Behind India’s Bust Of A Pakistan Spy

Suman K. Chakrabarti and Omar Warraich

In this undated handout photo, Madhuri Gupta, 53, an Indian diplomat who worked as second secretary in the Indian high commission in Islamabad is seen

“At 53, she was bored, alone and attractive. Single, but definitely one step ahead to mingle.” That’s how the man who led the operation to bust Madhuri Gupta, the first Indian diplomat to be found spying for Pakistan, described her. For most of her two years in espionage, Gupta was a lone-wolf, conducting a classic spy operation from her base in Islamabad. Old-school “dead drops,” in which she passed off information without even meeting her Pakistani handlers, were her signature style. Yet it was a silly indiscretion — sending e-mails to her spy bosses from her office computer — that finally led to her arrest.

Gupta has not exactly been near the center of Indian decision-making, posted as a second secretary in the media section of India’s high commission in Pakistan’s capital, where her job had been to provide English and Hindi summaries of Pakistan’s Urdu-language newspapers. On April 22, the 53-year-old was summoned back to New Delhi ostensibly to help colleagues prepare for the ongoing South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit in Bhutan. After landing at Indira Gandhi International Airport, she was whisked away by officials of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (IB), India’s internal intelligence agency, straight to an interrogation chamber in an undisclosed location. Twenty-four hours later, she was handed over to Delhi police, charged with treason and accessing confidential documents under India’s Official Secrets Act.

Pakistan Rejects India’s ‘Evidence’ on 26/11

‘India’s evidence against Saeed not admissible under our law’

Times of India

NEW DELHI: Pakistan has contended that the Indian evidence against LeT founder Hafiz Saeed of his involvement in Mumbai terror attack is not admissible under their laws for prosecution.

In a dossier given to India in which it asked for handing over of Ajmal Amir Kasab, Islamabad has also asked New Delhi to give all additional evidence related to 26/11 to it by the middle of next month, sources said.

Khalid Khawaja – ‘Confession’ Videos Emerge

Syed Saleem Shahzad

- Disappeared on March 25th alongwith Colonel Imam.
- Never-heard-before outfit called ‘Asian Tigers’ demand US$ 10m and Mullah Baradar in exchange for release.
- Afghan Taliban distance themselves from kidnapping; Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says they are working for release of Colonel Imam and Khalid Khwaja

The following are five video clips sent to Asia Times Online featuring Khalid Khawaja, who is speaking in Urdu. Video files are approximately 2.5Mb each in MOV format. Please click here to download the clips: 1 2 3 4 5 [Right Click > Save As]

ISLAMABAD – Retired squadron leader Khalid Khawaja, a former Inter-Services Intelligence official and a close friend of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during the resistance in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s, has explained in videos sent to Asia Times Online how he was on a mission to broker a deal between militants and the army when he was captured by militants, and how he played a double game by deceiving a radical cleric into being arrested.

Pakistan Tells India To Hand Over ‘Kassab’

DAWN

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad asked Delhi on Saturday to facilitate the transfer of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker, to Pakistan for recording his statement in the trial of the suspects here.

The request was conveyed by Interior Minister Rehman Malik in a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal.

Indians scale down in Afghanistan, fearing more attacks

KABUL: India has suspended medical aid and teaching programmes in Afghanistan, where Indian businesses and charities are slashing staff over fears they are increasingly targeted by militants, reports AFP.

Kabul-based Indians believe they were the specific targets of three recent attacks in the Afghan capital, including a February 26 bomb and gun assault on a guesthouse that killed 17 people, among them seven Indians.

Indian charity Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), which promoted economic independence for Afghan women, said it had pulled all staff from Afghanistan.

“Aman Ki Asha”:- Indian-American group asks US to declare Pakistan a terrorist state

Times of India

WASHINGTON: Arguing that Islamabad is using terrorism as a tool for its foreign policy, especially against India, an Indian-American group on Wednesday asked secretary of state Hillary Clinton to declare Pakistan as a terrorist state and seize all its nuclear weapons.

“Instead of penalizing Pakistan for its support to the notorious terrorists and spreading global terrorism, US, unfortunately, is rewarding this country with the deadly weapons and billions of dollars of hard cash,” Narayan Kataria, head of New York-based Indian American Intellectual Forum, said in a letter to Clinton.

