Story of the Unsung heroes: Undercover secret service agents

 Story of the Unsung heroes: Undercover secret service agents:

If you've watched Raazi , you must have realised how incredibly dangerous and thankless a spy's job is. You're dealing with sensitive information and are constantly at a risk of getting caught. Carrying out undercover activities is also an emotionally crushing work and yet, there are people who put their lives in danger to serve the country.

Like every country India too has its own dozen of Intelligence agencies.

Here we will look at the two principal agencies IB and R&AW.

Intelligence Bureau (IB):

India’s intelligence Bureau of investigation is a reputed and established intelligence agency. The intelligence bureau is authoritatively controlled by the Ministry of Home affairs. The Director IB (DIB), who is a member of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), is the chief of Intelligence Bureau. It is considered as the internal news agency responsible for monitoring all aspects of governance. It is entrusted with counter- intelligence terrorism. Intelligence Bureau closely monitors developments relating to parliamentary undertakings and report back to cabinet secretariat.

R&AW:

R&AW or Research and Analysis Wing of the Government of India is the most secretive intelligence department of our country.was created after the India-China war in 1962 and India-Pakistan war in 1965. It’s been set up by  Late. prime minister Indira Gandhi R.N. Kao was the 1st RAW Chief. also known as father of Indian Intelligence agency. RAW touted as one of the most fearsome agencies in the sub-continent.

Many of RAW operations are classified as they are the spy agency they are not supposed to tell their achievements in open or describe their mission.

Unsung Heroes

Just as soldiers in uniform guard our borders, a different kind of highly trained and motivated soldiers crisscross the world in various guises with deceptively innocuous code names; meeting sources, activating sleeper spies and double agents, deploying honey traps, conferring with fellow spooks in cafes and safe houses, and bribing informers with clandestine funds—all to protect the nation. 

They are the unsung heroes of India’s formidable spy agency R&AW who unearth dark plots against the country and destroy traitors and at great personal risk.

From Kabul to Kathmandu, from London to Paris and Innsbruck, to Islamabad and Colombo, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) runs exciting operations using money, analysis, psy-ops, wet work and the occasional honey trap. 

How is the Lifestyle of RAW agents or a Secret Intelligence Agent?

When we think of a spy, the first visual is that of a James Bond movie replete with action, investigations, conspiracy plots etc. 

But reality is different. Some secret Intelligence Services are only desk bound jobs, paper work without any action but some may have exciting work, high risk, etc. 

They also sometimes work as a support job at our country’s Secret Intelligence Services like translation of Foreign languages, communication officers, call centre assistants, technicians, network specialists, recruitment officers etc.

Lifestyle of a secret service agent:

• They get opportunity to travel abroad. and learn foreign languages. But this job may be a bit lonely one.

• They have to do lots of Research work pottering round and have to attend meetings.

• Sometimes during secret operations it may be risky. Their names are not revealed to anyone for the safety of the officers. Nobody has access of information about them.

• When RAW agents are exposed to anyone they have to withstand pressure and not reveal their identity. The need is to survive and win in any situation.

• They even can’t share their identity to their family and friends.

• They have to follow a lead, target, info, and report what it leads, who are involved and where it's happening.

• Sometimes they have to meet economically and morally corrupt officials and extract info from them.

• Life is safer when on a desk assignment but a lot critical. They are responsible for Intelligence failures or tragedies of fallout. Sometimes if their colleagues are arrested then they have to delete their records and don’t even acknowledge them.

• Even Government discards them if they are arrested in an operation outside our country.

• When they die on duty they will not get military honours, medal but if they will be successful in completing their missions that means they have saved lots of lives in our country.

Qualities of a secret service agent:

• From diverse cultures and backgrounds they should have the ability to interact effectively with people.

• Communication skills should be magnificent.

• Self- management skills with high level of maturity should be there so that they can give proper judgement according to the situation and the ability to assess the risks.

• Self- motivation, determination to achieve results in any pressure, situation and environment.

• Professionalism and high level of personal integrity should be there which also comes through tough trainig and development programs.

• They have to maintain a low profile and not expose themselves too much.

• They also have to don misleading profiles - what they actually project they are not.

Ajit Doval

Known as the James Bond of India, Ajit Doval, an IPS officer of Kerala Cadre, spent 7 years in Pakistan disguised as a Pakistani Muslim. He kept passing vital information to the Indian military during his stay.

During Operation Black Thunder, which meant to flush out Sikh militants from the Golden Temple, he went inside the temple posing as Pakistani agent to Khalistani militants and got access to important information. 

After he stopped working as an undercover agent, Doval worked in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad for 6 years.

He has been awarded India's second highest peacetime gallantry award, Kirti Chakra and is currently working as the National Security Advisor.

Few secret operations of R&AW:

● Smashing Smuggling of counterfeit currency by ISI Pakistan

Pakistani spy agency Inter Service Intelligence [ISI] was printing counterfeit Indian currency from the state-owned security printing presses under special arrangement and circulating the same through well organized network, which is coordinated by senior ISI officials. 

Although India's National Investigation Agency [NIA] estimated over 16,000 crore [1 crore = 10 million] of counterfeit Indian currencies in circulation, the actual volume of such currencies are believed to be much above the estimation. 

Despite such counterfeit Indian currencies being regularly seized by members of law enforcement agencies in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Holland, the frequency of such illegal circulation could never be either contained or stopped.

