Pakistani security agencies have exposed a sophisticated network of the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, following the assassination of Jamaat-ud-Dawa worker Abdul Rehman, also known as Razaullah Nizamani, in Badin on May 18. A joint operation of the Intelligence Bureau and Sindh’s Counter Terrorism Department revealed that RAW has been using expatriate Pakistanis in a Gulf state as cover for recruitment, financing, and the orchestration of targeted killings inside Pakistan.
According to investigators, the Badin incident was part of a broader pattern in which RAW handlers exploit expatriate communities abroad to create sleeper cells, train operatives, and run overlapping assassination squads to ensure missions succeed. Officials noted that the attackers involved in the attempted assassination of Hafiz Saeed had also been recruited in the Gulf, while the 2023 killing of Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Maulana Shahid Latif followed the same model. The evidence, they said, proves that RAW has systematically turned Gulf-based networks into operational hubs for subversive activity in Pakistan.
In this case, RAW agent Sanjay Sanjeev Kumar, alias “Fauji,” recruited Salman, a resident of Sheikhupura living in the Gulf. Salman then reached out to his cousin Umair through the encrypted app Signal, offering him Rs10 million and a European visa for eliminating Nizamani. Umair received Rs100,000 in advance and recruited two accomplices, Sajjad and Shakeel. They travelled to Hyderabad in April, purchased a motorcycle, and began surveillance but abandoned the plan temporarily before being pressured to resume. Parallel to this, Salman activated a second cell through Arsalan, another expatriate who had returned from the Gulf with Rs500,000 and enlisted four men dedicated to tracking the target.
Both groups eventually converged in Hyderabad and operated from a hotel while reporting to Sanjay abroad. They coordinated surveillance and planning until the network was dismantled through intelligence-led operations. Officials said the overlapping design of the two squads illustrates RAW’s reliance on redundancy, ensuring one cell could carry out the mission if another faltered.
The investigation has reinforced Pakistan’s stance that India is conducting subversive operations on Pakistani soil by weaponizing vulnerable expatriates abroad. Security officials said further arrests are expected as the probe expands to trace financial pipelines, regional facilitators, and links to other attacks attributed to RAW’s network.