Similar letters have also been written to several influential lawmakers.

“We should recognize in unambiguous terms that Pakistan is the root cause of terror and instability in that region. In order to win the war in Afghanistan it is essential that American war strategy should be focused on Pakistan. In the next 18 months, American troops will be leaving Af-Pak region,” Kataria said.

India Out Of The Loop On Af-Pak

Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN

WASHINGTON: The atmospherics are good but the ground realities are unfavourable. India is struggling to stay relevant and advance its geo-political equities with the United States at a time Washington is buffeted by domestic pressures and international crises that are undercutting its resolve to put ties with New Delhi on a higher plane.

Good intentions, broad agenda, and packed schedules notwithstanding, Indian diplomatic foray into Washington this week was notable for gripes and grievances than any significant advancement towards the stated goal of achieving a strategic relationship with the US, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had a series of meetings on Tuesday, including a drop-in by secretary of state Hillary Clinton at a state department meeting with her counterpart William Burns, but in the end there was no meeting of minds on the most fundamental security issue of the times.

India and US disagree on Afghanistan and Pakistan. That much became clear towards the end of the foreign secretary’s visit although elaboration on this issue was foiled by the cancellation of Rao’s wrap-up press meet (Indian Embassy said she was unwell).

Obama’s Future Lies In Pak Help: Mushahid

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Secretary General, Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Tuesday said that Pakistan should not repeat its mistakes and must not have any favourite in Afghanistan.

The US needs Pakistan more than Pakistan needs the US; therefore, Pakistan should play its cards intelligently, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed stated this while speaking at a seminar on ‘Pakistan’s Geo-strategic Challenges and Response’, which was organised by the NUST Business School of the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST). It was held in connection with a series of the talks to celebrate Pakistan Day.

Speaking on the subject, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed stated that Pakistan had been facing crisis for the last three decades. He identified five major developments that took place in the region over the last three decades, which influenced the geo-strategic environment of Pakistan. Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan made Pakistan a central point for the international diplomacy.

Lahore Bombings: Indians Are Suspects, So Are Americans

US Ambassador complains to Pakistani Government that media reports have exposed the location of American residences inside Lahore’s military zone, but fails to mention why US personnel with diplomatic cover have been found at wrong places, sometimes carrying weapons that diplomats are not supposed to…

Lahore’s military zone is not only exposed to covert Indian operatives but also to undercover US agents with their suspicious heavy-duty equipment placed in several houses inside a gated community right in the heart of the city’s military area. This has been going on since 2007.

Ahmed Quraishi | Special Report

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The eastern city of Lahore is exposed not only to the Indians who have been sending terrorists to plant bombs in public places for the past quarter of a century, but also to the Americans who expanded their covert presence inside Pakistan in the last three years of President Musharraf’s rule.  After the return to democracy in 2008, the US presence [beyond diplomatic requirements or disguised under diplomatic cover] is reported to have increased manifold.

EXCLUSIVE: This Is How US Agents Sneak Into Pakistan

BY SYED FAWAD ALI SHAH

TORKHAM, Pakistan—Rampant corruption and a weak Pakistani state are helping the entry into Pakistan of spies and terrorists from multiple foreign intelligence agencies operating in Afghanistan. Almost all terror in Pakistan is coming from Afghanistan.

This American woman tried to sneak into Pakistan through Torkham on Afghan border today, Saturday, Mar. 13, 2010, around early afternoon. She was wearing an Afghan woman’s burqa and apparently spoke local dialects. She would have successfully crossed into Pakistan safely hidden among a group of Afghan women but something about her demeanor raised the suspicion of a Pakistani border guard.

Lahore bombings planned in Afghanistan

LAHORE – In a major breakthrough, the intelligence agencies have nabbed the mastermind of Lahore blasts and his close aide in a pre-dawn raid in southern Punjab, sources concerned disclosed, adding that the attacks had been crafted at an Indian consulate in Afghanistan a couple of months ago.

