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#free gaza#free palestine#gaza strip#irish solidarity with palestine#palestine#gaza#news on gaza#al jazeera#boycott israel#israel#benjamin netanyahu#Ajit Doval#Narendra Modi#Palestine news#Tel Aviv
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इजरायली प्रधानत्री बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू से मिले अजीत डोभाल, जानें किन मुद्दों पर हुई चर्चा
इजरायली प्रधानत्री बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू से मिले अजीत डोभाल, जानें किन मुद्दों पर हुई चर्चा
Israel Hamas War: इजरायल के प्रधानमंत्री बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू ने आज भारतीय राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार अजीत डोभाल से मुलाकात की। मुलाकाता के दौरान बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू ने गाजा पट्टी में चल रही लड़ाई की जानकारी अजीत डोभाल के साथ साझा की। दोनों देशों की ओर से बंधकों को रिहाई और मानवीय सहायता के मुद्दे पर भी चर्चा हुई।
इस मुलाकात की जानकारी इजरायल के प्रधानमंत्री की सोशल मीडिया हैंडल एक्स के जरिए दी गई।…
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Khalistan : A Complex and Controversial Issue
It remains a subject of debate and discussion. It is crucial for all stakeholders, including the Indian government, Sikh leaders, and the international community, to engage in dialogue and address the underlying issues to promote peace, unity.
Khalistan issue is real or Politically motivated, lets examine..
Introduction
The concept of Khalistan, a separate Sikh state, has been a longstanding and contentious issue in the Indian context. Rooted in the historical, political, and religious complexities of the region, the Khalistan movement has generated significant debate, emotions, and even violence over the years. In this blog post, we…
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National Security Advisor Ajit Doval Meets US Counterpart: Saudi Arabia
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आज अजीत डोभाल मध्य एशियाई एनएसए के साथ बैठक करेंगे।
आज अजीत डोभाल मध्य एशियाई एनएसए के साथ बैठक करेंगे।
मध्य एशियाई राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार (NSA) मंगलवार को अपने भारतीय समकक्ष अजीत डोभाल के साथ अफगानिस्तान, आतंकवाद का मुकाबला और कनेक्टिविटी पर चर्चा करेंगे। यह बैठक समुद्र-वार्ड कनेक्टिविटी मार्ग बनाने के लिए लैंडलॉक मध्य एशिया के साथ भारत के व्यापक जुड़ाव की निरंतरता है जो अफगानिस्तान को स्थिर करते हुए पाकिस्तान से बचता है।
जब आतंकवाद की बात आती है तो भारत और मध्य एशिया दोनों एक ही पृष्ठ पर हैं,…
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ملک میں پر تشدد واقعات کے ضمن میں قومی سلامتی مشیر نے کہا : کچھ لوگ ہندوستان کا ماحول خراب کرنے کی کوشش کر رہے ہیں : اجیت ڈوبھال
ملک میں پر تشدد واقعات کے ضمن میں قومی سلامتی مشیر نے کہا : کچھ لوگ ہندوستان کا ماحول خراب کرنے کی کوشش کر رہے ہیں : اجیت ڈوبھال
ملک میں پر تشدد واقعات کے ضمن میں قومی سلامتی مشیر نے کہا :
کچھ لوگ ہندوستان کا ماحول خراب کرنے کی کوشش کر رہے ہیں : اجیت ڈوبھال
دہلی ،30جولائی ( آئی این ایس انڈیا )
اودے پور قتل کیس سمیت ملک میں حالیہ وحشیانہ واقعات اور دہشت گردانہ سرگرمیوں کی مذمت اور خیرسگالی کا پیغام دینے کے لیے آل انڈیا صوفی سجادگان کونسل نے آج راجدھانی دہلی (دہلی) میں کانفرنس منعقد کی۔ انڈیا صوفی سجادگان کونسل نے بین…
