The Indian media on Wednesday claimed that there was a tie-up between Chinese and Pakistani agencies to share intelligence on India.
“There is mounting evidence within the Indian intelligence agencies that suggests that China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has outsourced collection of vital intelligence, including aspects of Tibetan activity in India, from Pakistan’s ISI, as the latter has better penetration in the sub-continent,” the Hindustan Times said in a report.
The paper quoted Indian government sources as saying that intelligence inputs indicated that there was an institutionalised tie-up between the two agencies and some five structured meetings at high official level had taken place in the past two years with India figuring in the dialogue.
This information has been shared with top officials in the government, it said. According to the report, the ISI would also share intelligence on India with their Chinese counterparts as it has known access in restive regions of India including in the north eastern states.
Beijing’s key interest is in the Dalai Lama set-up and it is closely watching Indian involvement in the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala.
With Bangladesh not allowing NE insurgent groups to target India from its territory and Myanmar making similar noises, insurgents are getting monetary and logistics support from Yunan province in south China, the paper claimed.
“However, it is the flip-side of this tie-up that is worrying India. A section of the Indian intelligence community feels that the ISI could exacerbate tensions with China by exaggerating New Delhi’s role in the Tibetan movement. Even though India has little to do with the Tibetan set-up, the perception is that it is the ISI, which has made the MSS suspicious of India’s involvement.”
After the 2008 Lhasa riots,
Beijing has been very sensitive about the Tibet issue.
Chinese PM Wen Jiabao last week extracted a commitment from Nepal on not allowing any Tibetan activity in the erstwhile kingdom.