AAfter the 1991 election victory of Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the radical groups in the neighbouring country were emboldened. One such organisation—the Jamaat-e-Islami—operating as an offshoot of Pakistan ISI, was preparing for a proxy war against India. The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) launched an operation in late 1991 to dismantle Jamaat-e-Islami terror camps inside Bangladesh and demolish the ISI safe house located in the heart of Dhaka. The agency selected one of its daring spies to handle the operation from a control room in Kolkata and bureaucratic processes were bypassed, allowing him to report only to the Chief.
An Indian spy code-named Sujal Rath arranged finances, explosives and recruited Bangladeshi assets to bomb Jamaat terror nurseries and several other terror infrastructures in Satkhira, Khulna, Chittagong, Rajshahi and in Jessore. Amar Bhushan has fictionalised the entire operation in his latest book to protect the identity of agents and informers still serving in India and Bangladesh. A former Special Secretary of R&AW, Bhushan’s rich experience in the shadowy espionage world is reflected in the treatment of characters and the geo-political canvas he paints through the chapters to build the R&AW account of Jamaat influence in the neighbourhood’s politics.
The book is wrapped up in two parts: First is the ‘Zero Cost Mission’ that reveals India’s first surgical strike much before the present dispensation decided to dismantle terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 2016. The title is apt and takes a peep into the tradecraft—that covert operations of Indian intelligence agencies have been cat’s whiskers too.
It says how R&AW after launch of the operation told the operative Sujal that he may have to abandon the operation in the wake of cash crunch. In reality, the agency’s chief was not willing to provide huge amount of secret fund for an operation he feared might just fail. Sujal, however, was not that cagey and he did not abort the operation. He raised money cleverly using Jamaat’s opponents in Bangladesh and assets were paid through dummy agents to carry out bombing. Eleven terror camps and around six safe houses of Jamaat were pulverised by the R&AW operative through a well-planned and executed operation supervised in Kolkata.
In the second story, ‘Wily Agent’, Bhushan details the pitfalls of gathering intelligence in a hostile country. He tells the real story through a spy code-named Jeevnathan, who was tasked to recruit and run a top asset in Bangladeshi foreign ministry in 1992. The hostile regime of Khaleda Zia was plotting against the Indian government. Then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao approved the operation. The asset was Rehman, whose real identity has been masked by Bhushan.
The details reveal that Rehman was able to provide top-grade intelligence to India on Khaleda Zia government’s move supporting Pakistan and ISI tentacles spread across top echelons of her regime. The operation was conducted to serve long-term strategic interests of India and setting up of espionage network was carefully planned to ensure R&AW complete deniability in case the mission was exposed to the counter-intelligence unit of Bangladesh.
Bhushan takes a deep dive into some crucial aspects of espionage. Why the spies do what they do if there is no recognition and no monetary benefit? Is it the thrill of living on the edge or sacrificing for the nation? In the high stakes game of political espionage, the author accompanies the readers in the field for a ringside view. Of even greater significance, in Bhushan’s view, is courage of field agents, who are often victimised after a successful operation, but remain loyal to the country.
For instance, Sujal was hounded after the surgical strike. Bhushan says, “Sujal Rath bore the indignities he suffered well and seldom betrayed his pain. He refused to resign or seek voluntary retirement even when his juniors were promoted over him, some even serving as his bosses. He did not let the politics of his senior officers affect his morale and continued to conduct operations on his own terms.”
The book has a unifying thread for those interested in India’s intelligence operations: Many have perished in the field but their remarkable stories are buried in the vault of the R&AW. Just like the CIA and Mossad, the Indian intelligence agency must honour its unsung heroes.