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Ravindra Kaushik (1952–2001) was a former RAW agent who was caught and jailed in Pakistan where he eventually died.
Early life
Ravinder Kaushik was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on April 11, 1952. He was a famous theater artist and displayed his talent at the national level dramatic meet in Lucknow, which was witnessed by some officials of the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW. He was contacted and offered a job for being an undercover agent of India in Pakistan. At the age of 23,[1] he was sent to Pakistan on a mission.[5][6]
In Pakistan
Ravinder Kaushik was recruited by RAW and was given extensive training in Delhi for two years. Circumcision was performed on him to show him as a Muslim. He was taught Urdu, given religious education and acquainted with the topography and other details about Pakistan. Being from Punjab-speaking Sri Ganganager, he was well versed in the language which is spoken in major part of Pakistan.[4]
In 1975[1] he was sent to Pakistan and given the name Nabi Ahmed Shakir. He was successful in getting admission in Karachi University and completed his LLB. He joined Pakistan Army and became a commissioned officer and later was promoted to the rank of a Major. He married a local girl Amanat, and became father of a girl.[4]
From 1979 to 1983, while in military service, he passed on valuable information to RAW which was of great help to the Indian defence forces.
He was given the title of 'Black Tiger' by India's then home minister S.B. Chavan.[2] Some testify that the title was conferred by then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
He spent 26 years of his life away from his home and family in Pakistan in very unfavourable conditions.
During War
Using the secret information provided by Ravinder Kaushik, India formulated a strategy that was always one step ahead of Pakistan's and checkmated it's war plans. On many occasions Pakistan prepared to wage war across the borders of Rajasthan in India, but they were foiled due to the timely advance warning given by Ravinder Kaushik, as he was a senior military officer in Pakistan by now and had access to top secret information.
Death and aftermath
In September 1983, Indian intelligence agencies had sent an agent, Inyat Masiha, to get in touch with Black Tiger. But the agent was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and revealed Ravinder Kaushik's true identity.[1]
Kaushik was then captured, tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot. Ravinder was awarded death sentence in the year 1985. His sentence was later commuted to a life term by the Pakistan Supreme court.[4]
Kaushik was kept in various jails, including Sialkot, Kot Lakhpat and in Mianwali jail for 16 years, where he contracted Asthma and TB. He managed to secretly send letters to his family in India, which revealed his poor health condition and the trauma faced by him in Pakistani jails.[3]
In one of his letters he wrote,
"Kya Bharat jaise bade desh ke liye kurbani dene waalon ko yahi milta hai?" (Is this the reward a person gets for sacrificing his life for India?)[3]
On 21 November 2001, he succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis and heart disease in New Central Jail Multan. He was buried behind that jail.[1]
Ravindra's family claimed that the story line of the famous Bollywood flick "Ek Tha Tiger" released in the year 2012 was based on the life of Ravindra & asked for the credit in the movie titles for Ravindra.
India’s forgotten spy
- Agent’s family fights an impossible battle
Nabi Ahmed would have been a senior officer in the Pakistani Army now, saving the lives of Indian soldiers.
But Ahmed — agent Ravindra Kaushik to the Indian security establishment — died a miserable death last year in a Pakistani jail after a searing chapter in India’s espionage history went awry.
Kaushik had been cruising along fine on Mission Pakistan, penetrating deep and reaching the heart of the enemy establishment — the army — as a resident agent of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and doing “commendable” service as “a spy sitting in a right place in enemy land”. Till Inyat Masiha, an operative sent by RAW to contact Kaushik in September 1983, inadvertently blew the agent’s cover.
Kaushik was then captured, tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot, dumped in Mianwali jail for another 16 and left to die. In November 2001, Kaushik succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis and heart disease.
A year after Kaushik died unsung on alien soil, his Jaipur-based family is on a mission: they want India to acknowledge and recognise the sacrifice Kaushik has made for his country.
“We don’t want money. What we want from the government is recognition of the contribution by agents as they are the real foundation of the security system,” said Kaushik’s brother, R.N. Kaushik.
“If the government can honour people in uniform, why hesitate about undercover operatives?” he asked, calling for a government policy to recognise the work intelligence agents do.
It is an appeal few governments will be able to accept. Governments rarely recognise in public secret agents – the “faceless” personnel of the security apparatus. Not only that, it is a common practice to disown spies caught in a foreign country.
Kaushik joined RAW in 1975 as a 23-year-old after graduating from Sriganganagar in Rajasthan. Trained to act as a “resident agent”, he went to Pakistan, assumed the alias of Nabi Ahmed, did his graduation in law, learnt Urdu, married there and joined the Pakistan Army. He was sentenced to death in 1985 for spying but later the punishment was reduced to life imprisonment.
Kaushik secretly wrote to his family in India, telling them of the barbarism he was subjected to. In a letter, he asked: “Kya Bharat jaise bade desh ke liye kurbani dene waalon ko yahi milta hai? (Is this the reward a person gets for sacrificing his life for India?)”
