PM to seek landlocked country’s rights

Arjun Bhandari

Kathmandu, February 23

Considering perennial crisis of petroleum products and other essential goods, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today told top leaders of the SPA that he would seek rights of the landlocked country to ease up the crisis, according to a source close to the PM.

“It’s high time that Nepal sought the rights of the landlocked country to ensure smooth supply of essential goods, including the petroleum products,” the source quoted the PM as telling top leaders of the CPN-UML, CPN-Maoist, Janamorcha Nepal and NWPP at a meeting in Baluwatar.

The source told this daily that the PM would “use diplomatic channels with Nepal’s friendly countries” to ensure continued supply of petroleum products and other essential goods in the country. “The ongoing Tarai unrest is not the only cause of crisis in the supply of petroleum products but other aspects are also involved in it,” the source quoted the PM as telling the SPA leaders.

The PM is said to have told UML general secretary and Maoist chairman that he would hold talks with the agitating parties in any part of the world if that helped resolve the crisis. Sources said the PM would take “appropriate steps” by tomorrow evening if the UMDF leaders did not give up the demand of one Madhes, one Pradesh by tomorrow morning. The source, however, did not say what steps he would take to bail out the country from the ongoing crisis.

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It proves India is after all the parties to destroy this country. The friends and supporters of the Nepali political parties.

Nepali Congress - K V Rajan, Digvijaya Singh

Palace - Digvijaya Singh, Rajnath Singh

Maoists - S D Muni, Sitaram Yechuri

Madhesi parties (UMDF) - Indian embassy

What is RAW?

