Opposition urges federal government to raise RAW agent arrest at UN
Yadav was also involved in funding for terrorism, separatism and sectarianism.
Dunya News Report (Humaira Sajid)
ISLAMABAD – The Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah, on Sunday, insisted that the government should take the issue of Indian spy nabbed by security agencies in Baluchistan before the United Nations so as to reveal that New Delhi was hands in gloves in what is happening in Baluchistan and also how it has been interfering in Pakistan’s internal matters to destabilize it.
Talking to media in Sukkur, Shah said this was not an ordinary incident. “Pakistan has been accusing India’s RAW of spreading terror in Balochistan… this claim has been proved right by this arrest,” he said.
In context to India’s blatant admission over the arrest of Indian naval intelligence officer working for India’s premier intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in Baluchistan, the federal government has taken a decision in-principal to launch an operation across the country against agents and facilitators of RAW.
This development unearthed itself right after the arrest of Kul Bhushan Yadav, RAW’s agent, in Baluchistan. The security sources informed that the Intelligence-based operation will be launched on the information revealed by the captured RAW officer during initial investigation, adding that the priority in the initial phases will be given to cleaning up the targeted areas of Balochistan province, some parts of Sindh, especially Karachi and Hyderabad, and areas of South Punjab as well as from the operators, facilitators or agents working for the Indian secret service.
According to a Pakistani security official, the Indian national was involved in acts of sectarian terrorism and attacks in Karachi. The initial investigations revealed that the RAW agent was a resident of Mumbai and possessed a passport registered under the name ‘Hussain Mubarak Patel’, with a passport number L9630722, bearing an Iranian visa.
The security officials reported that the Indian spy had joined RAW in 2013 and had served the Indian naval intelligence in the past with his number being 41558. He was earlier appointed at Iran’s port Chabahar, where he used to live with his wife and two children. Reportedly, the RAW officer sneaked into Baluchistan through the Iranian border.
During an initial interrogation, Yadav made several confessions admitting to having links with Baluchi militants. He said that the Baloch used to provide financial and logistic support to operatives of banned outfits.
Pakistan and India, the two nuclear-armed countries frequently accuse each other of spying on military activities. Late in December 2015, Delhi police claimed to have arrested a former Indian Air Force officer on charges of passing secrets to Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), falling victim to a “honey trap”.
Much more recently, an Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari was sentenced to three years in a Pakistani prison after he was convicted for espionage following a court marshal. Mr Ansari had gone missing from Kohat three years prior, until he was nabbed via agencies and sentenced by the military court.
Speaking to a Pakistani news channel, the former President and COAS General Musharraf said that both India and Pakistan are victims of extremism and accused the New Delhi government of pressurizing Islamabad over terrorism.
"Terrorism is prevalent in both India and Pakistan," said Musharraf. "We are also victims of the same so we should not overreact to what happened in Pathankot. Yes, of course we want to control such incidents, but one should not get hyper over such incidents." Musharraf said.
Musharraf accused India of turning to Pakistan every time a terrorist attack took place; while he claimed that India too faciliates extremists in parts of the country. He said that there had been a rise in "disgruntlement" among the Indian Muslim community since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
As a counterargument, Indian opposition party lambasted Musharraf over his comments, accusing him of not being in a position to offer any authoritative opinions on such matters. The Congress Party s leader Panna Lal Punia accused the Pakistani government of not taking any action against the perpetrators of the Pathankot incident based on false media reports that Pakistan had rejected evidence provided by Indian officials about the terrorist attack.
In past, the intelligence based agencies of Pakistan have also gotten their hands on several Indian spies working undercover and disclosing important information. The infamous Ravinder Kaushik alias “Black Tiger”, who was commissioned in the Pakistan Army and soon promoted to the rank of Major, was also an undercover RAW agent providing assistance to India. During that time he converted to Islam and married a local girl Amanat, fathering a son with her. However, in September 1983, he was caught when Inayat Masiha, sent by RAW to get in touch with him, inadvertently blew his cover to Pakistani forces under interrogation. Kaushik was then captured and sentenced to death for spying, but the sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.
According to an expert on Indo-Pak relations, the continual arrests of Indian RAW agents from Pakistan points towards the involvement of Indian undercover intelligence officers engaging in espionage activities in grave violation of their diplomatic status.