Both Kaushik’s brother and ailing 72-year-old mother Amladevi --- his father died of shock and heart failure --- have a grouse against the government: all their pleas since 1987 to secure Kaushik’s release from Pakistan custody fell on deaf ears. They wrote several letters, but got no response apart from foreign ministry despatches that “his case has been taken up with Pakistan”.
One such letter from Amladevi to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee read: “Had he not been exposed, Kaushik would have been a senior army officer of the Pakistan government by now and (continued in) the coming years (serving India secretly).”
Another one went: “The government has never bothered to rescue him, not to talk of consoling and helping his family even on humanitarian grounds.” Nor did it send medicines on time when Kaushik was dying, though “a spy sitting in the right place… saves the life of at least 20,000 soldiers of his nation”.
Amladevi had written to several other BJP leaders, including L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh, but her family has till date not got any benefit due to government servants, not even pension. All they get is a monthly allowance of Rs 500.
Family seeks gutsy spy’s posthumous recognition
Presley Thomas, Hindustan Times
Jaipur, December 05, 2009
Ravindra Kaushik went to extremes in his zeal to serve the country. But he died unhonoured and unsung in a Pakistani prison. His family, virtually ignored by the Indian government, now wonders if his effort was really worth it.Kaushik became an undercover agent in 1975, at the age of 21, just after he graduated.
As a spy in Pakistan, he took enormous pains to conceal his identity. He first converted to Islam, taking the name, Nabi Ahmed. He enrolled in a law college, duly graduated, and married a Pakistani girl.
He applied to the Pakistan army, underwent the gruelling entrance test and got himself selected. All the while he continued supplying intelligence to India.
In 1983, however, his cover was blown. Another Indian agent, Inayat Masiha, was caught crossing the border and blurted out Kaushik’s name during interrogation. The Pakistani authorities laid a trap, which Kaushik walked straight into. He was arrested in September and spent the remaining 18 years of his life in jail.
“We did not know anything about his profession,” said Rajeshwarnath Kaushik, his younger brother, who lives in Jaipur. “All he would say when he visited us was ‘I am serving the nation’.”
All that his family, which kept trying to get him released till he died, got was 500 per month after his arrest, raised to 2000 a few years later. After Kaushik’s mother Amladevi died, even this meagre pension stopped.
“We don’t want money. The battle was to get my brother back,” said Rajeshwarnath. “Now all we want is that his contribution should be officially recognised. But even that hasn’t happened so far, and seems unlikely to.”
The protagonist of a novel by former intelligence chief Malay Krishna Dhar, Mission to Pakistan, is based on Kaushik.
Early life
Ravinder Kaushik was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on April 11, 1952. He was a famous theater artist and displayed his talent at the national level dramatic meet in Lucknow, which was witnessed by some officials of the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW. He was contacted and offered a job for being an undercover agent of India in Pakistan. At the age of 23,[1] he was sent to Pakistan on a mission.[5][6]
In Pakistan
Ravinder Kaushik was recruited by RAW and was given extensive training in Delhi for two years. Circumcision was performed on him to show him as a Muslim. He was taught Urdu, given religious education and acquainted with the topography and other details about Pakistan. Being from Punjab-speaking Sri Ganganager, he was well versed in the language which is spoken in major part of Pakistan.[4]
In 1975[1] he was sent to Pakistan and given the name Nabi Ahmed Shakir. He was successful in getting admission in Karachi University and completed his LLB. He joined Pakistan Army and became a commissioned officer and later was promoted to the rank of a Major. He married a local girl Amanat, and became father of a girl.[4]
From 1979 to 1983, while in military service, he passed on valuable information to RAW which was of great help to the Indian defence forces.
He was given the title of 'Black Tiger' by India's then home minister S.B. Chavan.[2] Some testify that the title was conferred by then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
He spent 26 years of his life away from his home and family in Pakistan in very unfavourable conditions.
During War
Using the secret information provided by Ravinder Kaushik, India formulated a strategy that was always one step ahead of Pakistan's and checkmated it's war plans. On many occasions Pakistan prepared to wage war across the borders of Rajasthan in India, but they were foiled due to the timely advance warning given by Ravinder Kaushik, as he was a senior military officer in Pakistan by now and had access to top secret information.
Death and aftermath
In September 1983, Indian intelligence agencies had sent an agent, Inyat Masiha, to get in touch with Black Tiger. But the agent was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and revealed Ravinder Kaushik's true identity.[1]
Kaushik was then captured, tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot. Ravinder was awarded death sentence in the year 1985. His sentence was later commuted to a life term by the Pakistan Supreme court.[4]
Kaushik was kept in various jails, including Sialkot, Kot Lakhpat and in Mianwali jail for 16 years, where he contracted Asthma and TB. He managed to secretly send letters to his family in India, which revealed his poor health condition and the trauma faced by him in Pakistani jails.[3]
In one of his letters he wrote,
"Kya Bharat jaise bade desh ke liye kurbani dene waalon ko yahi milta hai?" (Is this the reward a person gets for sacrificing his life for India?)[3]
On 21 November 2001, he succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis and heart disease in New Central Jail Multan. He was buried behind that jail.[1]
Ravindra's family claimed that the story line of the famous Bollywood flick "Ek Tha Tiger" released in the year 2012 was based on the life of Ravindra & asked for the credit in the movie titles for Ravindra.
