Pakistan Releases Indian RAW Agent Kulbushan Yadav's Confessional Video

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan has released a confessional video in which an arrested Indian spy is heard admitting to New Delhi's involvement in terrorist activities in the Pakistan's province of Balochistan and the megacity of Karachi.

Kulbushan Yadav's Fake ID as Hussein Mubarak Patel

Serving Indian Navy commander Kulbushan Yadav says in the video that he had been directing various Indian intelligence operations in Karachi and Balochistan "at the behest of RAW", the Indian intelligence agency, and that he was still with the Indian Navy. It should be noted that India is on record as strongly opposing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project.

Yadav added that he had played a key role in inciting chaos and terror in Karachi. In interrogations done by the London Police, some top MQM leaders have confirmed receiving support from India's RAW for their criminal activities in Karachi.

Scotland Yard Police Document on MQM-RAW Link

Pakistani law enforcement agencies arrested Yadav in an intelligence-based raid in Balochistan's Chaman near the border with Afghanistan last week. Before writing and promoting an anti-Pakistan book in India, American analyst and author Christine Fair said this in 2009: "Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan". 


 The video was released at a press conference attended by Pakistan Army spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa of ISPR (Inter-Services Press Relations) and Federal Information Minister Pervez Rashid.

Calling Yadav's arrest a "big achievement", Bajwa said Yadav was directly in contact with top RAW officials. "His goal was to disrupt development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with Gwadar port as a special target," Bajwa said.

"This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism... There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan."

Yadav is heard saying in the video that he was still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and would be due for retirement in 2022.

"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. Having done some basic assignments within India for RAW, I was picked up by RAW in 2013 end," Yadav said.

Yadav said his purpose was to remain in direct contact with Baloch insurgents and carry out "activities with their collaboration".


He held a valid Indian passport and Iranian visa.

India has denied Yadav was an intelligence operative and said he was formerly from the navy. New Delhi has also demanded consular access to Yadav, which has been denied.

 Yadav was moved to Islamabad for interrogation, during which an unnamed official said the spy revealed he had bought boats at the Iranian port in Chabahar to attack Karachi and Gwadar ports, Dawn reported.

India's intelligence agency RAW has a long history of sponsoring covert wars in Pakistan. Ex Indian spy R.K. Yadav has documented some of RAW's past successes in Pakistan stretching back to 1960s.

Ex US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has confirmed based on US intelligence reports that "India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan".   


Since 2013, India's current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has been talking about "Pakistan's vulnerabilities" to terrorism and India's ability to ta....  The latest arrest of Indian agent Kulbhushan Yadav is confirmation of the Doval Doctrine against Pakistan in action. 

Here's Yadav's Confessional video:

https://youtu.be/0auEKYECyUM




https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x40nno0_indian-raw-agent-kulbhush...



Indian RAW agent Kulbhushan Yadav's confession by khalidkhan787

Here's a discussion on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHgkHscv0IA&feature=youtu.be




Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Has Modi Stepped Up India's Covert War in Pakistan?

Ex India Spy Documents Successful RAW Ops in Pakistan

London Police Document Confirms MQM-RAW Connection Testimony

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Ajit Doval Lecture on "How to Tackle Pakistan" 

[Riaz Haq]

Full Transcript of #India's #RAW agent Kulbhushan's confessional statement given in #Pakistan http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/world/287445-transcript-of-raw-ag... …

"My name is Commander Kulbhushan Yadav and I am the serving officer of Indian Navy. I am from the cadre of engineering department of Indian Navy and my cover name was Hussein Mubarik Patel, which I had taken for doing some intelligence gathering for the Indian agencies.

"I joined the National Defence Academy in 1987 and subsequently joined Indian Navy on January 1991 and subsequently served for the Indian Navy till around December 2001 when the Parliament attack occurred and that is when I started contributing my services towards the gathering of information and intelligence within India.

"I live in the city of Mumbai in India. I am still the serving officer in the Indian Navy and will be due for retirement by 2022 as a commissioned officer in Indian Navy after having completed 14 years of service by 2002.

"I commenced intelligence operation in 2003 and established 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 RAW in 2013 end. Ever since I have been directing various activities in Balochistan and Karachi at the behest of RAW and deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi, I was basically the man for Mr Ani Kumar Gupta who is the joint secretary RAW and his contacts in Pakistan especially in Balochistan Student Organization.

"My purpose was to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration.

"These activities have been of criminal nature. This have been of anti-national, terrorists leading into the killing of or maiming the Pakistani citizens also.

