India & the Struggle for Tamil Eelam
Pakistan Intelligence Base in Colombo
B.Raman in SAAG, June 2004
Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and
Distinguished Fellow and Convenor, Observer Research Foundation (ORF),
Chennai Chapter.
"Now that the Sri Lankan Government seems to have
confronted India with a fait accompli by agreeing to the appointment of a
die-hard anti- Indian sponsor of terrorism against India (Col.
Wali) as the head of the Pakistani diplomatic mission in Colombo, India has
to carefully analyse the implications of his presence in Colombo and take
the necessary follow-up action. His presence in Colombo will pose a threat
not only to India's national security, but also to stability and law and
order in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province."
[see also the View from China:
Xinhua Report in Chinese People's Daily Online, 15 August 2006
"Indian government strongly condemned terrorist violence in Sri Lanka and
hoped it will not be repeated, said the spokesman of Indian Ministry of
External Affairs on Monday 14 August 2006. "The Government of India has all
along strongly condemned all incidents of terrorist violence and this
incident is no exception. We deplore the targeting of a diplomatic convoy by
terrorist elements and we hope that such terrorist incidents and attacks
would not be repeated," said Navtej Sarna, spokesman of Indian Ministry of
External Affairs. A blast took place in Colombo, Sri Lankan capital, on
Monday, killing seven people, and was said to aim at Pakistani high
commissioner Bashir Wali Mohammed. He narrowly escaped unhurt.]
Part I (12-06-2004)
For its intelligence-collection and covert action operations
directed against India, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
uses four external bases - Kathmandu, Dubai, Bangkok and Colombo.
2. While Kathmandu and Dubai are used by the ISI for intelligence
collection as well as covert actions, Bangkok is used as an
alternate sanctuary and as a clandestine meeting place to brief and
debrief its agents in India. After the Mumbai blasts of March,1993,
the ISI had the perpetrators of the terrorist attack shifted to
Bangkok from Karachi and kept them there for some time in different
hotels in order to prevent the detection of their links with the ISI
by the US diplomatic missions in Pakistan, which were enquiring into
Indian allegations in this regard.
3.Past evidence indicated that the main interest of the ISI in using
Colombo as a base was to collect intelligence about developments in
sensitive Indian nuclear and missile establishments, many of which
are located in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
4. For collecting intelligence about these establishments, the ISI
generally uses Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking Muslims visiting India as
well as South Indians visiting Colombo. Colombo also serves as a
convenient transit point for arranging clandestine visits of Indians
co-operating with the ISI to Karachi by the flights of the Pakistan
International Airlines without any entry of their visits in their
passports.
5. There has been no evidence so far of the ISI using Colombo as a
base for covert actions directed against India. However, the
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) has been showing increasing interest in taking
jihad to the Muslims of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. There
have been persistent reports of the beginning of a radicalisation of
small sections of the Tamil-speaking Muslim youth of the Eastern
Province. During the riots in the Eastern Province in the middle of
2002, pamphlets in the name of a so-called Osama Brigade came to
notice. The Chennai media had reported subsequently that some
members of an organisation called the Muslim Defence Force (MDF)
arrested by the Chennai Police had been in touch with one Abu Hamza
of the LET based in the Gulf and that they were to meet him
clandestinely in Sri Lanka. However, the meeting did not materialise
as Abu Hamza did not come.
6. The LET is very close to the ISI and it would not have taken its
initial moves to explore the possibility of using Sri Lanka as a
clandestine base for its activties and for creating sleeper cells
there without the knowledge and prior clearance of the ISI.
7. The recent investigations into the clandestine nuclear
proliferation activities of A.Q.Khan, the so-called father of the
Pakistan atom bomb, have revealed that Bukhary Seyed Abu Tahir, a
Sri Lankan Tamil Muslim of Indian origin, married in Malysia and
with business interests in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, was one of the
external kingpins of Pakistan's clandestine nuclear procurement
network. In a speech at the National Defence University of
Washington DC in February last, President Bush had described this
Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking Muslim as the "chief financial officer and
money-launderer" of A.Q.Khan's clandestine operations.
8.In the past, the ISI had posted its officers in junior and middle
level clerical posts as well as in diplomatic posts in the Pakistani
High Commission in Colombo.While it had never posted its officers as
the head of the Pakistani diplomatic mission, Hussain Haqqani, a
journalist who was then allegedly close to the ISI, was posted as
the Pakistani High Commissioner to Sri Lanka during the first tenure
of Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister (1990-93).
9. The "Jang", the Urdu daily of Pakistan, has now reported that the
Pervez Musharraf regime has decided to post Col (retd) Bashir Wali,
former Director of the Pakistani Intelligence Bureau (IB), as the
new High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. It is not clear at what stage is
the proposal. Has his name been already sent to the Sri Lankan
Government for agrement? If so, has the Sri Lankan Government given
its consent?
