Did You Know RAW Agent Ravinder Kaushik Was Also a Pak Army Major?

Even 15 years after his death, the Indian government has failed to recognise the exemplary work of the Indian spy.

Ravinder Kaushik loved performing characters when he was a young boy. That’s how he was spotted by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), where he was recruited after graduation. Not much is known about Kaushik, except what his family shares.

According to a report in The Telegraph based on interviews with his family, Kaushik was known to have learned Urdu, acquainted himself with Muslim religious texts and the terrain of Pakistan during his training.

At the age of 23, he was then sent to Pakistan with a new identity – Nabi Ahmed Shakir. All records of Ravinder Kaushik were destroyed in India. Nabi pursued an LLB from Karachi University and later joined the Pakistani army, where he soon became a Major.

From 1978 to 1983, the report says, Kaushik passed critical information to the Indian defence forces, being nicknamed ‘The Black Tiger’ for his efforts.

In September 1983, he was caught when Inyat Masiha, sent by RAW to get in touch with him, inadvertantly blew his cover to the Pakistani forces upon interrogation.

Kaushik was then captured and tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot. He was sentenced to death in 1985 for spying but the punishment was later reduced to life imprisonment. He is thought to have succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis and heart disease in 2001.

During his captivity, Kaushik supposedly to have written secret letters to his family, telling them of the barbarism he was subjected to. Kaushik’s brother and his mother Amladevi wrote several letters to the then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee and several other BJP leaders, including LK Advani and Jaswant Singh, to secure Kaushik’s release from Pakistan custody, but all of them fell on deaf ears. Amladevi died in 2006.

Vajpayee is believed to have written a letter to Amladevi before her death saying that had Kaushik not been exposed he would’ve risen to be a senior Pakistani army officer and would have continued to serve India.