities in Balochistan. Besides, RAW provides financial support to Baloch feudal & militants both in Afghanistan and Balochistan.

Experts at the Council on Foreign Relations say:“It is very likely that India has active intelligence gathering in Afghanistan, but it is difficult to say whether it is also involved in covert operations.”

On the other hand, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) confirms that, throughout the Afghan War, RAW has orchestrated terrorist activities against Pakistan to discourage Islamabad from supporting the Afghan liberation movement against the Soviet Union, Pakistan’s strong ally. Additionally, nearly 35,000 RAW agents have entered Pakistan in the from 1983-1999 to work at terrorist camps. Today, nearly forty terrorist camps are under RAW’s Special Service Bureau (SSB) in Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, East Punjab and others. So, it is highly unlikely that RAW is not involved in unrest in Balochistan.

Additionally, Senior Vice-President Shah Muhammad Owais Noorani Sidiqui of Jamiat-e-Ulema-Pakistan (JUP) openly accused the CIA for the missing persons in Balochistan. Noorani said that “the JUP had evidence that the US CIA, India’s RAW, and Israel’s Mossad were jointly conducting subversive operations in Balochistan, including sectarian killings, to create dissension in the province and soften the ground for their subversive activities.”

RAW and CIA: close relations

Where does RAW find millions of US Dollars to pay its secret agents?

Stephen P. Cohen of Brookings Institution claims that “the CIA has assisted in the creation of RAW” although their relations were established even before RAW was formed. In 1962, just after India’s war with China ended, the CIA trained an undercover organization with Tibetan refugees in India to execute terrorist activities in China. On these grounds RAW was formed in 1968. And apparently, the relations of RAW and the CIA extend beyond the operational level.

Additionally, there has been a boost in India’s undercover operations after 9/11 terrorist attack in New York. India became a strong supporter of the USA against the Muslim world and the USA opened the doors for India’s intelligence services. The CIAfacilitated the entry of RAW militants in Pakistan with the aim of destabilizing the region. Since 2008, targeted killings in Karachi and Balochistan have created the grounds for the emergence of a nationalistic movement, with the help of the Western allies, USA, UK and Germany, but also Afghanistan and Israel.

The oxymoron is that the CIA trained both agents of the ISI and RAW to use terrorism against an enemy. However, RAW’s agents have received better and more sophisticated training than their Pakistani peers.

Bottom Line

Balochistan and Karachi unrest demand that political parties and the media stop exploiting various disparities at the country’s expense. Pakistan already faces multiple crises and the ISI is coping with the terrorist attacks of militant groups in the tribal areas. At the same time, RAW’s involvement in the unrest is clear. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirms “We are investigating the role of the Indian intelligence agency in creating unrest in Balochistan as RAW’s involvement cannot be ruled out.” 

Reference