10. The IB is part of Pakistan's Ministry of the Interior. Like its
Indian counterpart, it used to be a largely Police organisation, but
since the days of the late Gen.Zia-ul-Haq, there has been a gradual
militarisation of the organisation. Musharraf has made it for all
practical purposes a wing of the ISI, with Lt.Gen.Ehsan-ul-Haq, the
Director-General of the ISI, exercising powers of supervision and
co-ordination over it.
11. It was reported in the Pakistani media last year that Musharraf
had tried to send Brig. (retd) Ejaz Shah, who used to handle Omar
Sheikh, the accused in the kidnapping and murder case of Daniel
Pearl, the US journalist,in the ISI as the Pakistani High
Commissioner to Australia, but the Australian Government did not
reportedly give its agrement. He then tried to send him as
Ambassador to Indonesia, which also did not give its agrement. It
has recently been reported that he has since been posted to the IB
to supervise operations relating to India.
12. If the "Jang" report is correct, the posting of a former
Director of the IB to Colombo as High Commissioner could have
serious implications for India's national security. The Government
of India should immediately express its concerns to the Sri Lankan
Government and oppose his being based in Colombo.
Part II (18-6-2004)
"The Island", a daily of Sri Lanka, has reported as follows on June
17,2004: "Pakistan with the concurrence of Sri Lanka has appointed
Colonel (retd) Bashir Wali as Islamabad's top envoy here, Sri Lankan
and Pakistan High Commission officials said. "He is expected to take
over the mission before end of this month," an official said."We
don't see any reason to disagree with Pakistan's choice," the
official said, dismissing concerns over the planned appointment
among a section of political analysts in India."
2. For Col. Wali, this would be the second posting in the Pakistani
High Commission in Colombo. He had earlier served as the head of the
Pakistani intelligence set-up in the High Commission in the 1990s
and then as an intelligence officer in the Pakistani High Commission
in London.
3. It was during his previous stay in Colombo that Al Ummah, the
terrorist organisation of Tamil Nadu, expanded its activities in
Tamil Nadu and Kerala and , during his stay in London, the
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) set up secret cells in the UK to recruit
volunteers for its jihadi terrorist operations from amongst the
members of the Muslim community in the UK. This ultimately led to a
ban on the LET by the British Government.
4. It is reported that Col. Wali was and still is an active member
of the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), which acts as the cover organisation of
Pakistani jihadi organisations such as the LET, the
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and
the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and helps them in their recruitment of
cadres not only in Pakistan, but also in other countries of the
world. During his earlier stay in Colombo, he had reportedly sent a
number of Tamil Muslims from the Eastern Province to Karachi to
study in the Binori madrasa on scholarships provided by the TJ.
Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai of this madrasa, who was considered the
mentor and god father of the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Pakistani
jihadi and anti-Shia organisations, was assassinated by unidentified
elements in Karachi on May 30,2004.
5. While in Pakistan, Col. Wali used to attend regularly the annual
conventions of the LET at Muridke, near Lahore, and was also
attached to the Taliban as an adviser for some months in the 1990s.
He was considered a protege of Brig (retd).Imtiaz, who headed the
political division of the ISI during the tenure of the late
Gen.Zia-ul-Haq, and had helped Imtiaz in running the ISI operations
for training the terrorists from India's Punjab in Pakistani
territory and arming them.
6. When Benazir Bhutto came to power in 1988, she sacked Imtiaz, who
was taken by Nawaz, the then Chief Minister of Pakistani Punjab,as
his intelligence adviser. After the sacking of Benazir by the then
President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990, Nawaz, on taking over as the
Prime Minister, appointed Imtiaz as the Director of the IB, a post
which has since been upgraded as Director-General. Imtiaz took Wali
into the IB and made him responsible for assisting the terrorists in
Punjab and J&K. The training of the terrorists from Mumbai,
responsible for the blasts of March,1993, was allegedly organisded
by him on behalf of the ISI in association with Dawood Ibrahim, the
mafia leader, who was designated by the US in October last year as
an international terrorist because of his linkages with Al Qaeda and
the LET.
7. Before the appointment of Wali as the DG of the IB, the "News",
the prestigious daily of Pakistan, wrote on him as follows on
December 23, 2002: " Lady luck seems to have been smiling over the
head of a career intelligence officer Col (retd) Bashir Wali, who is
believed to have delivered half a dozen tribal MNAs to Prime Minster
Jamali for government formation, owing to his present posting as the
deputy director-general of IB Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas
with offices in Rawalpindi.
8."Col (retd) Wali's intelligence career speaks volumes of
controversy as on the one hand he is considered as one of the
controversial intelligence officers, who believed In intrigues,
while on the other there are many who are very fond of his
intelligence 'pursuits' and considered him as an asset for the IB.