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#country#environment#National Security Adviser#regarding#Some people#spoil India#Trying#violent incidents#ajit doval
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देश की समुद्री सुरक्षा से जुड़ी सभी एजेंसियों के बीच समन्वय जरूरी: अजीत डोभाल
देश की समुद्री सुरक्षा से जुड़ी सभी एजेंसियों के बीच समन्वय जरूरी: अजीत डोभाल
नई दिल्ली. राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार (एनएसए) अजीत डोभाल ने बृहस्पतिवार को कहा कि देश की समुद्री सुरक्षा से जुड़ी सभी एजेंसियों के बीच निर्बाध समन्वय आवश्यक है. डोभाल ने विविध-एजेंसी समुद्री सुरक्षा समूह (एमएएमएसजी) की पहली बैठक को संबोधित करते हुए कहा कि समुद्री सुरक्षा तंत्र से जुड़ी हुई सभी एजेंसियों और अन्य हितधारकों को भारत की प्रगति तथा विकास के समग्र दृष्टिकोण के साथ आपसी समन्वय स्थापित…
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#Ajit Doval#Maritime Security#National Security Advisor#अजीत डोभाल#राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार#समुद्री सुरक्षा
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ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ ಮೇಲೆ ನಂಬಿಕೆ ಇಡಿ-ಅಗ್ನಿಪಥ್ ಯೋಜನೆ ಹಿಂಪಡೆಯುವ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯೇ ಇಲ್ಲ:NSA ಅಜಿತ್ ದೋವಲ್
ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ ಮೇಲೆ ನಂಬಿಕೆ ಇಡಿ-ಅಗ್ನಿಪಥ್ ಯೋಜನೆ ಹಿಂಪಡೆಯುವ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯೇ ಇಲ್ಲ:NSA ಅಜಿತ್ ದೋವಲ್
ನವದೆಹಲಿ: ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಅಗ್ನಿಪಥ್ ನೇಮಕಾತಿ ಯೋಜನೆ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ದೇಶದ ಹಲವೆಡೆ ಪ್ರತಿಭಟನೆ ಮುಂದುವರಿದಿರುವ ನಡುವೆಯೇ ಅಗ್ನಿಪಥ್ ಯೋಜನೆಯನ್ನು ವಾಪಸ್ ಪಡೆಯುವ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯೇ ಇಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಭದ್ರತಾ ಸಲಹೆಗಾರ ಅಜಿತ್ ದೋವಲ್ ತಿಳಿಸಿದ್ದು, ಯುವ ಜನತೆ ಪ್ರಧಾನಿ ಮೋದಿ ಅವರ ನಾಯಕತ್ವ ಮತ್ತು ನಿರ್ಧಾರದ ಮೇಲೆ ವಿಶ್ವಾಸ ಇಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ಮನವಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ.
ತೀವ್ರ ಪ್ರತಿಭಟನೆ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಹಿನ್ನೆಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅಗ್ನಿಪಥ್ ಯೋಜನೆಯನ್ನು ಹಿಂಪಡೆಯುವ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆ ಇದೆಯೇ ಎಂಬ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗೆ…
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NSA Doval says there is no question of rollback in the Agnipath scheme
National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Tuesday made it very clear that there is no question of a rollback of the Agnipath defense recruitment scheme. Amid the ongoing protest related to the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme, the NSA attended an interview where he said that "India has among the youngest populations in the world, yet it cannot continue to have an army with a high average age."
The government of India has recently recruited NSA Ajit Doval to defend the Agnipath scheme wherein army men would be hired on a four-year contract basis and will get no pension. The government will retain only 25% of them whereas the rest of the 75% will be discharged.
Talking about the vandalism during the protest he said, “Those doing this are not the aspirants; the real ones are at home, preparing." He said that while some veterans had genuine concerns and were now changing their minds, there are people who "just want conflict in society to discredit the government".
