He was the ‘Black Tiger’ of RAW . Some say it was rewarded by India’s then home minister S.B. Chavan while others testify that the Title was conferred by then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
Born and brought up in Sriganganagar, a border town in Rajasthan, Ravinder Kaushik grew up to be a charismatic college student, with above-average intelligence and looks. He was theatrically inclined, and staged mono-acting skits in college.
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 of being an undercover agent of India in Pakistan. At the age of 23, he was sent to Pakistan on a mission.
Kaushik is regarded as India’s best spy to ever penetrate the rank and profile of the Pakistan army. His name was changed to Nabi Ahmed Shakir and similar to all RAW operatives, his records in India was destroyed. In Pakistan, he converted to Islam, changed his name, married a local girl Amanat, graduated from a law college and finally, became the ultimate insider by entering the Pakistani army. Eventually, he was promoted to the rank of a Major.
He was in Pakistan Army from 1979 to 1983 and during this tenure he dispatched valuable information to RAW which was of great help to the Indian defence mechanism. Everything was fine till Inyat Masiha, an operative sent by RAW to contact Kaushik in September 1983, inadvertently blew the agent’s cover.
They put him in jail where he was tortured. In the 1985 he was awarded death sentence which was subsequently converted into life imprisonment. Kaushik remained in various jails from where he somehow sent letters which revealed the pathetic health condition and the trauma faced by him in Pakistani jails. Ravinder Kaushik spent 18 years in Pakistani jails, where he contracted Asthma and TB. He died on 21 November 2001 in a jail at Mianwali. He was buried behind that jail.
As per a Telegraph report, 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’)”
The only thing the government did after he died was to send his parents some money every month as pension, said Rajeshwar, his younger brother. The family first got Rs 500 a month, and after a few years, they began receiving Rs 2,000 a month — until 2006, when their mother Amladevi died. Their father had already died of a stroke two years following his son’s death.
Are we doing right by disowning our own people? It is true that no Government can publicly accept an agent’s existence in other country, but it is also a harsh reality that our Government do not care for the family of these patriots who sacrificed their life for the nation.