Amid these allegations and counter-allegations, Col Wali after
serving the Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
ultimately landed in the IB with the help of Brig (retd) Imtiaz
Billa allegedly in violation of rules and regulations. For quite
some time he was made OSD upon change of the first Nawaz Sharif
government but as soon as Nawaz Sharif returned to power for the
second time, Col Bashir Wali was posted to Sri Lanka over and above
the head of the then DG IB Ch Manzoor Ahmed, who never liked him.
Later on, he managed his posting to London allegedly by influencing
the next DG IB Col (retd) Iqbal Niazi and stayed in London for over
three years before the present DG Maj-Gen Tallat Munir brought him
back after great efforts.
9."Similarly, Col Wali's promotion in 2001 also remained a
questionable issue since his latest ACR was carrying adverse remarks
of the former DG IB Maj-Gen Rafiullah Khan Niazi, at present, posted
as GOC Log Area, Multan. The most amazing aspect of his promotion
was that even the incumbent DG Maj-Gen Tallat Munir, who attended
the board meeting that approved Col Wali's promotion, was not aware
of this fact. Soon after realising that his promotion has been
materialised despite adverse remarks by the former DG IB, Maj Gen
Munir raised the issue with the Establishment Division for
reversion. The reply is still awaited on the part of the
Establishment Division, making the issue more and more complicated.
Even Gen Niazi has reportedly raised the same point with the
incumbent DG Gen Munir.
10."During Nawaz Sharif's second stint, when Saif-ur-Rehman was
playing havoc with the crude intelligence business over the heads of
the then two DGs IB, Ch Manzoor and Col (retd) Iqbal Niazi, through
Col (retd) Mushtaq Tahir Khaili, the political secretary of the then
Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, Col Wali managed to get himself
adjusted with Col Tahir Khaili. The naked interference of Col (retd)
Mushtaq Tahir Khaili in the IB was so prominent that he even
single-handedly managed to obtain orders of the then Prime Minister,
Nawaz Sharif, for the promotions of Col (retd) Bashir Wali and Col
(retd) Hikmatullah Khatak without involving the Establishment
Division and the administration of the IB. These orders had only
been reversed when Ch Manzoor raised the issue with the PM house,
which replied that Nawaz Sharif was under strong impression as the
orders had reached to him after passing through the traditional
channels.
11."Col Wali appears to be an intelligence officer, who is equipped
with the skill to survive despite inviting the wrath of the top men
of the agency and at the same time managing good postings by keeping
goody-goody relations with those who ultimately matter. Neither Ch
Manzoor nor Gen Niazi or the incumbent DG Maj-Gen Munir were fans of
Col Bashir but he successfully sustained the tenure of all these
DGs, which included two serving major-generals.
12."His reported 'liaison' with the Premier (My comments: the
present Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali)) goes back to the
dates when Jamali was the Minister in (late) Gen Zia's cabinet and
Col Wali was serving with an ISI detachment in Peshawar. When Col
Wali was posted in London, he reportedly helped Jamali on certain
occasions, when Jamali landed in London some two years back for
plantation of his elder son's affected liver. This goodwill gesture
on the part of Col Wali earned him the appreciation of Jamali."
(Citation ends)
13.It is not clear whether the Sri Lankan Foreign Office consulted
India before conveying to Islamabad its agrement to the appointment
of the former head of the Pakistani Intelligence Bureau (IB) and a
former senior official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), who
used to co-ordinate the activities of the Pakistani jihadi terrorist
groups in Jammu & Kashmir and other parts of India, as the new
Pakistani High Commissioner in Colombo.
14. If it had, India should not have agreed to his being based in
Colombo, which would pose a threat to our national security.If it
had not, it speaks disturbingly of the insensitivity of the present
Government to India's concerns over likely threats to its security.
It may be recalled that it was the late Indira Gandhi's unhappiness
over the insensitivity of the then Government in Colombo in the
early 1980s to New Delhi's concerns over the security implications
for India of a proposal of the Voice of America (VOA) to expand its
presence in Sri Lanka and another proposal to let out the petrol
storage tanks of Trincomallee to a Singapore firm with suspected
links to the USA's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which was one
the factors that contributed to her decision to help the Sri Lankan
Tamils, whom she viewed then as the natural allies of India, in
achieving their aspirations.
15. Now that the Sri Lankan Government seems to have confronted
India with a fait accompli by agreeing to the appointment of a
die-hard anti- Indian sponsor of terrorism against India as the head
of the Pakistani diplomatic mission in Colombo, India has to
carefully analyse the implications of his presence in Colombo and
take the necessary follow-up action. His presence in Colombo will
pose a threat not only to India's national security, but also to
stability and law and order in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province.
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