Daily Times

The Middle East has long been a region afflicted by external machinations which have had a long lasting impact on its local population. From the Greek-Persian Wars to colonial times to the Cold war and now the new global power competition, external powers have been involved in power struggles either in the form of outright military action to espionage and hybrid war. With respect to the latter, the name of Lawrence of Arabia stands out in this regard.

In recent times, the saga of espionage has taken a new turn with the arrests of eight Indian nationals captured in Qatar on spying charges in 2022. Many of these Indians had retired from the Indian Navy and were affiliated to Dahra Global, a company that specialized in the field of training defense personnel. Dahra Global has since shut down while the eight Indians are awaiting trial. After months of detention, it has been reported that these former naval officers were spying on Qatar’s secret submarine program for Israel.

The Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has said that it will utilize diplomacy in pursuing the case of these Indians. Interestingly in the same talk the External Affairs Minister also alluded to another Indian Naval Officer under foreign imprisonment, Kulbhushan Jadhav. Arrested in Balochistan in 2016 by Pakistani agencies, Kulbushan was a serving officer who admitted to facilitating terrorist activities and spying for the Indian intelligence agency, RAW while working undercover in Chabahar port of neighboring Iran.

In recent times, the saga of espionage has taken a new turn with the arrests of eight Indian nationals captured in Qatar on spying charges in 2022.

Similarly in 2014, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrested and later convicted two Indians for providing sensitive information about ports and shipping to RAW. The families of these men claimed innocence and instead stated that “Indian intelligence officers associated with the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi misguided ordinary Indians to procure sensitive information from places such as ports.” One of these men Shihani Jamal Mohammed had engaged with foreign navies, including those of the US, UK, France and Egypt as part of his job in the multinational shipping firm Inchcape Shipping Services. The links of these individuals with Indian intelligence officers present in the Indian embassy in UAE was established by the courts.

All of these incidents point towards an Indian espionage network at work in the Middle Eastern region which could have a detrimental impact on the local population. It should be remembered that the Indian spies captured in Qatar are not charged with spying for India but Israel, a traditional foe of the Arab people. In this vein, owing to the nature of the relationship between India and Israel it cannot be ruled out that these spies were working at the direction of New Delhi. Iran, where the Kulbhushan Yadav network was based, also has a hostile relationship with Israel. The threat that Indian nationals or RAW infiltrators could also be fulfilling tasks for Mossad that could prove harmful for Iranian interests is also highly possible.

The Middle East is not the only region that has been inflicted with Indian espionage activities. In 2019, a German court found an Indian couple living in Germany guilty of spying. The couple admitted to their ties to India’s RAW and also confirmed gathering and supplying information about Kashmiris and Sikhs residing in Germany to RAW.

While the actions of some individuals should not be used to malign or target an entire ethnicity or nationality, the actions of the guilty can be used to identify weaknesses in local security and potential targets of Indian espionage campaigns. The maritime sector in the Middle East in particular has been found to be a lucrative target especially through ex-Indian Naval personnel. In this regard, Middle Eastern nations have a need to formulate a system to induct risk free professionals from friendly nations like Pakistan to ward off dangers of espionage.

The author is a M.Phil from National Defence University (NDU) Islamabad in International Relations and writes on current affairs.