Research and Analysis Wing [RAW]
The Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] is India's foreign intelligence agency. RAW has become an effective instrument of Indian national power, and has assumed a significant role in carrying out India's domestic and foreign policies. RAW has engaged in espionage against Pakistan and other neighboring countries. It has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure and operations of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.
Founded in 1968, RAW focused largely on Pakistan. Its formation was initially motivated by reports of Pakistan supplying weapons to Sikh militants, and providing shelter and training to guerrillas in Pakistan.
Numerous missions were assigned to RAW upon its creation. These included monitoring political and military developments in neighboring countries that affects Indian national security. Consequently, considerable attention is paid by RAW to Pakistan and China, countries that are traditional rivals of India.
RAW has evolved from its origins as a part of the Intelligence Bureau to develop into India's predominant intelligence organization. In 1968, RAW had 250 agents and a budget of Rs. 2 crore. This has expanded to a 2000 total of an estimated eight to ten thousand agents and a budget that experts place at Rs. 1500 crore, alternately estimated at $145 million.
Pakistan has accused the Research and Analysis Wing of sponsoring sabotage in Punjab, where RAW is alleged to have supported the Seraiki movement, providing financial support to promote its activities in Pakistan and organizing an International Seraiki Conference in Delhi in November-December 1993. RAW has an extensive network of agents and anti-government elements within Pakistan, including dissident elements from various sectarian and ethnic groups of Sindh and Punjab. Published reports in Pakistan allege that as many as 35,000 RAW agents entered Pakistan between 1983-93, with 12,000 working in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab, 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5000 in Balochistan.
RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh, supporting both secular forces and the area's Hindu minority. The involvement of RAW in East Pakistan is said to date from the 1960s, when RAW supported Mujibur Rahman, leading up to his general election victory in 1970. RAW also provided training and arms to the Bangladeshi freedom fighters known as Mukti Bahini. RAW's aid was instrumental in Bangladesh's gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971.
During the course of its investigation the Jain Commission received testimony on the official Indian support to the various Sri Lankan Tamil armed groups in Tamil Nadu. From 1981, RAW and the Intelligence Bureau established a network of as many as 30 training bases for these groups in India. Centers were also established at the high-security military installation of Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and in the Ramakrishna Puram area of New Delhi. This clandestine support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), some of whom were on the payroll of RAW, was later suspended. Starting in late 1986 the Research and Analysis Wing focused surveillance on the LTTE which was expanding ties with Tamil Nadu separatist groups. Rajiv Gandhi sought to establish good relations with the LTTE, even after the Indian Peace Keeping Force [IPKF] experience in Sri Lanka. But the Indian intelligence community failed to accurately assess the character of the LTTE and its orientation India and its political leaders. The LTTE assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was apparently motivated by fears of a possible re-induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka and a crackdown on the LTTE network in Tamil Nadu.
RAW was heavily criticized in 1999, following the Pakistani incursions at Kargil. Critics accused RAW of failing to provide intelligence that could have prevented the ensuing ten-week conflict that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of full-scale war. While the army has been critical of the lack of information they received, RAW has pointed the finger at the politicians, claiming they had provided all the necessary information. Most Indian officials believe that in order to prevent another such occurrence, communication needs to be increased between the intelligence agencies, which would require structural reform.
Most recently, RAW has gained attention for providing the US with intelligence on Al-Qaeda and Taliban targets for the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Maps and photographs of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with other evidence implicating Osama bin Laden in terrorist attacks, were given to US intelligence officials.
* * * The objectives of RAW include:
To monitor the political and military developments in adjoining countries, which have direct bearing on India's national security and in the formulation of its foreign policy.
To seek the control and limitation of the supply of military hardware to Pakistan, mostly from European countries, the USA and China.
The chief of the RAW is designated Secretary (Research) in the Cabinet Secretariat, which is part of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Most of the position's occupants have been experts on either Pakistan or China. The head of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence agency, enjoys greater autonomy of functioning than their counterparts in the UK and US and has the same privileged direct access to the Prime Minister as their UK counterparts. The control of the Cabinet Secretary over the RAW is limited to administrative and financial matters, with very little say in operational and policy matters.
They also have the benefit of training in either US or the UK, and more recently in Israel. The Secretary (R) reports on an administrative basis to the Cabinet Secretary, who reports to the Prime Minister (PM). However, on a daily basis the Secretary (R) reports to the National Security Advisor. Reporting to the Secretary (R) are: Two Special Secretaries and one Special Director of the ARC, the Aviation Research Centre; Four Additional Secretaries, responsible for different geographical regions; A large number (above 40) Joint Secretaries, who are the functional heads of various desks.
The structure of the RAW is a matter of speculation, but brief overviews of the same are present in the public domain. Attached to the HQ of RAW at Lodhi Road, New Delhi are different regional headquarters, which have direct links to overseas stations and are headed by a controlling officer who keeps records of different projects assigned to field officers who are posted abroad. Intelligence is usually collected from a variety of sources by field officers and deputy field officers; it is either pre-processed (vetted) by a senior field officer or by a desk officer. The desk officer then passes the information to the Joint Secretary and then on to the Additional Secretary and from there it is disseminated to the concerned end user. The Director RAW is a member of the JIC Steering Committee and is authorized to brief the Prime Minister should the need arise.
Some officers of the RAW are members of a specialized service, the Research and Analysis Service (RAS), but several officers also serve on deputation from other services. The RAW has sub-organizations like the Aviation Research Center (ARC), the Radio Research Center (RRC) or the Electronics and Technical Service (ETS), which have considerable capacity for technical intelligence gathering. Another important branch under the operational control of the RAW is the Directorate General of Security (DGS). This agency has oversight over organizations like the Special Frontier Force (SFF), the Special Services Bureau (SSB) etc... Liaison with the military is maintained through the Military Intelligence Advisory Group and the Military Advisor to the Director RAW.
Though the RAW is primarily intended for collecting intelligence beyond India's national borders, it has over time come to have a strong presence in all fields of intelligence gathering. The RAW was brought into internal security issues during the Sikkim situation, it played a role in the events of the emergency of 1977-79, it was asked to operate in Punjab to counter-balance the presence of the ISI (and so also in Kashmir), and the RAW has provided the security for the India's nuclear program. Right from its formation in 18 September, 1968, R N Kao, the founding father of RAW, picked up the best men from within government and from outside for RAW. A combination of military, academicians, bureaucrats and policemen was a fine start for RAW which modelled itself on the lines of CIA.