The Central Economic Intelligence Bureau [CEIB] in India says that the NIA, the CBI, the DRI and police have detected only 28 to 30 per cent of fake currency actually circulating in the market. The quantity of fake currency floating around in the country is enough to keep the terrorist machinery well-oiled and running. 

The price of a counterfeit Rupees 100 Indian note sold in by the ISI-run racket at the one fifth prices to the distribution network. According to intelligence reports, major portion of the fund received from the distribution of counterfeit Indian and Bangladeshi currencies are used by ISI in giving financial backing to various terrorist and jihadist outfits such as Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Hizbut Tahrir, Hizbut Towhid and other militancy groups in Jammu and Kashmir. ISI is also running illegal trade of smuggling narcotics from Afghanistan and Pakistani frontier provinces to various destinations in Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, while a large volume of such narcotics are re-directed to various Western destinations by using Bangladesh in particular as transit route. Few years back, a Bangladeshi business and manufacturing enterprise named B D Foods, which has closer ties with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami were caught red-handed while shipping heroin concealed inside raw fish.

In the recent past, the Pakistani ISI also started pumping counterfeit Indian currency via Vietnam as their previous route using Thailand has already come to a total halt due to strict measures taken by the Thai authorities. Counterfeit Indian currencies are being smuggled to India by some assigned 'carriers' of ISI, most of who are females. Counterfeit currencies are tactfully hidden within bodies of the carriers, while they also use specially made suitcases which has metallic compartment to hide the fake currencies. Counterfeit currencies hidden in the compartments can easily cheat eyes of the scanners at Nepalese airport. At the same time, counterfeit Indian currencies are also transported by ISI 'carriers' inside electronic and electrical appliances, including refrigerators. In recent past, Vietnam has turned into the major hub of pumping counterfeit currencies to India via Nepal. The ISI men also send package of counterfeit currencies through international courier service on a regular basis.

According to Indian intelligence sources, during 2011, ISI pumped counterfeit Indian currency worth US$ 250 million.

Role in the Kargil War

The war between India and Pakistan in 1999 (Kargil ) was initially termed by Pak and ISI  as some Mujahideen groups from Kashmir were doing the mischief but RAW is successfully intercepted the telephonic conversation between the then Pakistan army chief General Pervez Musharraf, who was in Beijing, and his chief of staff Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz in Islamabad. 

This intercepted conversation later established that Pak army was behind the Kargil war and it proved to be vital in shaming Pakistan on International platforms.

R&AW and Mossad

Thirty-five years ago, in September 1968 , when the Research and Analysis Wing was founded with Rameshwar Nath Kao at its helm, then prime minister Indira Gandhi asked him to cultivate Israel's Mossad. 

She believed relations between the two intelligence agencies was necessary to monitor developments that could threaten India and Israel. The efficient spy master he was, Kao established a clandestine relationship with Mossad. In the 1950 s, New Delhi had permitted Tel Aviv to establish a consulate in Mumbai. 

But full-fledged diplomatic relations with Israel were discouraged because India supported the Palestinian cause; having an Israeli embassy in New Delhi, various governments believed, would rupture its relations with the Arab world. 

This was where the RAW-Mossad liaison came in. Among the threats the two external intelligence agencies identified were the military relationship between Pakistan and China and North Korea, especially after then Pakistan foreign minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited Pyongyang in 1971 to establish a military relationship with North Korea. 

Again, Israel was worried by reports that Pakistani army officers were training Libyans and Iranians to handle Chinese and North Korean military equipment. 

RAW-Mossad relations were a secret till Morarji Desai became Prime Minister in 1977. RAW officials had alerted him about the Zia-ul Haq regime's plans to acquire nuclear capability. While French assistance to Pakistan for a plutonium reprocessing plant was well known, the uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta was a secret. After the French stopped helping Islamabad under pressure from the Carter administration, Pakistan was determined to keep the Kahuta plant a secret. Islamabad did not want Washington to prevent its commissioning. 

RAW agents were shocked when Morarji Desai called Zia and told the Pakistani military dictator: 'General, I know what you are up to in Kahuta. RAW has got me all the details.' The prime minister's indiscretion threatened to expose RAW sources. The unfortunate revelation came about the same time that General Moshe Dayan, hero of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, was secretly visiting Kathmandu for a meeting with Indian representatives. 

Islamabad believed Dayan's visit was connected with a joint operation by Indian and Israeli intelligence agencies to end Pakistan's nuclear programme. Apprehensive about an Indo-Israeli air strike on Kahuta, surface-to-air missiles were mounted around the uranium enrichment plant. 

These fears grew after the Israeli bombardment of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981. Zia decided Islamabad needed to reassure Israel that it had nothing to fear from Pakistan's nuclear plans.  

Intermediaries -- Americans close to Israel -- established the initial contacts between Islamabad and Tel Aviv. Israel was confidant the US would not allow Pakistan's nuclear capability to threaten Israel. 

That is why Israeli experts do not mention the threat from Pakistan when they refer to the need for pre-emptive strikes against Iraq, Iran and Libya's nuclear schemes.

Mercy Anand (name changed) was closely associated with the Intelligence agencies and while leading a normal middle class life, undercover he helped the agencies in various assignments in the country and also abroad.

But more about it in another episode.

Hats off to these brave soldiers who don’t even have anything of their own - even their identity are also stolen - still they work for us for our safety.

@ Dayanand Nene

(With media inputs)