NEW DELHI – Zero Cost Mission is a book by Amar Bhushan, former specialsecretary of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s externalintelligence agency, and a well-known operative, presents fictionalisedaccounts of two covert operations by RAW in Bangladesh after the BegumKhaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) came to power in 1991,DNA has reported.
BNP was seen as having close ties with fundamentalists and the Indiangovernment was alarmed over increased infiltration from terror groups inBangladeshthat could be used to target India.
*Zero Cost Mission*, the first of two stories in the book, is about asurgical strike mounted by RAW to demolish Jamaat-e-Islami terror nurseriesinside Bangladesh. Sujal Rath, the fictional name Bhushan gives to theoperative who helmed the operation in a bid to protect his identity (he isalive) and that of his ‘assets’ inside Bangladesh, was picked by RAW chiefPN Narasimhan for the operation in 1992. He was stationed in Kolkata andhis job was to recruit assets in Bangladesh to bomb Jamaat’s terrortraining camps and the launch pads it had created on the border tofacilitate terrorists’ infiltration.
The operation was cleared by RAW on condition of complete deniability; Rathwas solely responsible for the execution of the plan. While recruitingoperatives, Rath took initiatives to ensure that RAW was insulated in casethe surgical strike went wrong.
However, a few months after it was launched, RAW decided to abort theoperation telling Rath there was a cash crunch. By that time, Rath hadalready recruited some assets in Bangladesh and set in motion the processof procuring explosives and ammunition. He refused to drop the operationand informed the RAW chief that he would raise the funds to complete it.This was unprecedented in RAW’s history.
Rath courted Jamaat’s opponents in Bangladesh, who were looking tostrengthen democracy by weeding out terror elements like it. In late 1992,several Jamaat terror camps were bombed and the safe house in Dhaka thathad been turned into a command centre for Jamaat and other smaller terrorgroups was demolished.
Bhushan’s book also reveals the other, more unsavoury side of the agency –instead of decorating him after the operation was successfullyaccomplished, seniors at RAW headquarters treated him with contempt. Butthe PV Narasimha Rao regime acknowledged the spectacular operation that wasalso India’s first surgical strike.
The second story, Wily Agent, is about a covert mission by RAW’s Dhakastation chief Jeevnathan to recruit and run a high level source in theBangladesh foreign ministry. It is not easy to recruit a top officialabroad and get highly classified notes exposing the government’s futureactions. The source, whom Bhushan calls Rehman, was well-placed to gathersensitive information including Dhaka’s interest in acquiring militaryhardware from Islamabad and how it was planning to corner India on itsrepeated allegations about Bangladesh sponsoring insurgency from itsterritory.
The operation was launched in early 1993 and Rehman provided top secretcables and documents to Jeevnathan that helped the Indian politicalleadership tackle the Zia’s regime antagonism and prevented the country’sembracement by Pakistan and China. Though, Rehman was later caught byBangladesh counter intelligence, Bhushan did not abandon his prized asset,who was carefully extracted.
The narrative, based on first-hand experience, gives the reader a lucidoverview of RAW operations – never before chronicled in Indian intelligencehistory. *Zero Cost Mission* provides finer details of the RAW’s working,raising of ‘assets’ deep inside hostile terrain, and handing of high levelsources in targeted countries. This makes it essential reading for anyoneinterested in the closely guarded inner sanctum of India’s spy agency. – DNA