LAHORE: Quick to blame the Pakistani government or its citizens for any terrorism-related activity abroad, as it recently happened after Sydney’s Bondi Beach attacks, the India and its puppet media houses perhaps need to recall that their own spies were kicked out of Australia in 2020 after being caught stealing secrets about sensitive defence projects, airport security and Australian trade relationships, etc, research shows.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in its April 30, 2024 edition, had stated: “The foreign ‘nest of spies’ busted by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 2020 was also accused of monitoring Indians living here and developing relationships with current and former politicians. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said during his speech inside ASIO’s Canberra Headquarters that having also nourished ties with a foreign embassy and a state police service, Indian spies monitored their own country’s diaspora. They tried to obtain classified information about Australia’s trade relationships, besides asking a public servant to provide information on security protocols at a major airport.”
The “ABC” maintained: “The ASIO director-general also detailed how the ‘nest of spies’ successfully cultivated and recruited an Australian government security clearance holder who had access to ‘sensitive details of defence technology’.” National security and government figures have now confirmed a number of Indian officials were later expelled by the Morrison government. The “Washington Post” also reported that two members of the Indian intelligence agency known as the “Research and Analysis Wing” (RAW) were banished from Australia following a counter-intelligence operation”.
Australia’s public service broadcaster had written: “Details of New Delhi’s clandestine operations in Australia have emerged as western allies grow increasingly alarmed over the actions of Prime Minister Modi’s government, also accused of an assassination in Canada in September 2023. Government sources told “ABC” that friendly nations believed to be active with espionage operations in Australia include Singapore, South Korea, Israel and India.”
Research shows that apart from Pakistan and Australia, India’s spy agency, RAW, has also been publicly accused by several foreign countries like Canada, United States, Sri Lanka and Nepal for its involvement in assassination plots, extrajudicial killings and harbouring subversive activities.
We all know in 2016, Pakistan had arrested a RAW operative, Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was tasked with financing terrorism and sabotaging the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In 2023, American prosecutors charged an Indian national with involvement in a foiled plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh activist and US citizen, in New York City. A “Washington Post” report had identified a specific RAW officer as being directly involved. Following these events, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom had recommended targeted sanctions against RAW for alleged assassination plots on foreign soil.
Over the years, Canada has vehemently accused Indian RAW of being linked to murders and other “criminal activities” too. In 2023, the-then Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, had announced Canadian security agencies were investigating “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian government agents and killing of a Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia.
In 2024, Canada alleged it had evidence linking Indian diplomats to a “criminal network” involved in not only Nijjar’s murder but also other homicides, extortion and gathering of intelligence on Sikh separatists in Canada.
The Canadian Police had specifically accused the “Bishnoi group”, an organized crime syndicate led by Lawrence Bishnoi, of carrying out these “hit jobs” at the behest of Indian RAW. The accusations led to a severe diplomatic row, with both countries expelling their diplomats in tit-for-tat moves, according to the “BBC”. The Acting Canadian High Commissioner, Stewart Ross Wheeler, was also summoned by India’s External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi. Diplomat Wheeler told media Canada had given India the evidence it demanded. Speaking on live television, Premier Trudeau said India had made a “fundamental error” in supporting “criminal” acts in Canada, asserting: “The evidence we have cannot be ignored.”
In its October 16, 2024 report, the Doha-based “Al-Jazeera” Television had held: “While levelling conspiracy charges against India’s diplomats in Ottawa, Canadian officials dropped another bombshell allegation - linking the diplomatic mission with India’s most notorious crime syndicate boss, Lawrence Bishnoi. Premier Trudeau claimed Indian diplomats collected intelligence on Canadians who were opponents of the Modi government. Bishnoi had first captured national attention when he was linked with the killing of a Punjabi rapper, Sidhu Moosewala, in 2022.”
The “Al-Jazeera” maintained: “More recently, Bishnoi’s gang claimed responsibility for the murder of a Muslim politician, Baba Siddique, in Mumbai. Siddique was a three-time legislator and former minister in the Maharashtra government. He was widely known for his closeness to Bollywood celebrities like Salman Khan. Bishnoi’s feud with Salman goes back nearly 26 years over the actor’s killing of two antelopes on a recreational hunting trip in Rajasthan. The Bishnoi religious sect considers the species sacred.”
In 2020, Nepal reportedly blamed RAW for meddling in its internal politics. According to the “Kathmandu Post,” many former Nepalese Prime Ministers, including KP Sharma Oli, have often accused India of interfering in their internal affairs.
According to a November 2008 report of the “Council on Foreign Relations,” an independent American think tank, Indian RAW provided military assistance to groups hostile to the pro-China regime in Myanmar. The American think-tank added: “It was the support for the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka that had brought RAW much criticism from human rights organizations.
RAW helped train and arm the Tamil Tigers in the 1970s. Since its inception in 1968, RAW has had a close liaison relationship with KHAD, the Afghan intelligence agency, due to intelligence it has provided on Pakistan. This relationship strengthened in 1980s when the foundation was laid for a trilateral cooperation involving RAW, KHAD and Soviet KGB.”