He also discussed the future of agniveers and said, “People are speaking of one life-two career, even three careers now. When recruits from the first batch of Agniveers retire, India will be a 5-trillion-dollar economy; industry will need people who have age on their side. These men and women will still be young and won't have family compulsions."
Mr. Doval denied any possibilities of roll back claiming "It is not a kneejerk action. This scheme has been debated and discussed for decades." He cited a number of army committees and ministerial panels as having mulled over such a scheme. "Only a leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi could say that he would even pay a political price, if needed, for a step in the national interest."
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#latest national news in India#werindia#leading india news source#national news headlines#latest national news#Agnipath scheme#Ajit Doval#National Security Adviser#top news headlines
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'तेजस' की रिलीज से पहले अजीत डोभाल से मिलकर बेहद खुश हुईं कंगना रनौत
Mumbai: बॉलीवुड अभिनेत्री कंगना रनौत की राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार (NSA) अजीत डोभाल से एक फ्लाइट में मुलाकात हुई। इसको लेकर अभिनेत्री ने इंस्टाग्राम स्टोरीज पर अपने प्रंशसकों के साथ यह पल साझा किया।
डोभाल से कंगना की मुलाकात उनकी आने वाली फिल्म ‘तेजस’ की रिलीज से पहले हुई है। इस एक्शन ड्रामा में कंगना भारतीय वायु सेना अधिकारी तेजस गिल की मुख्य भूमिका निभा रही हैं।
डोभाल से हुई मुलाकात से…
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How former bureaucrats in Modi government are transforming India
Former bureaucrats in Modi government are an asset for India’s governance. They are a reflection of India’s talent and potential. They are a testimony of Modi’s vision and leadership. They are a catalyst for India’s progress and transformation.
India is a country that faces many challenges, such as poverty, corruption, terrorism, climate change, and regional conflicts. To tackle these challenges, India needs a strong and visionary leadership that can formulate and implement effective policies for the welfare and development of the nation. One of the distinctive features of the current government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is…
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#Ajit Doval#Ashwini Vaishnaw#former bureaucrats#Governance#Hardeep Singh Puri#India#Modi government#RK Singh#S Jaishankar#transformation
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Ajit Doval : दहशतवादाचे अर्थकारण रोखण्याची गरज – अजित डोवाल
Ajit Doval : दहशतवादाचे अर्थकारण रोखण्याची गरज – अजित डोवाल
Ajit Doval : दहशतवादाचे अर्थकारण रोखण्याची गरज – अजित डोवाल
नवी दिल्ली – दहशतवादाला रोखण्यासाठी दहशतवादाला पाठिंबा देणाऱ्यांचे अर्थसहाय्य रोखायला पाहिजे, या मुद्यावर राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सल्लागार अजित डोवाल यांनी भर दिला आहे. भारत आणि मध्य आशियातील देशांच्या राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सल्लागारांच्या परिषदेत ते बोलत होते. यावेळी उपस्थित असलेल्या सर्व देशांच्या राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सल्लागारांनी सीमेपलिकडील…
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Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman on 10 including NSA Ajit Doval
Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman on 10 including NSA Ajit Doval
Uttarakhand government announced Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman 2021 and 2022. This time, ten personalities of the state will be given this honor. According to the order made by the General Administration Department, this honor will be given to the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, lyricist and chairman of Film Censor Board Prasoon Joshi as well as three other celebrities for the year 2022.