Major operations of RAW

ELINT operations in Himalayas:
[21]After China tested its first nuclear weapons on October 16, 1964, at Lop Nur, Xinjiang, India and USA shared a common fear about the nuclear capabilities of China.[22] Owing to extreme remoteness of Chinese testing grounds and strict secrecy surrounding the Chinese nuclear programme, it was almost impossible to carry out any HUMINT operation. So CIA in late 60s decided to launch an ELINT operation along with R&AW and ARC to track China's nuclear tests and monitor its missile launches. The operation, in the garb of a mountaineering expedition to Nanda Devi involved celebrated Indian climber M S Kohli who along with operatives of Special Frontier Force and CIA most notably Jim Rhyne, a veteran STOL pilot, was to place a permanent ELINT device, a transceiver powered by a plutonium battery, that could detect and report data on future nuclear tests carried out by China[23]. The monitoring device was near successfully implanted on Nanda Devi, however an avalanche forced a hasty withdrawal[24], later a subsequent mountain operation to retrieve or replant the device was aborted when it was found that the device was lost. Recent reports indicate that radiation traces from this device have been discovered in sediment below the mountain[25]. However the actual data is not conclusive. Pakistan's Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi signs the instrument of surrender on December 16, surrendering his forces to India's Lt. Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora.Creation of Bangladesh:[26] [27]
the early 1970s the army of Pakistan prosecuted a bloody military crackdown in response to the Bangladesh independence movement.[28][29] Nearly 10 million refugees fled to India. The R&AW's Bangladesh operation began in early 1970 by sowing discord among the disgruntled population of Bangladesh (then called East Pakistan), suffering brutal repression by the Pakistani political establishment. This led to the creation of Mukti Bahini and under its cover R&AW operatives infiltrated into East Pakistan for guerrilla operations, blowing up Pakistani assets to damage the operational mobility of their troops. Mujibur Rahman's Assassination: R&AW operatives claim that they had advance information about Mujib-ur-Rahman's assassination but tragically Sheikh Mujib ignored[2] R&AW's inputs and was killed along with 40 members of his family. R&AW thus failed to prevent the assassination which led to the loss of a charismatic leader who had a soft corner for India after all they had done for his countries' independence. However recently R&AW has successfully thwarted plans of assassinating Sheikh Hasina Wazed, daughter of Mujibur Rahman, by Islamist extremist, LTTE and ISI[30].
Operation Smiling Buddha: Operation Smiling Buddha was the name given India's nuclear programme. The task to keep it under tight wraps of security was given to R&AW.[31] This was the first time that R&AW was involved in a project inside India. On 18 May 1974 India detonated a 15-kiloton plutonium device at Pokhran and became a member of the nuclear club.
Amalgamation of Sikkim: Bodered by Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and West Bengal in the Eastern Himalayas Sikkim was ruled by a Maharaja. The Indian Government had recognized the title of Chogyal (Dharma Raja) for the Mahraja of Sikkim. In 1972 R&AW was authorized to install a pro-Indian democratic government there. In less than three years Sikkim became the 22nd State of the Indian Union, on April 26, 1975. Kahuta's Blueprint:[32] [33] Ordinance Blueprint,Khan Research Laboratories, A.Q. Khan Laboratories, Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL), Kahuta, Pakistan 33°39'11"N 73°15'33"E.
Kahuta is the site of the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), Pakistan's main nuclear weapons laboratory as well as an emerging center for long-range missile development. The primary Pakistani fissile-material production facility is located at Kahuta, employing gas centrifuge enrichment technology to produce Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). R&AW agents claim that in early 1978[34], they were on the verge of obtaining the plans and blueprint for Kahuta Research Laboratories that was built to counter the Pokhran atomic blast, but the then Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai not only refused to sanction the $ 10,000 demanded by the R&AW agent, but informed Pakistan of the offer[35]. According to conflicting reports, Pakistanis caught and eliminated the R&AW mole.
Special Operations:In the mid 1980s RAW set up two covert groups, Counterintelligence Team-X(CIT-X) and Counterintelligence Team-J(CIT-J), the first directed at Pakistan and the second at Khalistani groups. Rabinder Singh, the R&AW double agent who defected to the United States in 2004, helped run CIT-J in its early years. Both these covert groups used the services of cross-border traffickers to ferry weapons and funds across the border, much as their ISI counterparts were doing. According to former R&AW official and security analyst B. Raman, the Indian counter-campaign yielded results. "The role of our cover action capability in putting an end to the ISI's interference in Punjab", he wrote in 2002, "by making such interference prohibitively costly is little known and understood." These covert operations were discontinued during the tenure of IK Gujral.[36]
Kanishka Bombing case:[37][38][39] On 23 June 1985 Air India's Flight 182 was blown up near Ireland and 329 innocent lives were lost. On the same day another explosion took place at Tokyo's Narita airport's transit baggage building where baggage was being transferred from Cathay Pacific Flight No CP 003 to Air India Flight 301 which was scheduled for Bangkok. Both aircraft were loaded with explosives from Canadian airports. Flight 301 got saved because of a delay in its departure. This was considered as a major set back to R&AW for failing to gather enough intelligence about the khalistani terrorists[40].[41]
Operation Cactus:[42] In November 1988, the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), composed of about 200 Tamil secessionist rebels, invaded Maldives. At the request of the president of Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Indian armed forces, with assistance from R&AW, launched a military campaign to throw the mercenaries out of Maldives. On the night of November 3, 1988, the Indian Air Force airlifted 6th parachute battalion of the Parachute Regiment from Agra and flew them over 2,000 km (1,240 mi) to Maldives. The Indian paratroopers landed at Hulule and restored the government rule at Malé within hours. The operation, labelled Operation Cactus, also involved the Indian Navy. Swift operation by the military and precise intelligence information quelled the insurgency.