"I realize during this process that RAW is involved in some activities related to the Baloch liberation movement within Pakistan and the region around it.

"There are finances which are fed into Baloch movement through various contacts or various ways and means into the Baloch liberation (movement) and various activities of the Baloch liberation and the RAW handlers go towards activities which are criminal, which are anti-national, which can lead to maiming or killing of people within Pakistan and mostly these activities were centered around of what I have knowledge is of ports of Gwadar, Pasni Jewani and various other installations, which are around the coast damaging various other installations, which are in Balochistan.

"So the activity seems to be revolving trying to create a criminal sort of mindset within the Baloch liberation and leads to instability within Pakistan. In my pursuit towards achieving the set targets by my handlers in RAW, I was trying to cross over into Pakistan from the Saravan border in Iran on March 3, 2016 and was apprehended by the Pakistani authorities while on the Pakistani side and the main aim of this crossing over into Pakistan was to hold (a) meeting with the Baloch separatists in Balochistan for carrying out various activities, which they were supposed to undertake and carrying backwards the messages which had to deliver to the Indian agencies.

"The main issues regarding this were that they were planning to conduct some operations within the next immediate (near) future so that was to be discussed mainly and that was the main aim of trying to coming into Pakistan.

"So that moment I realized that my intelligence operations have been compromised on my being detained in Pakistan, I revealed that I am an Indian naval officer, and it is on mentioning that I am Indian naval officer, the total perception of the establishment of the Pakistani side changed and they treated me very honorably and they did utmost respect and due regards and have handled me subsequently on a more professional and proper courteous way and they have handled me in a way that befits that of an officer and once I realized that I have been compromised in my process of intelligence operations, I decided to just end the mess I have landed myself in and just wanted to subsequently move on and cooperate with the authorities in removing the complications which I have landed myself and my family members into, and whatever I am stating just now, it is the truth and it is not under any duress or pressure.

I am doing it totally out of my own desire to mention and come clean out of this entire process which I have gone through last 14 years."

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan Releases Video of #India Officer Admitting Sponsoring, Orchestrating #terrorism, #separatist movements http://nyti.ms/22MfB97 
Civilian and military leaders in Pakistan accused India on Tuesday of sponsoring and orchestrating terrorism and separatist movements, presenting what they said was clear evidence: a video confession.

Pakistani officials say they arrested Kulbhushan Yadav, an officer in the Indian Navy, this month in Baluchistan, a mineral-rich province in southwestern Pakistan where an insurgency has simmered for years. Officials in Pakistan have accused India of fanning separatist sentiment there.

The information minister in Pakistan, Pervaiz Rasheed, and Lt. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa, the military spokesman, released a six-minute video of Mr. Yadav at a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, the capital. “It is very rare that a country’s intelligence officer is caught in another country,” Lt. Gen. Bajwa told reporters. “It is a big achievement.”

The timing of the release of the video on Tuesday was notable. It came on the same day that a Pakistani team of investigators was visiting Pathankot in India, the site of a terrorist attack in January that India says was the work of gunmen from Pakistan.

Referring to the video, General Bajwa said, “There can be no clearer evidence of Indian interference in Pakistan,” and added that Mr. Yadav’s activities were “nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism.”

In the video, Mr. Yadav appears relaxed as he acknowledges carrying out a long list of operations in Baluchistan and in Karachi, the major southern port. Mr. Yadav is heard to say that he is a naval officer, with six years to go before retirement, and that he was enlisted in 2013 to join RAW, the Indian intelligence agency. Since then, he said, he has been involved in a variety of activities meant to destabilize Pakistan.

India has denied that Mr. Yadav is an intelligence operative.

General Bajwa said Mr. Yadav told the Pakistanis to use a code phrase in communicating with the Indian authorities, to demonstrate to them who it was that they had captured. The phrase, the general said, was “Your monkey is with us.”

[Riaz Haq]

Vanished RAW Spies by Ranjit Bhushan Outlook India 2004

The wheel has come full circle at the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Already reeling under the impact of the Rabinder Singh episode—the senior RAW officer is suspected to have defected to the US—there may be more skeletons tumbling out now at India's premier spy agency. For the first time, the firm has admitted that eight of its key operatives have gone missing—almost all while on critical assignments outside the country— since the agency's creation in the late '60s. Rabinder is the ninth such known man on the defectors' list (accessed by Outlook). 

