ISI-Best Intelligence Agencies in the World – 2011

Sheikh GULZAR

e-mail: gulzar@journalist.com

An intelligence agency is basically a governmental agency which is made for information gathering. There purpose is the national security and defense. The information they gather can be about espionage communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with institutions and evaluation of public sources.

An intelligence agency is a national power. These agencies normally work without the knowledge of public even their successes are not remembered by the people but their failure is always the HIGHLIGHTED news of the press, Well, here we have the list of top 10 intelligence agencies of the world and the ranking is based on their rate of success and taking care of the situations efficiently.
So, let us take a look!

10. CSIS, Canada

It was created in 1984, it is made on the same pattern of CIA and MI6, which are civil agencies but connected to the military and police.

9. ASIS, Australia

This agency was formed on 13th May,1952. Their annual budget is $162.5m AUD(2007). This agency is the Australian government intelligence agency which is responsible for collecting foreign intelligence. Its main purpose is the protection of country’s political and economic interests.

8. RAW, India

This was formed in 21 September, 1968. Their headquarters are in New Delhi, India. It was formed after the two major wars in India, first the Sino-India war in 1962 and then the Pakistan-India war in 1965. Its responsibility is the collection of external intelligence, counter terrorism and covert operations.

7. MOSSAD, Israel

This was formed on 13th December, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination. The Mossad  is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations. Its director directly reports to the head of the state.

6. BND, Germany

This was formed on 1st April, 1956 and their employees are around 6,050. The BND acts as the early warning system to alert the German government. They depend highly on wiretapping and electronic surveillance f international communications.

5. DGSE, France

This was formed on 2nd April, 1982. They work under the direction os French ministry of defense, they provide intelligence and national security to the country.

4. FSB, Russia

This was formed in 3rd April, 1995 and their employees are around 350,000. These are involved in the counter intelligence, internal and border security, counter terrorism and surveillance. Their headquarters are in Lubyanka Square, Downtown Moscow. All the intelligence agencies including KGB and NKVD work under the instructions of FSB.

3. MI6, United Kingdom

This was formed in 1909 and their headquarters are in Vauxhall Cross, London. These are the british equivalent to the CIA and they are really effective.

2. CIA, United States

This was formed in 18th September, 1947 and their employees are around 20,000. This agency is responsible for gathering data from the other countries and national security.  They are also the advisors of the policy makers.

1. ISI, Pakistan

This was formed in 1948 and their headquarters are in Islamabad, Pakistan. This has the lengthiest record os success. After the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947 this was formed in 1948. This one is the GOLD MEDALIST even higher than the Mossad and KGB.

They have the highest number of agents all over the world, almost 10,000. It is one of the strongest intelligence agencies of the world. Pakistan is really proud of it!

Bitter memories of Hawal massacre still haunt survivors

Srinagar, May 22 In disputed state of Kashmir, the bitter memories of Hawal massacre still haunt the families who lost their loved ones despite the passage of two decades, reports Kashmir Media Service.

Over 67 innocent Kashmiris were killed on May 21, 1990, by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel when they resorted to firing on the funeral procession of prominent liberation leader, Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Farooq who was assassinated by unidentified gunmen at his residence in Srinagar.

Recalling the fateful day, Ghulam Qadeer Beig, an eyewitness of the carnage, said that after firing on the funeral procession the BSF personnel started entering houses and shooting people from point blank range. “We were helpless and at the mercy of those who had come to kill us. My brother-in-law, Farooq Ahmad Beig, and my son, who was just ten years old then, were among the killed in the carnage,” he added.

He said that later they went to the Nowhatta Police Station and lodged a complaint against the troopers. “One of the BSF trooper’s cap fell in our home. The name inscribed on it was Pokhla. The authorities have taken no tangible action against the guilty trooper despite our complaint,” he deplored.

Qadeer’s wife, Parvaiza said, “My brother was one among the people killed that day. He was participating in the funeral procession of Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Farooq. He was just paying his respects to a dead man.” Recounting the events of the day, she said that on hearing gunshots, many people ran and hid themselves in a neighbour’s house and she was one of them.

Makhta Begum, 60, mother of Abdul Farooq who was killed by the troopers on the day, said, “The troops came and snatched my son from my arms. The troopers followed Farooq Ahmad right from the procession to his house and killed him.”

11th August Foundation pay tributes to Sheikh Aziz, Abdul Qayoom, Jalal-ul-din,Nasir Bakhtiyar, Sheikh Muzamil, Sheikh Zahoor, Shahnawaz Saleem

Pampore, May 21: 11th August Foundation Pampore on Sunday  paid rich tributes to late Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, Sheikh Aziz, Abdul Qayoom, Jalal-ul-din, Nasir Bakhtiyar, Sheikh Muzamil, Sheikh Zahoor, Shahnawaz Saleem, Dr. Qazi Nisaar, Nasir-ul-Islam, Shamsul Haq, Mohd. Ashraf Dar, Sheikh Abdul hanid, Ashfaq Majeed Wani, Sheikh Ghulam Rasool Azad, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Abu Talha, Jamal Afghani, and all of our martyrs  at a seminar organized by 11th August Foundation here.   