SriLanka:[43] [44]. R&AW started training the LTTE to keep a check on Sri Lanka, which had helped Pakistan in the Indo-Pak War by allowing Pakistani ships to refuel at Sri Lankan ports, but LTTE created lot of problems and complications and then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi was forced to send Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to restore normalcy in the region. The disastrous mission of Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) was blamed by many on the lack of coordination between the IPKF and R&AW. Its most disastrous manifestation was the Heliborne assault on LTTE HQ in the Jaffna University campus in the opening stages of Operation Pawan. The site was chosen without any consultation with the R&AW. The dropping paratroopers became easy targets for the LTTE. A number of soldiers were killed. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi is also blamed as a fallout of the failed R&AW operation in Sri Lanka. [45].
Operation Chanakya:[46] A Pakistan magazine Herald published a cover story on the terrorist training camps in Pakistan, which was training Kashmiri and Afghan militants. A follow up story by Dawn newspaper confirmed its existence.[47]This was the R&AW operation in the disputed Kashmir region to infiltrate various ISI-backed Kashmiri terrorist groups and restore peace in the Kashmir valley. R&AW operatives infiltrated the area, collected military intelligence, and provided evidence about ISI's involvement in training and funding Kashmiri terrorist groups [48][49]. R&AW was successful not only in unearthing the links between the ISI and the terrorist groups, and also in infiltrating and neutralizing the militancy in the Kashmir valley.[50][51][52] Operation Chanakya also marked the creation of pro-Indian groups in Kashmir like the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen, Musleem Mujahideen etc. These counter-insurgencies consist of ex-militants and relatives of those slain in the conflict. Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen leader Kokka Parrey was himself assassinated by terrorists.
Disturbances in Pakistan:[53] The Pakistani government claims that dissent among the Balochis, tribals in the North-West Frontier Province, Waziristan, Northern Areas and rural sindhi population is due to R&AW's interventions[54]. Pakistan also claims that R&AW has established its training camps in Afghanistan in collaboration with the Northern Alliance in a bid to destabilise the region, as a retaliation for Pakistan's involvement in Kashmir.[55] It is also claimed by Pakistani authorities that approximately 600 ferraris (Baloch tribal dissidents) and members of Islamic Emirate of Waziristan were trained to handle explosives and use sophisticated weapons in these camps.[56] While Pakistan has long complained of India-engineered terrorism on its soil, there is so far no reputable open-source account of either its scale or its course and the Indian government has steadfastly denied any involvement in the Baloch-NWFP problem.
Kargil War: R&AW was heavily criticized in 1999, following the Pakistani incursions at Kargil. Critics accused R&AW of failing to provide intelligence that could have prevented the ensuing ten-week conflict that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of full-scale war. While the army has been critical of the lack of information they received,[57] R&AW has pointed the finger at the politicians, claiming they had provided all the necessary information. Most Indian officials believe that in order to prevent another such occurrence, communication needs to be increased between the intelligence agencies, which would require structural reform.
Help to Northern alliance: After the rise of Pakistan backed Taliban in Afghanistan, India decided to side with the Northern Alliance. This relationship was further cemented in the 2001 Afgan war.[58] By 1996 R&AW had built a 25 bed military hospital[59] at the Farkhor Air Base[60], this airport was used by Aviation Research Centre, the reconnaissance arm of R&AW, to repair and operate Northern Alliance's aerial support. India also supplied the Northern Alliance high altitude warfare equipment worth around $8-10 million[61][62]. A handful of Indian defence advisers who reportedly included an officer in the rank of Brigadier, were based in Tajikistan to advise the Northern Alliane in operations against the Taliban[63]. R&AW was the first intelligence agency to determine the extent of Kunduz airlift.[64]
Operation Leech: Surrounded by Arakans and dense forest Myanmar had always been a worrisome point for Indian intelligence. As the major player in the area India always sought to promote democracy and install friendly governments in the region. To these ends, R&AW cultivated Burmese rebel groups and pro-democracy coalitions, especially the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) [65]. India allowed KIA to carry a limited trade in jade and precious stones using Indian territory and even supplied them weapons. It is further alleged that KIA chief Maran Brangsein met the R&AW chief in Delhi twice. However when KIA became the main source of training and weapons for all northeastern rebel groups, R&AW initiated an operation, code named Operation Leech, to assassinate the leaders of the Burmese rebels as an example to other groups.[66] Six top rebel leaders, including military wing chief of National Unity Party of Arakans (NUPA), Khaing Raza, were shot dead and 34 Arakanese guerrillas were arrested and charged with gunrunning.[67]
War on Terror:Although R&AW's contribution to the war on terror is highly classified, the organization gained some attention in the western media after claims that it was assisting the United States by providing intelligence on Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban's whereabouts. Maps and photographs of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan along with other evidence implicating Osama bin Laden in terrorist attacks, were given to US intelligence officials. R&AW's role in the war on terror may increase as US intelligence has indicated that it sees R&AW as a more reliable ally than Pakistani intelligence. It has further come to light that a timely tip-off by RAW helped foil a third assassination plot against Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf[68].

