The story of eight former Indian Navy officers incarcerated in a Doha jail for nearly a year is getting increasingly murkier, with reports emerging that Pakistani intelligence officials are playing a role in provoking the Qatari authorities by alleging misconduct on part of these Indian individuals. The former naval officers, who were arrested in August last year on undeclared charges of spying for Israel, were working with a Qatari firm to oversee the induction of Italian small stealth submarines U2I2, and their detention seems to be the handiwork of Pakistani intelligence agencies who not only have an ugly design to give a bad name to Indian former defence personnel employed in West Asia, but also want to drive a wedge between India and Qatar and other countries in the West Asian region. 


As Indians are gradually replacing Pakistani retired and serving defence personnel from sensitive defence and civilian jobs, Pakistan is getting jittery. They are also worried over the growing defence relations between India and Arab countries. Reports say that by citing the example of former Indian naval commander Kulbhushan Yadav, who was abducted from Iran and kept in Pakistani jail on spying charges, Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is reported to have convinced the Qataris of suspected  involvement of Indians.


Caught in the quagmire of India-Pakistan rivalry in West Asia, the arrested former naval officers seem to have got some relief from Qatari authorities as they were shifted from solitary confinement a month ago and put in a double-bed occupancy in jail ward along with their colleagues. They have also been allowed phone access and family visit. This seems to be a positive move by the Qatari authorities who could not find any substantive evidence to keep them confined to their single-cell wards. The Indian embassy in Doha, which maintained regular contact with the Qatari authorities, extended all legal assistance to jailed Indian citizens. The Qatari authorities never gave an explanation for the exact reasons for their arrest. That means they were not fully convinced of the allegations against them. It is hence intriguing as to why the Qatari authorities gave credence to the Pakistani version of spying charges against them.


India expected that on the strength of Qatar-India bilateral relations and deepening defence exchanges, they would be able to convince the Qataris that allegations against them were baseless. India has avoided direct interference in the Qatari legal process or put pressure on the Qatari authorities. External Affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar has assured that the detained retired naval personnel are a priority for India, and that the Indian embassy in Doha is pursuing the matter.  


Deepak Mittal, former Indian Ambassador to Doha, has met the detainees thrice and expressed hope that they would be able to return home soon. Indian diplomats are perhaps using back-channel talks to deal with the issue.


According to the 2020 US Human Rights Report, the Qatar law permits detention without charges for 15 days, which can be renewed for six months. The domestic law also permits a six-month extension and then indefinitely with the approval of the prime minister on the grounds of national security. The overseas Indians were detained on August 30 last year. With them being shifted from solitary confinement and permitted contacts with family already before the legal expiry of full one year without charges, it is being said in diplomatic circles that this may be a precursor to their final release. 


Indian diplomats are keeping their fingers crossed, though.


Who Are The Jailed Ex-Navals And Why They Were Detained


One of the jailed officers, Commander Purnendu Tiwari (Retd), is the managing director of the firm that was cconferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in 2019. The award was handed over by none other than the then President Ram Nath Kovind.  The other detained Indians are Navtej Singh Gill, Birendra Kumar Verma, Sugunakar Pakala , Sanjeev Gupta, Amit Nagpal, Ragesh Gopakumar, and Saurav Vashisht. The eight Indians were working with Qatari Emiri Navy, on behalf of the Qatar firm Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services that provided training and other technical assistance to them.


According to a report in the Pakistani media, Qatar has decided to close this company, which has 75 Indians among its staff. The Pakistani media are taking a lot of interest in the case, and appear to be fed misleading and wrong information. According to their reports, allegations against these naval officers are that they handed over confidential information relating to the Qatari acquisition programme to the Israelis. Qatar is building a big naval base for which it signed an MoU with Italian firm Fincantieri SpA for transfer of U2I2 submarines and maintenance and other technical assistance for upkeep of the base.


Both India and Pakistan are also reported to be taking interest in this small stealth submarine technology programme. The Pakistanis are reported to have misguided the Qataris, who got perturbed and took the extraordinary action of arresting the eight Indians, and even kept it secret from the Indian embassy in Doha, who came to know of the issue only a month later in September.


Obviously, the Indian government could not exercise enough diplomatic leverage over Qatar because of economic constraints. India could not have gone beyond a certain limit, as New Delhi has to protect the interest of over 7.5 lakh Indians in Qatar who form 25 percent of the country's population. India is silently dealing with this issue and the officials are hopeful that this would be resolved favourably.


The Indian and Qatari governments have just commemorated the Golden Jubilee of their diplomatic relations, and have developed mutual trust to an extent that they are expanding this relationship in the defence arena. Qatar is the largest source of natural gas imports for India. India and Qatar signed an agreement for defence cooperation way back in 2008. This provided a necessary framework to strengthen and expand defence ties and cooperation. In 2016, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Qatar, the Emir of Qatar consented to provide further impetus to these ties, through joint exercises, and enhanced training of air, naval and land forces. Qatar has taken interest in India’s Make in India programme in the defence sector and wants joint production of defence equipment. India wants to achieve greater share in world defence exports, and hence both countries are eager to take advantage of this opportunity.


In this backdrop, India would not like the relationship to be spoiled. India is developing a similar relationship with other Arab countries like Oman, UAE , Saudi Arabia, etc, This is evidently not to the liking of Pakistan, and hence they would certainly try to deny India its natural advantage.


The author is a senior journalist and strategic affairs analyst.


[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal.] 


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