In…
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National Security Advisor Ajit Doval meet cm eknath shinde and governor bhagat singh koshyari in mumbai
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval meet cm eknath shinde and governor bhagat singh koshyari in mumbai
पंतप्रधान नरेंद्र मोदी यांचे राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सल्लागार अजित डोवाल सध्या मुंबईत दाखल झाले आहेत. दौऱ्यादरम्यान डोवाल यांनी आज राज्याचे मुख्यमंत्री एकनाथ शिंदे यांची वर्षा निवासस्थानावर भेट घेतली. डोवाल आणि मुख्यमंत्र्यांची ही सदिच्छा भेट असल्याचं सांगण्यात येत आहे. डोवाल यांनी सकाळीच महाराष्ट्राचे राज्यपाल भगतसिंह कोश्यारी यांचीही भेट घेतली होती. जवळपास अर्धा तास विविध मुद्द्यांवर त्यांनी चर्चा…
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#ajit doval meet cm eknath shinde#national-security-advisor-ajit-doval meet governor bhagat singh koshyari#अजित डोवाल ताज्या बातम्या#अजित डोवाल मुंबई दौरा#राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सल्लागार अजित डोवाल
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/29/india-assassination-raw-sikhs-modi/
cool cool cool
(full text below the cut)
An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India
Greg Miller, Gerry Shih, Ellen Nakashima
The White House went to extraordinary lengths last year to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a state visit meant to bolster ties with an ascendant power and potential partner against China.
Tables on the South Lawn were decorated with lotus blooms, the symbol of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. A chef was flown in from California to preside over a vegetarian menu. President Biden extolled the shared values of a relationship “built on mutual trust, candor and respect.”
But even as the Indian leader was basking in U.S. adulation on June 22, an officer in India’s intelligence service was relaying final instructions to a hired hit team to kill one of Modi’s most vocal critics in the United States.
The assassination is a “priority now,” wrote Vikram Yadav, an officer in India’s spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW, according to current and former U.S. and Indian security officials.
Yadav forwarded details about the target, Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, including his New York address, according to the officials and a U.S. indictment. As soon as the would-be assassins could confirm that Pannun, a U.S. citizen, was home, “it will be a go ahead from us.”
Yadav’s identity and affiliation, which have not previously been reported, provide the most explicit evidence to date that the assassination plan — ultimately thwarted by U.S. authorities — was directed from within the Indian spy service. Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of a sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modi’s inner circle.
In reports that have been closely held within the American government, U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel. That finding is consistent with accounts provided to The Washington Post by former senior Indian security officials who had knowledge of the operation and said Goel was under extreme pressure to eliminate the alleged threat of Sikh extremists overseas. U.S. spy agencies have more tentatively assessed that Modi’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAW’s plans to kill Sikh activists, but officials emphasized that no smoking gun proof has emerged.
Neither Doval nor Goel responded to calls and text messages seeking comment.
This examination of Indian assassination plots in North America, and RAW’s increasingly aggressive global posture, is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former senior officials in the United States, India, Canada, Britain, Germany and Australia. Citing security concerns and the sensitivity of the subject, most spoke on the condition of anonymity.
That India would pursue lethal operations in North America has stunned Western security officials. In some ways, however, it reflects a profound shift in geopolitics. After years of being treated as a second-tier player, India sees itself as a rising force in a new era of global competition, one that even the United States cannot afford to alienate.
Asked why India would risk attempting an assassination on U.S. soil, a Western security official said: “Because they knew they could get away with it.”
The foiled assassination was part of an escalating campaign of aggression by RAW against the Indian diaspora in Asia, Europe and North America, officials said. The plot in the United States coincided with the June 18 shooting death of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver — an operation also linked to Yadav, according to Western officials. Both plots took place amid a wave of violence in Pakistan, where at least 11 Sikh or Kashmiri separatists living in exile and labeled terrorists by the Modi government have been killed over the past two years.
The Indian intelligence service has ramped up its surveillance and harassment of Sikhs and other groups overseas perceived as disloyal to the Modi government, officials said. RAW officers and agents have faced arrest, expulsion and reprimand in countries including Australia, Germany and Britain, according to officials who provided details to The Post that have not previously been made public.
The revelations have added to Western concerns about Modi, whose tenure has been marked by economic growth and rising global stature for India, but also deepening authoritarianism. A recent report by Freedom House, a human rights organization, listed India among the world’s practitioners of “transnational repression,” a term for governments’ use of intimidation or violence against their own citizens — dissidents, activists, journalists — in others’ sovereign territory.