The Himalayan Times: The current operation that RAW in in Nepal is to disintragate Nepal in the name of Free and one Madesh. It started while King Birendra was the king in Nepal. But he became close to China and refused to give royal seal to the Citizenship Bill that led to his and his families massacre. After the Royal massacre in Nepal RAW started a newspaper The Himalayan Times and now it has Annapurna Post also under the APCA. Most of the staff in APCA and The Himalayan Times and Annapurna Post are Nepalese from Darjeeling and Gohati, Assam. 99.99 staff are Indian. So, it will be easy to operate. The current APCA chief is CU Ananda, who is responsible for the operation and information collection from both the newspapers and send to Delhi headquarters. Now, more than 2 million Indian got the citizenship in the name of Madhesh that King Birendra opposed and RAW eliminated his whole family. He was a nationalist King. Due to the Indian companies advertisements Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post are also under RAW influence now. They do not report what the India embassy doesnot want like the other The Himalayan Times and Annapurna Post.
The operation is half success and is undergoing. With the help of Upendra Yadav, Rajendra Mahato, Hridesh Tripathi and Mahanta Thakur, RAW is near its success of disintigrating Nepal and has bagged Karnali and Arun III, in the cover of private companies. India forced to sign Mahakali Treaty some 12 years back but it had nto done anything till date because it only wants to capture the natural resources of Nepal for its bebefit not for Nepal.