Qari Muzammal, the close aide of the mastermind and a commander of the banned outfit, has confessed to the investigators that India provided cash and ammunition to his group through its consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad to carry out attacks in Lahore.
The security agencies arrested the mastermind of the Lahore blasts, his crony Qari Muzammal and three foreigners during the successful operation. The sources, however, did not disclose the name of the mastermind and said he was being interrogated under tight security. It is said that the culprit had just reached a remote district of southern Punjab when the security agencies carried out raids in the wee hours of Saturday, during which important evidence besides computer record, CDs and banned literature was also seized.

Afghanistan Not Safe For Indians

RAW told to damage Pakistan economy in the guise of talks

Online International News Network

ISLAMABAD: India has evolved a master plan to cause severe damage to Pakistan economy under the garb of talks and assigned an important target to its intelligence agency RAW to provide over one trillion rupees to anti Pakistan Taliban through Afghan transit.

Well placed sources told Online Saturday that Indian intelligence agency RAW has started providing financial assistance to Taliban through alcohol and beetle nut (chalia) under Afghan trade to use them to serve its nefarious designs while they were earlier being assisted through drug trafficking.

Sources told RAW at present was supplying over two hundreds containers of alcohol and beetle nut illegally to anti Pakistan Taliban every month in the name of different companies through Afghan transit. This way billion of rupees are being distributed among Taliban so that on one side Pakistan economy could be undermined and on the other side Afghan Taliban could be strengthened financially in order to use them for fulfillment of its vicious designs.

Pakistan’s War on Terror and the New Cold War

by Muhammad Bilal Iftikhar Khan | Groung Report

A new Cold war is in beginning. This time centre of this cold war is not Europe but South Central and Euro- Asia. Keeping in mind peak oil and conflicting interests of dominant powers, probability of return of cold war is a logical conclusion.

At Strategic level we see shift in policies of all concerned powers in Afghanistan and Central Asia. US Policy has at last tilted in Pakistan’s Favor and India is on retreat. Pakistan and US are coordinating with each other against extremism and results are coming both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In words of Seasoned Indian Diplomat M K Bhadrakumar

“India’s policy is at a crossroads. Assumptions behind the establishment thinking in Delhi in the recent years are fast withering amid the evolving situation in Afghanistan and India’s growing security concerns.”

“…But more worrisome for Delhi is the fact Karzai has begun seeking help from Pakistan. The fault lies entirely with the Indians in having failed to support him in recent months. Delhi backed losing candidate Abdullah Abdullah in last year’s presidential elections on the facile assumption that Washington wished to see him in power. That was a disastrous error of judgment.

India should reinvent itself

By Moin Ansari | Rupee News

The past few weeks have seen the colossal failure of the Bharati (aka India) foreign policy, not just in Afghanistan, but in Iran, China, Bangaldesh, Nepal, and China.

India has to reinvent itself.

Before Delhi begins sprinting, it needs to walk. Before it can walk, it needs to have the ability to crawl. Before Bharat sets its goals on Superpower status, it needs to become a regional power. In order to become a regional power, it has to extirpate penury on its shores and earn the respect of its neighbors. Bharat has neither the friendship, nor the admiration of any of its neighbors. Enemies run near and abroad. The Bharati mentality has even made Australians leery of Indians. The temple indoctrination has to be replaced with modern education–and Pornywood is not the reality of Slumdog Hindustan–Earth, Wind, and Fire is.

• Green Flag over mountain cauldron
• India’s budegetary priorities: A recepe for self-destruction
• Why was Karzai sent to Islamabad?

The Lankans are accusing Delhi of supporting the opposition candidate. That backfired big time when the current Lankan president got reelected.  In Kabul Delhi supported Abdullah Abdullah against Hamid Karzai. They again bet on the losing horse. An angry Karzai not is more suspicious of Delhi than ever before. Delhi chose to support Rigi the Jundallah terrorists, captured by Pakistan and handed over to Tehra. Rigi had just recently met the Indian Ambassador in Kabul. Bharat also bet on supporting the Bush Administration and the Republican. They had bet on the wrong horse–President Obama won.

