KGB and Sikhs

The World Was Going Our Way (The KGB and the Battle for the 3rd Word), page 336 Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin2005

One of the main aims of the KGB’s active measures in the early 1980s was to manufacture evidence that the CIA and Pakistan intelligence was behind the growth of Sikh separatism in Punjab. In the autumn of 1981’s ‘Service A’ large operation, KONTAKT was based on a forged document purporting to contain details of the weapons and money provided by Pakistan ISI to the militants seeking to bring about the creation of an independent Sikh state of Khalistan. In November, the forgery was passed to a senior Indian diplomat in Islamabad, shortly after what Islamabad the residency reported to the center that, according to agents’ reports, the level of anxiety in the Indian Embassy about Pakistan’s support for Sikh separatists indicated that KONTAKT had the alarming fact that ‘Service A’ had hoped for.

In the spring of 1982, the New Delhi lead agency reported that agent ‘S’ had direct access to Mrs. Gandhi and had personally presented to her another forged ISI document fabricated by ‘Service A’, which purported to demonstrate Pakistani involvement in the Khalistan conspiracy.

Shortly after succeeding Brezhnev as Soviet leader in November 1982, Yuri Andropov approved a proposal by Kryuchkov to fabricate a further Pakistani ISI document detailing the ISI plan to foment religious disturbances in Punjab and promote the creation of Khalistan as an independent Sikh state.

During his visit to Moscow, Rajiv Gandhi was persuaded by his hosts that the CIA was engaged in serious submersion in the Punjab, where Sikh separatism now posed the most serious challenge to the Congress government. He declared on his return that there was definite interference from the USA in the Punjab situation. Mrs. Gandhi was shot dead by 2 Sikh guards in the garden of her house. Predictably, some conspiracy theorists were related to argue that the guards had been working for the CIA.

India is immensely profiting from Russia’s war with Ukraine. Russia has enabled India to buy cheap Russian oil at less than half the prewar prices and considerably below the $60 Set by the West. Consequently, oil imports from Russia to India have increased by about 1.5 million barrels a day compared to the earlier 68,000 barrels. Indian government is estimated to have reduced its oil import bill by $3.5 billion. Prices of oil and gas in India have not been reduced. All the windfall profits are being pocketed by the government and private refiners, who are even exporting the finished product to other countries! (About 60% of the country’s refining capacity is with private plays like Ambaniss.) The profits are simply blood money, and as a Ukrainian minister said sometime back. By assuring operation revenues, India is also helping to prolong the war and the suffering of the Ukrainian people.