The file with the names is now on the desk of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Most of the cases go back a few decades but some names are likely to cause deep embarrassment in the spy community. Most of these operatives disappeared while on posting, relocating themselves to countries in North America and West Europe under assumed names and false passports. A number of them, it now turns out, were well-guarded 'assets' in the hands of foreign agencies, a euphemism for double agents, and are now green card holders in the United States or UK citizens. 

Now with the Rabinder Singh episode opening up a can of worms, RAW has been forced into damage control mode. Last fortnight, the PM ordered the file detailing the missing ex-RAW sleuths to be put up before him. Incidentally, that's when intelligence officials sought to make a differentiation between those who had settled down in the US or UK after retirement—and coincidentally there are scores of them—and those who disappeared without a trace with important confidential documents and information. The list of nine belongs to the latter category.

Prominent among the names is Sikandar Lal Malik, personal assistant of RAW founder and superspy, Ramnath Kao. Malik, say RAW sources, was privy to the top-secret decisions taken by Kao during the tumultuous early '70s, including the plan to "liberate" Bangladesh. On a US posting, Malik disappeared one fine morning and is presumed to be living somewhere in that country now. His defection was a closely guarded secret for many years and is only now being acknowledged as a 'blow' to the agency's reputation.

According to sources, it took the agency several years to assess the damage caused: Malik had crucial information because most of Kao's highly secret correspondence was handled by him. For foreign agencies, which otherwise had little access to Kao, the 'winning over' of Malik was a coup. This, because with Malik went a treasure trove of classified information, which may not have been known to anyone other than Kao himself and his boss, the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi.

Other operatives on the missing list:

M.S. Sehgal, a senior field officer close to former RAW chief Girish Saxena. Disappeared while posted as attache in London in 1980.

N.Y. Bhaskar, a former attache in Tokyo, managed a green card; was supposed to be liaisoning with the cia. Later, disappeared without a trace in the US.

B.R. Bachhar, senior field officer, disappeared in London. As attache in Kathmandu, he was liaisoning with foreign intelligence agencies in the early '80s.

Major R.S. Soni, an undersecretary in RAW on the Pakistan desk at HQ, is believed to have escaped to Canada in the early '80s. Three months after escape, salary was still being deposited in his account.

Shamsher Singh Maharajkumar, an ex-IPS officer posted in Islamabad, Bangkok and Canada. Reportedly settled in Canada after retirement. He's related to the royal family of Nabha in Punjab.


http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/the-vanished-spies/224695

[Riaz Haq]

Indian Express story on Kulbhushan Yadav:

Facts pieced together by The Indian Express show no evidence Jadhav worked for Indian intelligence services, but raises intriguing questions about how he ended up in Iran in the first place. In November 2003, Jadhav obtained a passport (E6934766) from Pune, identifying him by the pseudonym Hussein Mubarak Patel.

Born in 1968 (according to the passport), Jadhav joined the National Defence Academy in 1987, and was commissioned as a Naval engineer in 1990. According to colleagues, he rose to the rank of Commander after 14 years of service — one more than is the norm.
But within months of his passport being issued in Pune, Jadhav ended up in the Chabahar free trade zone, then a hub of Indian hopes to set up a transit route into Afghanistan and Iran. He told his family he was setting up a business to service trawlers and ferries operating out of the port, said friends.