India is part of an expanding roster of countries employing tactics previously associated with China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other repressive regimes. It is a trend fueled by factors ranging from surging strains of nationalism and authoritarianism to the spread of social media and spyware that both empower and endanger dissident groups.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs declined to respond to detailed questions submitted by The Post or provide comment for this article. Responding to questions raised by a Post reporter at a news briefing last week, spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said that India was still investigating the allegations and that the Pannun case “equally impacts our national security.”
Jaiswal referred reporters to previous ministry statements that targeted killings are “not our policy.”
For the Biden administration, which has spent three years cultivating closer ties with India, the assassination plots have pitted professed values against strategic interests.
Last July, White House officials began holding high-level meetings to discuss ways to respond without risking a wider rupture with India, officials said. CIA Director William J. Burns and others have been deployed to confront officials in the Modi government and demand accountability. But the United States has so far imposed no expulsions, sanctions or other penalties.
Even the U.S. criminal case reflects this restraint. Senior officials at the Justice Department and FBI had pushed to prosecute Yadav, officials said, a step that would have implicated RAW in a murder-for-hire conspiracy. But while a U.S. indictment unsealed in November contained the bombshell allegation that the plot was directed by an Indian official, it referred to Yadav as only an unnamed co-conspirator, “CC-1,” and made no mention of the Indian spy agency.
Justice Department officials who took part in the White House deliberations sided against those urging criminal charges against Yadav. Administration officials denied any undue influence. “Charging decisions are the prerogative of law enforcement alone,” said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, “and the Biden NSC has rigorously respected that independence.”
The only U.S. charges made public to date are against an alleged middleman, Nikhil Gupta, who is described in the indictment as an Indian drug and weapons trafficker enlisted to hire a contract killer. Gupta, an Indian national who has denied the charges, was arrested in Prague on June 30 and remains in prison. He is awaiting a Czech court ruling on a U.S. request for his extradition.
Even in recent days, the Biden administration has taken steps to contain the fallout from the assassination plot. White House officials warned the Modi government this month that The Post was close to publishing an investigation that would reveal new details about the case. It did so without notifying The Post.
Laying a trap
For decades, RAW was regarded as a regional player, preoccupied by proxy wars with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. Under Modi, however, RAW has been wielded as a weapon against dissidents in India’s vast global diaspora, according to current and former U.S. and Indian officials.
The U.S. operation shows how RAW tried to export tactics it has used for years in countries neighboring India, officials said, including the use of criminal syndicates for operations it doesn’t want traced to New Delhi. It also exposed what former Indian security officials described as disturbing lapses in judgment and tradecraft.
After the plot against Pannun failed, the decision to entrust Yadav with the high-risk mission sparked recriminations within the agency, former officials said. Rather than joining RAW as a junior officer, Yadav had been brought in midcareer from India’s less prestigious Central Reserve Police Force, said one former official. As a result, the official said, Yadav lacked training and skills needed for an operation that meant going up against sophisticated U.S. counterintelligence capabilities.
Attempts by The Post to locate or contact Yadav were unsuccessful. A former Indian security official said he was transferred back to the Central Reserve Police Force after the Pannun plot unraveled.
The U.S. affidavit describes Yadav as an “associate” of Gupta who procured the alleged drug trafficker’s help by arranging for the dismissal of criminal charges he faced in India. Gupta had a history of collaborating with India’s security services on operations in Afghanistan and other countries, according to a person with knowledge of his background, but he had never been used for jobs in the West.
Petr Slepicka, a lawyer in Prague who represents Gupta, declined to comment on the case except to say that his client denies the charges against him. In court filings in India, Gupta’s family members described him as an innocent “middle-class businessman” whose arrest was a case of mistaken identity. They said he traveled to Prague “for tourism” and to explore new markets for a “handicraft” business, according to the court filings.
