It is one of the coolest agency in India isn’t it? Men in suits, smart weapons, classified information, all this stuff comes up in our mind whenever we hear of it. But are you aware of some profound facts of this organization which they never disclose. Well, no one knows, but we do know about some of the missions which made us proud.

Research and Analysis wing, commonly known as RAW isn’t some other common government organization of India. It sustains some of the brilliant minds of this country who undertake various missions on a go. It is the foreign intelligence agency of India, whose primary goal is to acquire some of the sensitive information essential for the safety of our country and side by side dealing with terrorism. Basically, it is an independent agency which was formed just after the Sino- Indian war of 1962. Raw is specialized to undertake various responsibilities which can be domestic or international.

As any other intelligence agency, RAW has also undergone many allegations from time to time from both international as well as domestic sources. One of the recent stories portrays Ravindra Kaushik, who was sent to Pakistan on a covert mission, but due to some mistakes of a fellow companion he was arrested and was tortured until death. Stories like this evoke our utter understanding and challenge our mediocre thoughts and mentality. Patriotism is one thing out of which heroes like Ravindra Kaushik are born. He often wrote letters to his parents in India describing his pain. In one of this letter, 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 a great nation like India?). This determines how low he would have felt.

Despite all the allegations they have suffered, their contribution to this country cannot be neglected. They have undergone some of the major operations of which we have never heard of. Some organizations would always try to defame RAW, but let’s look at the positive side now. Below are some of the amazing facts which you need to consider before arguing about the existence of RAW.

Formation of Bangladesh:

When Bangladesh was fighting for its existence, the RAW extended its support for the cause in early 1970. RAW created a better atmosphere for the Bangladeshi fighters and provided ample support through information and ammunition. RAW also warned Bangladesh about the possibility of the assassination of their first president MUJIBUR RAHMAN but they were not able to stop it. Nevertheless, RAW has extended their support during many suspicious occasions to Bangladesh.

An Incident in the United States:

This is an incident which many of you won’t be knowing. During the time when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister of India, the chief minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal went to New York for a medical treatment and he was staying at a hotel. At that time, a RAW operative was assigned the responsibility for his protection. He covertly figured out some suspicious people near the hotel and asked N.Y.P.D to take action. Further, it came to know that they had all the information about the chief minister, the photos, room no. etc and they were there to assassinate him but it was stopped within time.

The Story behind Navy’s Day:

4th December as we all know is celebrated as Navy day in our country. In 1971, on this very day, the famous Karachi port was destroyed by the Indian navy as they had a good intel about it. In early 1971, Naval chief had intel that Karachi’s harbor was structured with new defenses. To receive the actual details, RAW was asked to provide support. They figured out that a Parsee doctor used to sail from Bombay port to Karachi. So they sent two people on a mission, named Kao and Murty. They were provided with cover names Moriarty and Rod. They traveled to the Karachi’s port successfully and they took pictures of everything. Owing to this information, the Indian Navy successfully destroyed the Port during the war and this helped India a lot during wartime.

Operation Kahuta:

It was the most impressive operation initiated by the RAW in Pakistan. The missile development and Nuclear weapon development in Pakistan was initiated at a place called Kahuta. Khan Research Laboratories are situated there, where all these developments were known to take place. Raw successfully analyzed the confirmation of the Uranium at that place as they took hair samples of the scientists from a nearby barbershop. This, as a result, indicated that Pakistan was able to enrich Uranium for the weapons. But this mission suffered a major back down when the then Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai informed the then Pakistan President that India was aware of their nuclear program which alerted Pakistan’s Agencies and they eliminated the RAW agents from there. From that moment, we never intercepted anything about the Pakistan’s nuke missions.

Smiling Buddha:

We all are very proud of India’s nuclear power aren’t we? This all started with operation smiling Buddha. RAW was assigned the duty to keep all the nuclear programs undercover so that no one gets to know anything. In 1974, this was the first mission to which the RAW was entitled in India. India was able to perform the nuclear tests in the Pokhran range successfully without anyone knowing about it and swiftly we entered the nuke club. The way Raw kept this mission under the dark shadows was very impressive.

An interesting story of Raw agent Hashim Qureshi:

During the time of Bangladesh liberation, a RAW agent named Hashim Qureshi was working with BSF in Kashmir. Pakistan launched a terrorist organization named Al-Fatah, whose main objective was to separate J & K from India. Some of the terrorists were arrested. RAW came up with a plan of sending Qureshi into this organization to collect some more information as he sustained good information about the terrain of POK. But he mixed with Pakistani intelligence and turned up on India instead.

He was sent back to India on a mission when BSF arrested him. Finally, he told everything about Pakistan’s plan. Actually, they wanted to hijack a plane in which Indira Gandhi was traveling who was the Prime Minister of India at that time. RAW came out with a very impressive plan.

They managed to get Qureshi back into their side and framed the whole scene in which he would hijack the plane and ask for the release of members of Al-Fatah. At last, the incident took place and Pakistan allowed the plane to land and soon the world came to know about Pakistan’s intention.

This incident actually exposed them and the truth came out that Pakistan was supporting terrorist organizations. Also, India was successfully able to restrict the Pakistani flights over the Indian Territory. This helped India during 1970 to separate East and West Pakistan as Pakistani soldiers were not able to travel directly taking Indian Airspace and hence could not reach on time.

Now when you know everything I guess it’s easy for you to decide how important they are for us and no matter how anyone tries to defame them, they are indispensable.