India’s forgotten spy
- Agent’s family fights an impossible battle
Nabi Ahmed would have been a senior officer in the Pakistani Army now, saving the lives of Indian soldiers.
But Ahmed — agent Ravindra Kaushik to the Indian security establishment — died a miserable death last year in a Pakistani jail after a searing chapter in India’s espionage history went awry.
Kaushik had been cruising along fine on Mission Pakistan, penetrating deep and reaching the heart of the enemy establishment — the army — as a resident agent of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and doing “commendable” service as “a spy sitting in a right place in enemy land”. Till Inyat Masiha, an operative sent by RAW to contact Kaushik in September 1983, inadvertently blew the agent’s cover.
Kaushik was then captured, tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot, dumped in Mianwali jail for another 16 and left to die. In November 2001, Kaushik succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis and heart disease.
A year after Kaushik died unsung on alien soil, his Jaipur-based family is on a mission: they want India to acknowledge and recognise the sacrifice Kaushik has made for his country.
“We don’t want money. What we want from the government is recognition of the contribution by agents as they are the real foundation of the security system,” said Kaushik’s brother, R.N. Kaushik.
“If the government can honour people in uniform, why hesitate about undercover operatives?” he asked, calling for a government policy to recognise the work intelligence agents do.
It is an appeal few governments will be able to accept. Governments rarely recognise in public secret agents – the “faceless” personnel of the security apparatus. Not only that, it is a common practice to disown spies caught in a foreign country.
Kaushik joined RAW in 1975 as a 23-year-old after graduating from Sriganganagar in Rajasthan. Trained to act as a “resident agent”, he went to Pakistan, assumed the alias of Nabi Ahmed, did his graduation in law, learnt Urdu, married there and joined the Pakistan Army. He was sentenced to death in 1985 for spying but later the punishment was reduced to life imprisonment.
Kaushik secretly wrote to his family in India, telling them of the barbarism he was subjected to. In a letter, he asked: “Kya Bharat jaise bade desh ke liye kurbani dene waalon ko yahi milta hai? (Is this the reward a person gets for sacrificing his life for India?)”
Both Kaushik’s brother and ailing 72-year-old mother Amladevi --- his father died of shock and heart failure --- have a grouse against the government: all their pleas since 1987 to secure Kaushik’s release from Pakistan custody fell on deaf ears. They wrote several letters, but got no response apart from foreign ministry despatches that “his case has been taken up with Pakistan”.
One such letter from Amladevi to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee read: “Had he not been exposed, Kaushik would have been a senior army officer of the Pakistan government by now and (continued in) the coming years (serving India secretly).”
Another one went: “The government has never bothered to rescue him, not to talk of consoling and helping his family even on humanitarian grounds.” Nor did it send medicines on time when Kaushik was dying, though “a spy sitting in the right place… saves the life of at least 20,000 soldiers of his nation”.
Amladevi had written to several other BJP leaders, including L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh, but her family has till date not got any benefit due to government servants, not even pension. All they get is a monthly allowance of Rs 500.
Family seeks gutsy spy’s posthumous recognition
Presley Thomas, Hindustan Times
Jaipur, December 05, 2009
Ravindra Kaushik went to extremes in his zeal to serve the country. But he died unhonoured and unsung in a Pakistani prison. His family, virtually ignored by the Indian government, now wonders if his effort was really worth it.Kaushik became an undercover agent in 1975, at the age of 21, just after he graduated.
As a spy in Pakistan, he took enormous pains to conceal his identity. He first converted to Islam, taking the name, Nabi Ahmed. He enrolled in a law college, duly graduated, and married a Pakistani girl.
He applied to the Pakistan army, underwent the gruelling entrance test and got himself selected. All the while he continued supplying intelligence to India.
In 1983, however, his cover was blown. Another Indian agent, Inayat Masiha, was caught crossing the border and blurted out Kaushik’s name during interrogation. The Pakistani authorities laid a trap, which Kaushik walked straight into. He was arrested in September and spent the remaining 18 years of his life in jail.
“We did not know anything about his profession,” said Rajeshwarnath Kaushik, his younger brother, who lives in Jaipur. “All he would say when he visited us was ‘I am serving the nation’.”
All that his family, which kept trying to get him released till he died, got was 500 per month after his arrest, raised to 2000 a few years later. After Kaushik’s mother Amladevi died, even this meagre pension stopped.
“We don’t want money. The battle was to get my brother back,” said Rajeshwarnath. “Now all we want is that his contribution should be officially recognised. But even that hasn’t happened so far, and seems unlikely to.”
The protagonist of a novel by former intelligence chief Malay Krishna Dhar, Mission to Pakistan, is based on Kaushik.
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.R.I.P. sir!!