To two friends in the Navy, who declined to identified, Jadhav gave varying accounts of why he had left the service. To one, he dropped broad hints of being involved in government-linked activity. “He never showed up at the usual reunion kind of things. He’d pretty much disappeared,” said one friend.
The address given to obtain his passport — the Martand Co-operative Housing Society in the Sai Vishwa area of Pune suburb Bavdhan — is incomplete. The records do not even state which apartment Jadhav may have occupied in the three-building complex.
Vijay Deshmukh, secretary of the building society, said records show no apartment was owned by anyone with the surnames Jadhav or Patel. None of the residents recognised Jadhav from a photogrtaph shown to them.
However, Deshmukh said, “In the past, the norms of registration of tenants with police were not as stringent as they are these days.”
Electronic tags on the Pune passport office’s computer system show an earlier passport was held by Husein Mubarak Patel but there were no details of the address this document was issued for since it was done before computerised records were introduced. “It’s a common method to pick up a fake identity. The fact that there is an earlier passport with valid visas makes getting new ones that much easier,” said a Delhi Police officer.
“But I can’t think why an intelligence officer should have gone through this subterfuge to obtain a pseudonymous passport. Let’s put it this way: there are systems in place to handle this kind of thing,” said a former RAW officer.
Little is known of Jadhav’s life in Iran — there are no records and his family has declined to publicly discuss details of his business or life. Government sources say he owned a small cargo-shipping business and dealt in scrap metal. The embassy in Tehran also had no contact with him, said sources.
“There’s a lot of people-trafficking through Chabahar with traffickers routing migrants from India and Pakistan seeking to go west,” said an Indian businessman based there.
Like many border zones, Chabahar is also a listening post for intelligence services, including R&AW, where information is sold on everything from shipping and construction activity to trafficking.
In 2014, Jadhav obtained the passport he was eventually arrested with in Pakistan, L9630722, issued in Thane. This time, he identified himself as a resident of the Jasdanwala Complex on the old Mumbai-Pune road cutting through Navi Mumbai. The flat, municipal records show, was owned by his mother Avanti Jadhav.
This time, he made no effort to conceal his identity. “He came just once every few years but would talk to everyone,” said a salesman at a bike shop on the ground floor. To one resident, who asked about his excellent Marathi, he claimed to be a Muslim businessman born in Satara. Building society chairman, S Bhoir, said Avanti Avanti Jadhav told him he “was a close family friend.”

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/pakistans-s... 

[Riaz Haq]

“I Think #Pathankot Was Assisted By A (Drug-smuggling) Sleeper Cell.” Ex DGP Sashikant Sharma. #Drugs #Punjab #India http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/i-think-pathankot-was-as... …

It is said no one knows more about Punjab’s nefarious drug smuggler-politician nexus than Shashikant Sharma, a retired DGP of Punjab Police and now an anti-drug crusader. He claims that as the head of the int­elligence wing of the state police, he had in 2007 compiled a list of prominent Punjab politicians and police officers involved in the trade. The mysterious list has never been revealed by the government, despite persistent prodding by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Among the clutch of petitions currently being heard by the court on Punjab’s drug problem, one even seeks Sharma’s custodial interrogation to make him reveal what he knows. Now that cross-border narco-terrorism, with the alle­ged involvement of bent police officers, is in focus after the attack on the Pathankot air force base, Sharma speaks to Chander Suta Dogra about his crusade to expose those at the top and where it has led him.
The Pathankot attack has once again brought the focus on the drug smuggler-police nexus, particularly as the role of Salwinder Singh, the SP in Gurdaspur, is under a cloud. What is your gut feeling about the alleged involvement of police officials in the episode?
To explain this, allow me to go back to the mid-1980s, when present-day drug barons and cross-border smugglers were busy changing their business from gold to heroin. Gold smuggling was becoming less lucrative and heroin was the new thing coming in from Pakistan for onw­ard transmission through Punjab. Margins were attractive and parallely arms and explosives also began coming in. This was also the beginning of sleeper cells of terrorist groups. Their task was to hide the incoming arms in safehouses along the borders. In time, these cells began safe­-keeping drugs during the ‘cooling period’ after the crossover.

When I began investigating these matters in 2007, we found the drug business to be well-layered, with politicians at the top giving protection. My team also learnt that some were running the business directly with the help of gang members. The next was the layer of sleeper cells hiding consignments. Another layer followed, consisting of personnel from the security forces, including police, which helped them both to cross in and in onward transportation. These were usually middle and mid-lower segments of security forces. And then came the safehouses and an entire chain of couriers who took drugs to rendezvous and shipping-out points. This modus operandi still exists. Given this background, which I know like the back of my hand, I’m not surprised at the Dinanagar or Pathankot attacks. These sleeper cells are entr­en­ched not only along the borders but all over the country. I think the Pathankot attack was assisted by one such cell.

[Riaz Haq]

The Indian Spy
Who Fell for Tibet
Sent by Britain to carry out a secret survey,
Sarat Chandra Das became enchanted instead.

Among the pundits, Das stood out, a scholar who offered his services as a spy in order to pursue his academic interests. It was as if James Bond volunteered to hunt down Blofeld, booking his own flights and hotels, all to improve his Japanese. Das persuaded his assistant, a lama named Ugyen Gyatso, to visit the Tashilhunpo monastery, in south-central Tibet, and talk him up as a theology student. The monastery’s prime minister was keen to learn Hindi, so Ugyen Gyatso, promising that Das was a fine tutor, wangled a passport for him. Presented with this document, Indian officials, now enthusiastic, gave Das indefinite leave and a crash course in spycraft. During his first trip, to Tashilhunpo in 1879, he studied Tibetan customs and so impressed the prime minister that he was invited back. In November 1881, Das returned, the vision of Lhasa glimmering before him.

