Former RAW Director Shankaran Nair passes away

November 17, 2015

Former Director of country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), K. Shankaran Nair passed away in Bengaluru, Karnataka. He was 94.
He was credited with the success of covert operations that aided the liberation of then east Pakistan into new country Bangladesh in 1971.

About K. Shankaran Nair

Nair hails from Ottapalam village in Kerala.
Initially, he was inducted into then British colonial police service Indian (Imperial) Police (IP) which was later renamed Indian Police Service (IPS).
Later he was part of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and in 1968 was inducted into RAW as the deputy chief to Rameshwarnath Kao, founder of RAW.
Nair is credited with the success of the 1971 Bangladesh war and under his leadership, RAW helped find and train the guerrilla fighters troupe Mukti Bahini.
He had succeeded R N Kao as the Director of RAW in 1977 becoming second person to head country’s external intelligence agency.
But he had resigned just in 3 months after taking over as a protest against the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai for downgrading the post of chief of RAW to director from Secretary (R), earlier.
In 1980, after Indira Gandhi returned to power Mr. Nair had played a crucial role restructuring RAW. In 1986, he was appointed as India’s High Commissioner to Singapore and served till 1988.
Nair’s memoir Inside IB and RAW: The rolling stone that gathered moss was published in 2008.

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