By Afshain Afzal

The appointment of Syed Asif Ibrahim, an Indian Muslim, as Director Intelligence Bureau (DIB) came as a surprise for many. It is being propagated that New Delhi has finally realized the grievance of the Muslims, who are, indeed, the most deprived and underprivileged community in India. If we recall, after going through recommendations of the Sachar CommitteeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s report, the Indian Prime Minister had announced a 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities. He advised state governments to give special consideration to minorities while recruiting police personnel and that in the same regard, selection committees should have representatives from the minority community. One wonders if New Delhi has really changed its anti-minority and anti-lower caste strategies andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  entered into a new era of reconciliation? Interestingly, today we have Indian Prime Minister and Chief of Indian Army from minority Sikh community while Indian Foreign Minister and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from minority Muslim community. With the addition of appointment of Muslim Chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB) apparently a feather has been added in the cap of India. The question arises, is it really so?

It would interest many that Syed Asif took over from Nehchal Sandhu on his retirement on 31 December 2012. The consideration for Syed Asif came after his nomination by Washington and London. The fact cannot be ignored that Syed Asif’s appointment came after superseding senior officers including R N Gupta, Rajgopal, Yashovardhan Azad and S Jai Raman. If this is the state of affair, there may be some big game against the Muslims linked to the appointment of a Muslim DIB. Irrespective of the allegations or fact by analystsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  who dub Syed Asif as anti Muslim due to his strong links with elements in Qadian and London, his pro-west affiliations are beyond any doubt. Ironically, Syed Asif had been in the forefront to settle elementƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  from a specific sect from Iran and Pakistan in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir state, especially Leh, Ladakh, Kargil and Jammu. Sayed Asif also held position of personal secretary to Indian Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Saeed in 1989. He remained the centre of attraction in the recovery drama of Mufti Saeed’s ‘s daughter Ms Rubaiyya, who was claimed to be kidnapped by Kashmiri Mujahideen. A well chalked out dramaby Indian Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) ended with release ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Mufti Saeed’s ‘s daughter in exchange for release of five imprisoned Mujahideen includingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  their leader, Hamid Sheikh. Later, as a part of plan, the released Mujahideen were killed in a fake encounter.

In we peep into the IB affairs, things are moving too fast. In the name of bigger role in counter-terrorism activities, idea of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) was floated in 2009. The new agency was to be placed under the IB, with operational powers to carryout search, seizure and arrest. Creation of the separate parallel agency with almost similar mandate was resented but the creation of NCTC was materialized. At a later stage, proposal was justified at the highest level to pull out NCTC from the ambit of IB, which will, obviously, reduce its role, responsibilities and effectiveness. For an eyewash, it was reflected that State Intelligence Support Teams (SIST) will not carryout search, seizure and arrests, unless there are exceptional circumstances, which require immediate action. It was decided that NCTC will have a Director of the rank of Special Secretary/Director General of Police (DGP) with a fixed tenure of two years, who will report to the Home Ministry. He will head the NCTC council comprising representatives from all the states with rank equivalent to the DGP. At a later stage, setups of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) will be amalgamated.

In a recent development, NCTC has been excluded from the ambit of IB but the organization will be empowered to utilize the resources of IB in the states. The new arrangement will reduce the powers of IB to such a state that DIB who is a four star police officer with status equivalent to the Indian Army Chief will become mere DGP. Despite opposition from IB for setting up of the NCTC with powers to search, seizure and arrest in the states, it is likely that under western pressure this parallel western setup will be materialized. In fact, NCTC and a number of other organizations would have direct contact with foreign intelligence agencies and would collect foreign funding and work independently. The move is linked with Washington, London and Tel Aviv’s plan to wipe out Hindu religious segment from India so that religious, social and political conversions may take place. There is no doubt that in prevailing Indian society, the only threat to western advances are from religious segment, irrespective of their beliefs i.e. Hinduism, Christianity or Islam. No doubt, there is a big game against the Muslims linked to the appointment of a Muslim DIB. No doubt, the uncalled-for operations against the Hindu groups would be put on the credit of Muslims.

If we recall, on September 24, 2001, President George W. Bush stated, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-We will direct every resource at our command to win the war against terrorists, every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence. We will starve the terrorists of funding.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ To achieve this objective, US Congress worked closely with the Department of the Treasury, along with the Department of Justice and took solids action against financial intermediaries and facilitators who were suspected to infuse terrorist organizations with money, material and support and they were held accountable along with those who perpetrate terrorist acts. It is pertinent to mention here that the campaign was mainly against the Muslims, especially those doubted to have links with religious outfits including Al Qaida and Taliban. Today, New Delhi has joined hands to eliminate their own people in to earn western goodwill and couple of favours including permanent membership in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as well as bigger role in Asia, especially India Ocean Region.

Although WikiLeaks are nothing but a conspiracy of western intelligence agencies against their enemies and adversaries yet for the sake of discussion,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Wikileaks reflected that Hindu organization Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS) is a thousand times more dangerous than the Al-Qaeda. It would be a test for Washington and New Delhi that whether they would take action against RSS, Shiv Sena and all those who are directly and indirectly liked with the assistance to this organization. Confirmed intelligence input says that Shiv Sena working President Uddhav Thackeray had been receiving money from two Mumbai-based industrial houses namely Reliance and Tata Group of Companies. This information is based on the intercepted phone recordings between Tata Group spokeswoman Shalani and Public Relations Corporate chief Nira Radia. We have a precedent that US, UK, India and other countries were in the forefront to ban all organizations, groups and individuals suspected to have anytime helped organizations suspected to be involved in terrorism like Al Qaida, Taliban, Lashkar-e-Tayyiaba and many other religious, political and charitable organizations as well as freeze their bank accounts and assets. One wonders if Washington and New Delhi are really going to take action against so called Indian religious terrorist organizations and their financers including Reliance, Tata Group of companies as well as many other organizations in other countries, including US, having links with these organizations and companies. Let us wait and see if these organizations would be banned and their members hunted for their elimination on the lines followed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. afshainafzal@yahoo.com