The two reports Das wrote about his second, 14-month journey were kept confidential until the 1890s and then published, with severe redactions, in small print runs. In 1902, they were compiled into a book, ‘‘Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.’’ The opening pages are tough going, brimming with place names: ‘‘On ascending about 3,000 feet above the Kalai valley, we enjoyed distant views of Pema-yangtse, Yantang, Hi, Sakyang, and other villages.’’ Still, all this was valuable information. In those days, so little was known that even the most quotidian details — the appearance of houses, the location of a pasture — shone with significance.
------
In the end, Das lingers in Lhasa for only two weeks and returns, via Tashilhunpo, to Darjeeling. In a sense, though, he never leaves Tibet. He names his house Lhasa Villa, and he spends the remainder of his life translating Tibetan texts, compiling a Tibetan-English dictionary, thinking incessantly about the land he left behind.

The epilogue mars the tale. After the nature of Das’s trip was discovered, the Chinese persecuted anyone who assisted him. Tashilhunpo’s prime minister was murdered, his body thrown into a river. In 1903-4, a British expedition finally broke into Lhasa, and soldiers freed a former official, imprisoned for 20 years for helping Das. The old man, The North China Herald reported, blinked ‘‘at the unaccountable light like a blind man whose sight had been miraculously restored.’’ The analogy is impossible to miss: Tibet, too, had been released from China’s iron fist into the light. But much of this was ephemeral. Half a century later, China snatched Tibet back into its orbit; the Dalai Lama fled into exile. Only Das’s beloved Lhasa endures, the gleaming white walls of Potala still draped over their outcrop of rock like fresh snow upon a mountaintop.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/the-indian-spy-who-fell-...

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif says #India intelligence #RAW waging covert war to stop #CPEC. #China

http://www.voanews.com/content/pakistan-accuses-india-plotting-agai...


GWADAR, PAKISTAN—
Pakistan's military chief on Tuesday accused India's intelligence agency of planning subversive activities against his country's recently launched multi-billion-dollar economic cooperation agreement with China.

"I must highlight that India, our immediate neighbor, has openly challenged this development initiative," army chief General Raheel Sharif told a conference in the port city of Gwadar.

The newly built port in southwestern Baluchistan province is central to the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, which is a package of railroads, highways, pipelines and power plants estimated to cost $46 billion.

Sharif said "hostile intelligence agencies" are averse to this grand project, but that Pakistan is determined to protect and develop the CPEC, connecting western China to the Arabian Sea.

"I would like to make a special reference to Indian Intelligence Agency RAW [Research and Analysis Wing] that is blatantly involved in destabilizing Pakistan,” the general asserted.

History of suspicion

Pakistan has long accused India of training and funding separatist militants waging a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan.

Last month, Pakistani authorities announced they captured a suspected Indian spy in Baluchistan, identified as Kulbhushan Jadhav. The military also aired video footage of Jadhav saying he was working out of his base in Chabahar in neighboring Iran.

New Delhi has confirmed that Jadhav is a former Indian navy officer, but denied he has anything to do with RAW, saying he had taken early retirement from the military. It also rejected the video confession of Jadhav as induced by torture.

India says it has sought consular access to its detained national, but Pakistan has not yet responded.

Sharif described CPEC as a corridor of peace and prosperity, not only for the people of Pakistan and China, but also for the region and beyond.

"Therefore, it is important for all to leave behind confrontation, and focus on cooperation," he added.

[Riaz Haq]

#India's #RAW runs special cell to sabotage #CPEC, says #Pakistan Def Secretary. #Afghan NDS #RAW's partner. #China

http://www.dawn.com/news/1251860

Indian intelligence agency RAW has established a special cell at its Head Quarters in New Delhi to sabotage China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and the plan is executed via Afghanistan, said Secretary Defence Gen (retd) Alam Khattak on Wednesday.

“RAW and Afghan NDS have launched joint secret operations against Pakistan by using three Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar e Sharif,” said secretary defence.

“The three consulates in Afghanistan are providing weapons, money, training and other logistical support to agents for subversive activities in FATA, Balochistan and Karachi,” added Khattak.

Read: RAW involved in destabilising Pakistan, says General Raheel

Secretary defence, flanked by senior defence officials, was briefing Senate defence committee which met at Parliament House earlier today.