After US and India, Karzai Changes His Tone

‘India is a close friend of Afghanistan, but Pakistan is a twin brother’ – Karzai

Foreword by Ahmed Quraishi: This coming from the same man who spent the past eight years working closely with the Indians and CIA to build BLA and TTP and send terrorists to Pakistan. But thanks to Afghan Taliban, they all had a falling out and everyone wants to save his hind. That’s why all of a sudden US is ready to ditch India to appease Pakistan and Karzai says India is a friend but Pakistan is a ‘brother, a twin’. We Pakistanis are certainly brothers and twins of our cousins the brave Afghans, but certainly not of the snakes planted there by others.

Reuters – Afghanistan does not want a proxy war between Pakistan and India or anybody else fought on its soil, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday during a visit to Pakistan.

Water Flows or Blood

Reiterating their demand for the defence of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, thousands of Pakistani farmers alongside the Farmer Wing of Jamat ud Dawah lead by patriot Professor Hafiz Muhammed Saeed lashed out at the recent Indian blockage of water that rightfully belonged to the Pakistani fields.

In a protest one of a kind – hundreds of tractors marched along Mall Road and gathered at Nasir Bagh area of Lahore. Demanding an end to the water terrorism being committed by India, the farmers showed their courage and determination to defending their rights .Their emotions were described by the banners they held. From ‘Water or War’, ‘Diversion of Pakistani Rivers = Indian Water Bomb’, and ‘Liberate Kashmir to Secure Water’. Realising the realities on the ground and unstinted by the fake promises and photo-sessions by the government ministers in contact with their Indian couterparts they held up a banner which read “No Peace with Indian Water Aggression”. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed once again reiterated his pledge for peace in the region and said that its India which is imposing war on Pakistan.

“My crime is that I speak for the oppressed people of occupied Kashmir and India, my Deen demands that I should speak for Indian Muslims and other minorities subjugated by ruling elite of India,” he said.

India Prepares To Run From Afghanistan With Tail Between Legs

Dan Qayyum | PKKH

India has decided to run from Afghanistan with its tail between its legs as Pakistan increasingly takes center-stage in bringing stability to war-torn Afghanistan.

CNN-IBN Reports: India plans to ‘scale down’ its operations in Afghanistan and will advice its citizens in that country to return home, sources in the government have told CNN-IBN.

The Indian government is considering paring down its presence at reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Projects underway may be wrapped up quickly and there may be even a freeze on undertaking new projects.

Apart from the embassy in Kabul, the work of consulates in Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad may also be scaled down.

CNN-IBN learns the precarious security situation in Afghanistan–highlighted by the terrorist attacks targeting Indians in Kabul on February 26, is prompting a gradual but significant rethink in New Delhi.

Pakistan Forces India Out Of Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s immediate neighbours – Pakistan, Iran, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the US, met earlier this year in Turkey to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and to take stock of measures for the restoration of peace in the country. The original “six-plus-two” formula also included Russia, but in the new set up Moscow representation was replaced by the United Kingdom.

Diplomatic sources said Pakistan had been lobbying for the renewal of talks among Afghanistan’s neighbours in order to foil Indian designs of gaining a foothold on Afghan soil.

Pakistan believes India is not an immediate neighbour of Afghanistan and therefore should have limited role in the country.

Pakistan-Afghanistan Agree On New Afghan Setup ?

 News Analysis By Absar Alam | The News

ISLAMABAD: A strategic shift in Pakistan’s three-decade old Afghan policy has taken a quiet but effective shape as Islamabad has successfully negotiated a peace plan with Mustafa Zahir Shah, the grandson of late King Zahir Shah, who would play a key role in future political dispensation comprising all ethnic groups. “It is a strategic coup by Pakistan against rising Indian influence in Afghanistan,” an analyst tartly remarked commenting on the development. As Islamabad has agreed to untangle the complicated jihadist network fabricated by General Ziaul Haq in 1979, it has acquired ‘iron-clad’ guarantees from Washington and other world capitals to gain advantages not only in regional political and economic affairs but also to get peaceful nuclear technology related benefits, sources privy to the most significant development taking place in the region in more than quarter a century, claimed.