Speakers highlighted the supreme sacrifices of Kashmiri martyrs and renewed their pledge to take their mission to a logical end. “They sacrificed their today for our better tomorrow,” speakers said. 

They also denounced the “unabated human rights violations” in Kashmir and appealed the international community to impress upon India to put an end to it.

Terming unity as key to success they said that it was high time that Kashmiri leaders should burry their hatchet and forge a broad based unity so as to take the people out from the dark prospects of despondency and chaos.  

Describing dialogue as a civilized way to resolve dispute they said that Kashmiris were not averse to dialogue, however, they maintained that bilateralism had miserably failed to resolve Kashmir dispute and emphasized the need for associating genuin. (Writer-South Asia)

Mothers Day: 'It wasn't dream, my sons had come'

Sunday, 08 May 2011 19:02 Bandipora - Shazia Khan (Pictures Yawar Kabli)

It was dark and silent at midnight. At one of the mud houses in Aloosa village, silence was broken by a loud bang at the door. A group of men knocked and called for Saida. Muaji, mauji they shouted in Kashmiri (Muaji is mother in local parlance). Saida was jubilant, her sons had returned. There was no electricity in the village, she looked for a candle, but the calling grew louder and she groped towards the direction. A wooden door stood between the much waited encounter. With feeble hands she tried to unbolt the door and in the event fell down and injured her knee. The sound of her falling woke her daughter, Shakeela, who immediately rushed to her. Saida insisted on opening the door. A dark silence was all she could feel.

“It was not a dream, my sons had come. I heard my sons outside the door. They were calling me.....but when I tried to open the door, my knee got hurt and I fell down," Saida says, while applying ointment to her knee that has turned blue. Then she murmurs and Shakeela, who sits besides, says, “No one was there outside last night.”

Shakeela slowly moves closer to her and in a consoling voice says, “you dreamt about them again because you don’t take medicines properly these days.”

But, Saida insists she heard her sons. Shakeela points towards a piece of land fenced with rusted wire at a few meters distance from their house. "They have been buried there...... don't you know that?" she questions her mother. Saida nods and replies, "My sons are resting there, how could I forget they are buried in mounds of mud."

With an injured knee and a crumbling gait, she walks towards the graveyard. "All of them were killed by army... some in encounters, and some in custody," she says and stops at a grave. “Here lays my elder son Bilal. He was born in 1965, but only after 29 years his father laid him to rest here. At the extreme left of Bilal's grave, a distance of few feet, is his younger brother Ayoub’s grave. He was killed by army too,” she says.

Between the graves of her two sons there is an empty space where she sits. "I have asked village heads not to bury anyone in between the graves of my two sons. I want my third son Aazad who has also been killed by army to be buried here. He was killed at border but police did not handover his dead body to me,” she says amid sobs. Aazad was seventeen year old when he was killed, she adds.

From last sixteen years Saida is in a state of disturbed bereavement - a mental ailment, her daughter Shakeela informs. "She is under treatment from past decade but medicines only help in reducing the intensity of her pain but  cannot cure her trauma."

Her doctor says she is physically fit but psychological she is depressed and there isn’t much possibility of recovery. “She has reached a stage now where she is neither ready to forget her past nor she able to accept the reality of her dead sons,” he says.

Saida, 67, had three sons. At the inception of armed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, her sons Bilal and Ayoub hailing from Bandipora decided to join militant outfits in 1990. “For about four years both of them were actively involved in militancy,” Shakeela says.  However, in August 1994, Ayoub was killed in an encounter at Kursu. “There was around more than ten bullets in his chest. We received his bullet ridden body from Bandipora police station,” she says.

That was the beginning of Saida’s mental illness. After Ayoub’s death, she forced Bilal to quit the militant ranks. “But he refused and only three months after Ayoub’s death, army arrested and killed him at Koyal Muqaam,” says Shakeela.

Saida was distraught; her only hope was her youngest son Aazad. But  Aazad at that time was training with the militant ranks in Pakistan administered Kashmir. “My mother after the death of her two sons started spending her days waiting for his third son’s return,” says Shakeela. Her wait ended with the news of Aazad’s death while he was crossing the Line of Control.

Aazad’s death paralyzed Saida mentally. “My old father was shattered after he shouldered the coffin of my third brother. There was nobody left in our house to take responsibility. We were facing the wrath of conflict and there was no source of income. To earn a living became hard,” says Shakeela.

In 1995, Saida’s husband Abdullah Bhat sensing the vacuum married Shakeela to Riyaz Ahmad Lone. Riyaz, a laborer, quickly filled the vacuum and supported the family for more than a year. “I was pregnant in 1996 and he also joined a militant outfit and a year later was killed in an encounter near LoC,” says Shakeela.

Lone’s death added to their agony. Saida lost the capacity to hear. "My father developed heart complications but to run the house he started working again and after five years he died of a cardiac attack,” she says.

The family since Abdullah’s death has been living in abject poverty. As Saida leaves the graveyard, she says with a sigh, “I do not know am I most fortunate mother or most  unfortunate mother in the world. Almighty bestowed me four sons including my son in law but they all got killed. I am waiting for the moment when I will close my eyes forever and will be together with my sons in heaven.”(Kashmir Dispatch)