Yadav and Gupta spent weeks trading encrypted texts about the plot to kill Pannun, according to a U.S. affidavit filed in support of the request for Gupta’s extradition. To find a willing assassin, Gupta reached out to someone he had been in touch with for at least eight years and understood to be a drug and weapons dealer. In reality, according to the affidavit, the supposed dealer was an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The two were discussing “another potential firearms and narcotics transaction,” according to the affidavit when, on May 30, Gupta abruptly asked “about the possibility of hiring someone to murder a lawyer living in New York.”
From that moment, U.S. agents had an inside but incomplete view of the unfolding conspiracy. They orchestrated Gupta’s introduction to a supposed assassin who was actually an undercover agent, according to court filings. They captured images of cash changing hands in a car in New York City — a $15,000 down payment on a job that was to cost $100,000 when completed.
At one point, the indictment said, U.S. agents even got footage of Gupta turning his camera toward three men “dressed in business attire, sitting around a conference room,” an apparent reference to Indian operatives overseeing the mission. “We are all counting on you,” Gupta told the purported assassin on the video call, according to the indictment.
Yadav indicated that there would be more jobs after Pannun, including one “big target” in Canada. But a separate hit team got to that assignment first, according to the U.S. indictment, suggesting that RAW was working with multiple criminal elements.
Hours after Nijjar was gunned down in his car on June 18 outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, Yadav sent a video clip to Gupta “showing Nijjar’s bloody body slumped in his vehicle,” according to the indictment.
The message arrived as U.S. authorities were laying a trap for Gupta. Seeking to draw him out of India and into a friendly jurisdiction, U.S. agents used their DEA informant to persuade Gupta to travel to the Czech Republic for what he was led to believe would be a clandestine meeting with his American contact, according to officials familiar with the operation.
Gupta arrived in Prague on June 30 — 11 days after Czech authorities, acting at the behest of U.S. officials, had secretly issued an arrest warrant for him.
As he exited Vaclav Havel Airport, Gupta was intercepted by Czech police, who ushered him into a vehicle in which two U.S. federal agents were waiting, according to court filings submitted by Gupta’s family in India. He was questioned for hours while the car meandered around the city. His laptop was seized and his phone held to his face to unlock it, according to the family petition.
Gupta was eventually deposited in Prague’s Pankrac Prison, where he remains awaiting possible extradition. Seeking help, Gupta’s family tried to reach Yadav last year but could find no trace of him, according to a person familiar with the matter. After months of near-constant contact with Gupta, the person said, CC-1 had “disappeared.”
Engaging with the underworld
Though Yadav served as RAW’s point man, current and former officials said the operation involved higher-ranking officials with ties to Modi’s inner circle. Among those suspected of involvement or awareness are Goel and Doval, though U.S. officials said there is no direct evidence so far of their complicity.
As RAW chief at the time, Goel was “under pressure” to neutralize the alleged threat posed by Sikh extremists overseas, said a former Indian security official. Goel reported to Doval, and had ties to the hard-line national security adviser going back decades.
Both had built their reputations in the 1980s, when the country’s security services battled Sikh separatists and Muslim militants. They were part of a generation of security professionals shaped by those conflicts much the way their U.S. counterparts came to be defined by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Doval, 79, has claimed roles in undercover missions from the jungles of Myanmar to the back alleys of Lahore, Pakistan — tales that contributed to his frequent depiction in the press as the “James Bond of India.”
He also exhibited a willingness to engage with the criminal underworld. In 2005, after retiring as head of India’s domestic intelligence service, he was inadvertently detained by Mumbai police while meeting with a reputed gangster. Doval was seeking to enlist one crime boss to assassinate another, according to media reports later confirmed by senior Indian officials.
Before being tapped as national security adviser by Modi in 2014, Doval publicly called for India’s security apparatus to shift from “defense” to “defensive offense” against groups threatening India from other countries, especially Pakistan.
