Information on Indian intelligence agencies and secret operations is limited. After getting into a meaningless argument with half baked knowledge, I decided to ask some questions to nations best known spy master Maloy Krishna Dhar, who is a former joint director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and author of many spy books.
As per MK Dhar, the secretive Tibetian Special Frontier Force (SFF) still reports to India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). The Cabinet Secretariat does not have direct access to SFF. Cabinet Secretariat has limited financial and administrative control over R&AW and no operational control.
Another of the less known group is the Special Group. Some 500 non-Tibetan commandos of SFF were taken out for special commando action inside the country. They took part in Golden Temple operation (part of Operation Blue Star) in 1984. This special group still exist but has been absorbed by SFF. Some elements have been amalgamated with the National Security Guards (NSG). The NSG was formed with fresh recruits from Central paramilitary forces and the army. Only a minor section of the SG was merged with the NSG. The NSG has two broad sections: Special Rangers Group (for VVIP security) and Special Action Group (for anti-terrorism etc contingencies).
CIT-J was a special operation of the RAW in Punjab against Khalistanis. A group of about 350 SG personnel had helped the police in chasing the terrorists. They also conducted transborder Int and subversive actions. This is not a permanent force. The SG personnel has been absorbed by the parent force, the SFF.
In 1997, the former Indian Prime Minister IK Gujral had stopped some operations inside Pakistan and he stopped the SFF from operating near the border.
The SSB (Special Services Bureaux) was conceived after 1962 war and was placed under IB initially later to RAW for training Indians in border areas to adopt scorched earth policy in case the enemy overran parts of the country. That SSB has now been abolished and elements were merged with the present Special Security Border force. The SSB was used in NE India to fight the insurgents.
CIT-X is an operation against Pakistan involving Mossad and RAW. It is believed that CIT-X is an ongoing operation. A declassified document of RAW as posted on some internet pages claims that Pakistan is being targeted through a covert stratagem titled “CIT ‘X’ Operations”, to be executed through the ‘Dragon Policy’. These Operations were conceived “in retaliation to the alleged unending terrorist pursuits of Pakistan” a year earlier as the “Summer Offensive”. The salient features of CIT “X” operations comprise: Recruiting known international drug and mafia dons and training agents for covert operations in Pakistan. India has denied its existence.
Then there were CAT operations in Punjab which were conducted by the IB/police. It involved utilizing captured terrorists for locating Khalistani hideouts. Some were trained and sent back to Pak for gathering intelligence of training given by the ISI. A good description of the operation is given in MK Dhars book “Black Thunder.”
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can you please share some info or anything regarding citx operations
Nishanth
Bliss to visit my website w w w dot desi dot baba dot com, full of info LOL. Stop sucking your thumb and use your brain, you want classified info to be posted on an open web site?
I do not see it as a good idea to reveal the innermost secrets of India’s security and intelligence apparatus in public.RAW and IB along with other special forces have done a commendable job keeping India safe. Let us wish that these organisations will march forward and make India proud.
But SSB is now known as SASHASTRA SEEMA BAL and used as border force for INDO-NEPAL and INDO-BHUTAN
Butisn’t SSB is now known as SASHASTRA SEEMA BAL and used as border force for INDO-NEPAL and INDO-BHUTAN border areas?
i feel that intelligencs secrets should not be revealed on the internet as it endangers national security and interests
Let our adversaries agencies also earn their pay. Except certain basics details about organization and operations unless more than 30years old should not be revealed on the net.
chacko ji,
why post such articles based on internet reports?
and damage our country’s image ?
are you being paid by aai-ej-aai ?
u dumbo..hw can yu forget Red Devils
Don’t know if this article is part of some dis-info campaign but nothing in this story can be verified independently. No sources are provided about any of these operations other than one retired director. They can say anything and Chacko Joseph can write anything he wants. The truth is still something we won’t know. The RAW is a dangerous organization for a democracy to have. Even the CIA has its checks and balances and its actions are audited by the Senate Intelligence Committee but who audits the activities of RAW ? Who measures its performance ?? A PM can ask the RAW to do anything he wants -kill any judge, kill the opposition leader, smuggle drugs and weapons or do what ever he wants. Who can stop them and who will they turn to if they are ordered to do this kind of stuff ? What code of conduct do they have ? What record is there of their actions officially ? They are essentially the PM’s private goondas. In a democracy such an organization is very dangerous and very undemocratic because they have no checks and balances.
Israel is a very small state and since they don’t have a constitution they can afford to have organizations like Mossad that operate outside the law but India is a nation of 1.21 billion people with a constitution. We cannot have organizations like RAW operating outside the constitution. Especially organizations like RAW that have failed India time and time again and allowed terrorists to attach out cities, attack our Parliament, capture our mountains and for our enemies to harbor and shelter the biggest criminals and terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim and Hafeez Sayeed. We need to follow the CIA model and install a professional External Intelligence agency run by professionals trained from the beginning in intelligence, professionals of the highest caliber not washouts who couldn’t get any other government job, not police officers who think they can play spy. We need intelligence analysts who generate reports, we need brain power not thugs, we need accountability and we need to be able to evaluate the ability and capability of those who are entrusted with our security. We need to place checks so that RAW is not used inside our country for political purposes, we need to make it illegal for RAW to conduct operations inside India. That should be left to the IB .
I cannot thank RAW or recognize their sacrifice because I can’t trust their loyalties and who they work for, the Indian people or the PM ?
Code of Conduct and Intelligence Agencies… Wht. are you talking abt.?
If they go by Code of Conduct the CIA wud not have achieved nothing more than a penny. Dont tell that CIA has not violated any Human Rights in the world including its own country USA.
Bt. u r right regarding Police Officers posted in R&AW.
CIT ‘X’ Operations
I am your man. CIT-X stage 3 on… happy Diwali to all. Watch A-Bombs going off in Pakistan in a few months… will be said to be human error in messing with trigger device during routine safety checks. Time to pay back in full. I wrote that article for reasons as I had too due to some compulsions – too complicated to explain. Just sit back and hold your popcorns… the mushroom cloud is about to be seen. Dont worry abt radiation on our side its low yield. No its not like a Chernobyl event…relax.