Agartala conspiracy was real: Mujib planned secession in 1969-Traitor’s daughter confesses

By Moin Asnari | Rupee News

For the past 39 years politicians and the “Blame Pakistan first” crowd have blamed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for saying “Humm iddhar tum uddhar” (a quote which has since been refuted as bogus), and blamed the Pakistan Army for the attack on the Mukti Bahni militants on March 23rd as the reason for the creation of Bangladesh.

Ms. Hasina Mujib the daughter of Sheikh Mujib Ur Rehman has now confessed that Sheikh Mujib had planned to secede from Pakistan in 1969–two years before the March 23rd “Military Action” against Bharati (aka Indian) saboteurs and their misguided supporters in Dhaka. General Mankeshaw wrote a book in which has claimed that he recruited 80,000 Hindus to create the Mukti Bahni. These terrorists were dressed up in Pakistan Army uniform and raped and pillaged Bengalis. They also were dressed up as civilians carrying out acts of sabotage against the civil and military government of Pakistan.

Hameed GUL A Roaring Lion

Part 1

U.S. sandwiched in Afghanistan between India’s Cold Start Doctrine and Pakistani Defense with water fueling the fire.

By Talha Mujaddidi | Axis of Logic

The list of universal truths should be expanded to include the fact of Afghanistan’s invincibility. Afghanistan has maintained its reputation as the ‘graveyard of the empires’. The question is, before the US invasion of Afghanistan, did the US Military command really think they can invade, occupy and control Afghanistan? The US indulgence in Afghanistan had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda or Taliban. It had everything to do with strategic control of Afghanistan and Pakistan, oil and gas rich Central Asia, and oil drenched Iran. The US control of Central Asia is the core of Zibignew Brzezinski’s doctrine on US hegemony in 21st century. The title of his book, ‘The Grand Chess Board’ is enough to know how Brzezinski views the world.

Nine years after 9/11 one of the major problems for the US is their ongoing struggle to control Afghanistan. Enter Pakistan. Pakistan is in no mood for allowing India gain more control in Afghanistan. The Pakistan Army has changed its stance on key security issues since departure of US crony, General/Dictator, Pervez Musharraf.

Afghan reality: India may talk to ISI, Taliban

IBN Live

New Delhi: The top levels of the government are debating opening talks with Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Afghan Taliban to ensure India remains relevant in Afghanistan.

CNN-IBN learns the precarious security situation in Afghanistan–highlighted by the terrorist attacks targeting Indians in Kabul on February 26–is prompting a gradual but significant rethink in New Delhi.

Sources confirm that the government is debating opening up a channel of communication with the ISI and engaging sections of the Taliban–an idea India abhorred till now.

India is also considering paring down its presence at reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Projects underway may be wrapped up quickly and there may be even a freeze on undertaking new projects.

Indian meddling in Pakistan

by Zaki Khalid | Pakistan Observer

As Operation Rah e Nijat is gradually nearing it’s successful end, India’s RAW is getting increasingly desperate and frustrated in trying to find other means of involving Pakistan in further geostrategic mayhem. One such recent incident was the highly absurd allegation that Lashkar e Taiba was behind the Kabul attacks on Indians, which Richard Holbrooke was sturdy enough to reject in time before another outbreak of state collision took place.

Footages from Swat and Waziristan reveal that the terrorists belong from different countries such as Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Germany and India. Their primary funding comes from the dozens of Indian consulates spread across Afghanistan, especially near the Pak-Afghan border. For India it seems, their foolish dream of “Akhand Bharat” (Greater India) is still entwined in their fascist ideologies. Add to that the Hindutvization of middle-level officers, senior level colonels and Generals of the Indian Army and you have a rogue brigade of ideologically-driven Hindu elements that will stop at nothing to create troubles and strife for Pakistan. 

India will not scale down its operation in Afghanistan: Menon

 One India

New Delhi, Mar 6 (ANI): National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon has said that India will not scale down its operation in Afghanistan.

Buzz up!
“India and Afghanistan are stepping up security for Indians in Afghanistan,” said Menon adding that the reports on suspension of ‘Medical Mission’ is false, as per the report of a leading news channel.
“Afghanistan has given us all information on recent attacks,” said Menon

Menon is presently in Kabul to review the security of Indians working on several development projects across Afghanistan.