RAW has also set-up a cell at NDS HQ in Kabul for coordinating anti-Pakistan activities, said Khattak.

Referring to the recent arrest of Kulbushan Jadhav, a deep cover RAW operative arrested from Balochistan, the secretary defence elaborated that his entire network has been dismantled by Pakistani security agencies.

Khattak, also shed light on Coalition Support Fund (CSF) and its disbursement since 9/11. He explained to the committee that 40 per cent of the amount received was allocated to civil government while 60pc was given to the armed forces.

Pakistan received $13 billion under CSF since 9/11, and another $200 million is due to be given by the United States.

"CSF is going to be closed on September 30, 2016", said Khattak

Earlier, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, speaking at the Peace and Prosperity seminar in Balochistan, said Indian intelligence agency RAW is actively involved in destabilising Pakistan.

“Hostile intelligence agencies are averse to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” said the chief of army staff.

Jadhav's arrest
Law enforcement agencies announced the arrest of Jadhav during an intelligence-based raid in Balochistan's Chaman 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 Jadhav, establishing him as an Indian spy who entered into Balochistan through Iran — holding a valid Iranian visa.

Jadhav 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.

Also read: Jadhav's phone calls to family in Marathi gave him away: report

After Jadhav'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.

[Riaz Haq]

#Iran's Rouhani lauds #India role in #Chabahar plan http://presstv.com//Detail/2016/04/17/461274/Rouhani-lauds-India-ro... …

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that the development of the country’s southeastern port of Chabahar will help connect India with Central Asia and will mark a new chapter in relations between Tehran and New Delhi.

Rouhani, in a meeting with the visiting Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, emphasized that the expansion of relations with India in various areas will benefit the whole region.

He said Iran and India have significant commonalities that they can exploit to develop their capabilities in various areas.

Rouhani further said that the economies of Iran and India complement each other, adding that Iran can satisfy India’s energy needs and thus help the Indian expanding economy.

The Indian foreign minister for her part said New Delhi wants to promote relations with Iran in all areas.

Swaraj said the strong bonds between Iran and India can help the enhancement of their political and economic relations.

She emphasized that New Delhi is determined to cement a mutually-beneficial relationship with Tehran. For that to happen, the Indian minister said, relations between the two countries should be defined beyond merely trade ties.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Swaraj said that there is a wide variety of areas in which India can invest in Iran, adding that the development of Chabahar port is only one of them.

She said the project – once fully developed – can benefit not only Iran and India but also the whole region.

Chabahar is located in the Gulf of Oman on the border with Pakistan. It is the closest and best access point of Iran to the Indian Ocean and Iran has devised serious plans to turn it into a transit hub for immediate access to markets in the northern part of the Indian Ocean and Central Asia.

In May 2014, India and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly develop the port once the international sanctions against Iran were lifted. Both sides agreed as per the MoU to allow India lease two docks at the port for a period of 10 years, a move that was meant to cut India's crude oil and urea transportation costs by around 30 percent.

India is also relying on the prospects of establishing rail links from Chabahar to Afghanistan and thereon to Central Asia.

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan, #China to launch remote sensing satellite to monitor #CPEC projects - #SUPARCO #CGWIC The Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/pak...


Pakistan and China have signed an agreement for the launch of a special satellite to monitor the development of the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. 

Minister for Planning, Development and Reform, Ahsan Iqbal on behalf of Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and China Great Wall Industry Cooperation (CGWIC) President Yin Limping signed the agreement here yesterday. 

The two sides agreed for the development and launch of the 'Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS-1) System' and in this regard launch a satellite in June 2018, Dawn reported. 

Speaking on the occasion, Iqbal said that bilateral cooperation between the two countries in space domain would open new vistas of socio-economic and scientific cooperation, giving boost to the historic bilateral cordial relations in other fields. 

Space technology is fundamental in socio-economic development, infrastructure upgradation, agriculture production, urban planning in new age, he added. 

The minister said that the agreement would also transfer space technology to Pakistan and the PRSS-1 is yet another flagship project between China-Pakistan relations after CPEC. 

It would go a long way to redefine the bilateral relations, he said. 

The new project would also help Pakistan in national security arena by strengthening border security and surveillance apparatus, Iqbal said. 

The CPEC is a $46 billion project launched with the help of China to connect western China to southern Pakistan's port city of Gawadar, giving Beijing an opening to the Arabian Sea. 

India has been protesting the corridor's passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir ever since the project was kicked off by President Xi Jinping during his visit to Islamabad last year.