RAW’s reign of terror
It turns out Pakistan is not the only country being terrorised by Indian spies. Though the recent murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada made headlines worldwide after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being involved, RAW has been making a ‘global push’ for several years, according to a new Reuters report. The international news agency spoke with several current and former Indian intelligence officials to help paint a picture of how RAW began expanding its presence in the West after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. A major reason was India’s failure to secure the extradition of an American suspected of involvement in the attack.
However, the recent attack also reflects India’s willingness to bypass justice altogether, since New Delhi has presented little evidence to suggest Nijjar was a dangerous terrorist, rather than a rowdy separatist — the Narendra Modi government has regularly framed false terrorism charges on its opponents, including farmers, students and activists who peacefully protested for their rights. It should also be noted that India’s failure to secure the extradition of David Headley, who is now serving a 35-year sentence in the US on charges that include involvement in the Mumbai attacks, was largely due to New Delhi’s slipshod legal efforts. India went as far as claiming Headly was a US double agent — the same claim it regularly throws at Pakistan whenever asked for actual evidence rather than ‘feelings’.
While RAW has a long association with targeted killings in South Asia, it was quite passive in the West until the Modi regime gave it “confidence” to be “proactive”, according to an academic with expertise on the agency’s work. This was done by taking advantage of RAW’s weak governing law, which allows it to operate without legislative oversight and almost entirely at the PM’s behest. This should be the actual cause for concern — a man who ‘allowed’ mobs to murder thousands of his own citizens for political gain now has total control of one of the world’s biggest intelligence agencies.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2023.
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