Goel, who was then rising into the senior ranks at RAW, shared Doval’s instincts. Police forces under Goel’s command in the early 1990s were tied to more than 120 cases of alleged extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances or torture, according to a database maintained by Ensaaf, an Indian human rights group based in the United States. Goel was so closely associated with the brutal crackdown that he became an assassination target, according to associates who said he took to traveling in a bulletproof vehicle.
Former Indian officials who know both men said Goel would not have proceeded with assassination plots in North America without the approval of his superior and protector.
“We always had to go to the NSA for clearance for any operations,” said A.S. Dulat, who served as RAW chief in the early 2000s, referring to the national security adviser. Dulat emphasized in an interview with The Post that he did not have inside knowledge of the alleged operations, and that assassinations were not part of RAW’s repertoire during his tenure.
U.S. intelligence agencies have reached a similar conclusion. Given Doval’s reputation and the hierarchical nature of the Indian system, CIA analysts have assessed that Doval probably knew of or approved RAW’s plans to kill Sikhs his government considered terrorists, U.S. officials said.
A fierce crackdown
India’s shift to “defensive offense” was followed by a series of clashes between RAW and Western domestic security services.
In Australia, two RAW officers were expelled in 2020 after authorities broke up what Mike Burgess, head of the Australian intelligence service, described as a “nest of spies.”
Foreign officers were caught monitoring “their country’s diaspora community,” trying to penetrate local police departments and stealing information about sensitive security systems at Australian airports, Burgess said in a 2021 speech. He didn’t name the service, but Australian officials confirmed to The Post that it was RAW.
In Germany, federal police have made arrests in recent years to root out agents RAW had recruited within Sikh communities. Among them, German officials said, were a husband and wife who operated a website purportedly covering local Sikh events but who were secretly on RAW’s payroll.
In Britain, RAW’s surveillance and harassment of the Sikh population — especially a large concentration near Birmingham — became so egregious in 2014 and 2015 that MI5, Britain’s domestic security service, delivered warnings to Goel, who was then serving as RAW’s station chief in London.
When confronted, Goel scoffed at his counterparts and accused them of coddling Sikh activists he said should be considered terrorists, according to current and former British officials. After further run-ins, British authorities threatened to expel him, officials said. Instead, Goel returned to New Delhi and continued to climb RAW’s ranks until, in 2019, he was given the agency’s top job.
RAW’s record of aggressive activity in Britain has fanned suspicion that the agency was involved in the death of Sikh activist Avtar Singh Khanda, who died in Birmingham last year, three days before Nijjar was killed in Canada. British officials have said Khanda suffered from leukemia and died of natural causes, though his family and supporters have continued to press for further investigation.
A U.S. State Department human rights report released this month catalogued India’s alleged engagement in transnational repression. It cited credible accounts of “extraterritorial killing, kidnapping, forced returns or other violence,” as well as “threats, harassment, arbitrary surveillance and coercion” of overseas dissidents and journalists.
RAW’s operations in Western countries during Modi’s tenure have been overwhelmingly aimed at followers of the Sikh religion, especially a minority faction seeking to revive the largely dormant cause of creating a separate state called “Khalistan.”
That movement had peaked in the 1980s, when thousands were killed in violent skirmishes between the Indian government and Sikh insurgents. One brutal sequence beginning in 1984 included an Indian assault on the Sikh religion’s holiest site, the Golden Temple; the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by Sikhs in her security detail; and the bombing of an Air India flight widely attributed to Sikh extremists. A fierce crackdown quashed the insurgency, prompting an exodus of Sikhs to diaspora communities in Canada, the United States and Britain.
As Sikhs settled into their new lives abroad, the Khalistani cause went quiet until a new generation of activists — whose leaders included Pannun and Nijjar — sought to rekindle the movement with unofficial referendums on Sikh statehood and with protests that at times have seemed to glorify violence. A parade in Canada last year included a float depicting Indira Gandhi’s assassination, and Khalistan supporters have stormed and defaced Indian diplomatic facilities in Western cities.
The effort has seemed to gain little traction beyond a minority within the diaspora communit
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