‎RAW agent says it all in video ‘confession’

• Govt airs video of Indian spy admitting involvement in Balochistan insurgency and unrest in Karachi
• Yadav says he was involved in terror attacks in Karachi and Balochistan, was tasked with targeting CPEC, says his handlers were top brass of RAW
• ISPR DG says this is state sponsored terrorism by India, a violation of the UN Charter

The civil and military leadership on Tuesday presented the video testimony of arrested Indian spy, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) operative Kulbhushan Yadav in which the alleged spy has made startling revelations in the custody of Pakistani intelligence agencies.

The public disclosures come a day after Army Chief General Raheel Sharif ordered troops and intelligence agencies to launch an operation in Punjab following a deadly Taliban suicide bombing in a Lahore park in which at least 74 people, mostly women and children, were killed.

According to the revelations of alleged RAW agent Kulbhushan Yadav, he was reporting directly to RAW Joint Secretary Anil Kumar Gupta in India, while he was also in touch with his other operatives in Pakistan for criminal activities targeting the security and sensitive installations of Pakistan in general and Balochistan’s coastal areas in particular.

The video was aired during a joint press conference by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) DG Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa and Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid. It showed the arrested Indian Navy officer confessing to involvement in terror activities in Balochistan and Karachi.

Terming the Indian spy’s arrest a ‘big achievement’, Bajwa said Yadav was directly handled by the RAW chief, the Indian National Security Adviser and the RAW joint secretary.

“His goal was to disrupt development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with Gwadar port as a special target,” Bajwa said, adding, “This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism… There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan.”

“This is also a violation of the UN Charter… The issue will be taken up at all international forums,” said the official spokesman of the armed forces.

RAW’S ‘MAIN MAN’:

“If an intelligence or an armed forces officer of this rank is arrested in another country, it is a big achievement,” Bajwa said, before going on to play a video of Yadav confessing to Indian intelligence agency RAW’s involvement in separatist activities in Balochistan.

In the video, Yadav, who hails from Mumbai, said he had joined India’s National Defence Academy in 1987 before going on to join the Indian Navy in 1991.

“I am still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and will be due for retirement in 2022,” he said.

“By 2002, I commenced intelligence operations. In 2003, I established a small business in Chabahar in Iran. As I was able to achieve undetected existence and visits to Karachi in 2003 and 2004 and, having done some basic assignments within India for RAW, I was picked up by the agency in 2013 end,” Yadav said.

Since then, he said he has been directing various activities in Karachi and Balochistan “at the behest of RAW”, adding that he had played a role in the deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi.

“I am basically the man for Mr Anil Kumar Gupta who is the joint secretary of RAW and his contacts in Pakistan,” he said, “especially in the Baloch student organisations”. His purpose was to meet Baloch insurgents and carry out “activities with their collaboration,” he explained.

“These activities have been of anti-national or terrorist nature,” he said, as they resulted in the “killing or maiming of Pakistani citizens”.

“Yadav pretended to be a Muslim and started working at Gadani as a scrap dealer,” Bajwa said.

“Yadav had established a network of operatives in Pakistan. He would provide them funds and would smuggle people for terrorism in the country,” Bajwa claimed.

The ISPR DG added that the Indian spy, who worked under the name Hussain Mubarak Patel, was tasked with carrying out bomb blasts, plan attacks in Karachi and work to derail government efforts for reconciliation with disgruntled Baloch leaders in Balochistan.

“Yadav also had a hand in the assassination of former CID SSP Chaudhry Aslam, Safoora Goth carnage and many others,” Bajwa said, adding the Indian agent will be prosecuted under the law of the land.

Bajwa said that Yadav was tasked with forming a tiger force in Karachi which would carry out assassinations on sectarian lines. He said the RAW operative planned to recruit 30 to 40 other agents in Pakistan.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said Pakistan had fulfilled its responsibility by conveying the news of Yadav’s arrest to the Indian ambassador. He said all forums will be used to take up the issue of India’s backing of terrorist activities.

SPILLING THE BEANS:

In a six-minute-long interview in proficient English language, Yadav, who looked calm and composed, narrated his background and the tasks he had been assigned by RAW in Pakistan.

He said he had entered Pakistan at Sarawan border from Chabahar, Iran, to meet with Baloch separatist leaders for tasks assigned to them for sabotage activities in Balochistan.

He said that he had been tasked with sabotage activities in Gwadar, Jevani, Pasni and other parts of Balochistan.

During the statement, Yadav, who also was filmed smiling and even laughing, praised Pakistan Army for their honourable treatment of him.

Yadav said he hails from Mumbai and had joined India’s National Defence Academy in 1987 before going on to join the Indian Navy in 1991.

“After being arrested, I decided to come clean and tell the truth since I had been compromised. When I told the army that I was an officer of Indian Navy, they gave me honourable treatment and their behaviour towards me changed. I have been treated honourably since then,” he added.

He said that he had joined the Indian Navy in 1991 and worked there till 2001.

“By 2002, after an attack on the Indian parliament, I commenced intelligence operations, mainly gathering intelligence and information for secret agencies.”

YADAV’S ARREST:

Law enforcement agencies arrested Yadav in an intelligence-based raid in Balochistan’s Chaman near the shared border with Afghanistan last week.

The Indian Foreign Ministry earlier confirmed the arrested man was a former Indian Navy officer, but the Pakistani government claimed to have recovered travel documents and multiple fake identities of Yadav, establishing him as an Indian spy who entered Balochistan through Iran — holding a valid Iranian visa.

Yadav was shifted to Islamabad for interrogation, during which an unnamed official said the spy revealed that he had purchased boats at the Iranian port in Chabahar in order to target Karachi and Gwadar ports in a terrorist plot. The official had said the ‘RAW agent’ is believed to be expert at Naval fighting techniques.

After Yadav’s arrest, Pakistan summoned Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale to lodge a strong protest over ‘India’s spying activities’ in Balochistan and Karachi.

Following revelations by the Indian spy, security was tightened across Balochistan, especially at the shared borders with Iran and Afghanistan.

Yadav’s arrest occurred just days before a possible meeting between the Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, whose meeting to restart the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue (CBD) in January was derailed by the Pathankot attack.