Operation Leech

India’s relation wit KIA

Surrounded by Arakanese and dense forest, Myanmar had always been a worrisome point for Indian intelligence. India has sought to promote democracy and install friendly governments in the region. To these ends, RAW cultivated Burmese rebel groups and pro-democracy coalitions, especially the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). India allowed the KIA to carry a limited trade in jade and precious stones using Indian territory and even supplied them weapons. It is further alleged that KIA chief Maran Brang Seng met the RAW chief in Delhi twice. However, when the KIA became the main source of training and weapons for all Northeastern rebel groups, RAW initiated an operation, code named Operation Leech, to assassinate the leaders of the Burmese rebels as an example to other groups. in 1998, six top rebel leaders, including military wing chief of National Unity Party of Arakans (NUPA), Khaing Raza, were shot dead and 34 Arakanese guerrillas were arrested and charged with gunrunning
As the major player in South Asia, India always sought to promote democracy and install friendly governments in the region. During the 1990s, India began to reverse its historic stand against the junta and to jettison its pro-democracy links.

The incident

Their story began on the night of February 8, 1998. They were members of the AA, which is fighting Burmese ethnic domination and the State Peace and Development Council, Myanmar’s repressive military junta. The contingent also had a few members of the Karen National Army, an ally of the AA in its anti-junta fight. There were 43 of them when they sailed out of the Thai waters in two speedboats laden with sophisticated arms. They were to briefly halt at Landfall and then proceed to Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, from where the arms were to be sent to their comrades in the Arakan hills.

On their way to Landfall, they accosted and captured two Thai trawlers with 36 fishermen for refusing to pay a ‘routine tax’ to the AA. Now, four boats, with 79 men in all, sailed again, reaching Narcondum Island at 7 pm on February 9. They were already aware of Indian ships stationed off Landfall Island. Ordinary poachers or smugglers would have fled immediately. But these boats waited, confidently. Khaing Raza, a NUPA politburo member and commander-in-chief of the Arakan Army and leader of the mission, had once spoken to Saw Tun, his member two, over the wireless before the boats reached Narcodum. In accordance with their plan, explained the detainees, Saw Tun had already arrived at Landfall with Indian army officers, who were there to receive the Arakanese boats. And now, from Narcondum, Khaing Raza contacted Saw Tun again over the VHF, informing his deputy about his arrival. Nothing happened after that.

The next morning, at 10 am, the wireless crackled again. On the other end was Saw Tun, calling from Landfall, and in response to that beckoning call the flotilla weighed anchor. The smaller speedboat, said to be fitted with Volvo engines and capable of doing 35 knots, surged ahead of the rest. It carried on board Khaing Raza, and his close comrades Pado Mulway (in charge of the AA’s marine operations), Colonel Thein Aung Khyaw (a member of the NUPA central committee), Captain Myint Shwe (of the Karen National Army) and Pho Cho, the vessel’s pilot. When the speedboats, with trawlers in tow, boldly passed through the cordon of naval ships and reached Landfall towards the evening, they were warmly welcomed by a reception party that included among others Lt-Col Grewal. Apparently, there was much handshaking and embracing. Five bottles of rum were produced and toasts raised; a small camp site was cleared; food was arranged and there was merrymaking around the campfire that night.

That very evening, they were asked to display their weapons. The request did not strike them as ominous or even fishy. The arms were unloaded from the speedboats and laid on the shore in full view of the Indian armymen.

At 8 am on February 11, an Indian naval ship was seen taking up position close to Landfall Island. The unsuspecting Arakanese soldiers were told, in Myanmarese, that an Indian leader would soon arrive by helicopter, and breakfast would be ‘taken together’ once he arrived. Moments later, six top members of the AA were led away by two Indian officers inside a patch of forest ‘to greet the leader at the helicopter landing point’. Among them were Khaing Raza, Saw Tun and Pado Mulway.

The conclusion

A small contingent of MARCOS was reputed to have been involved in the murky operation. As soon as the six disappeared into the wood, Indian securitymen brandished their carbines and ordered the rest to throw up their hands. They did. They had no choice. And as they stood with their hands raised, they were blind-folded and their hands tied by Indian soldiers. Then they heard what they thought was the whirr of a descending chopper……. And the unmistakable sound of gun shots………..

They never saw the six men again.