CIA assessed Rajiv Gandhi's assassination 5 years before he was killed

Five years before Rajiv Gandhi was killed in 1991, the US Central Intelligence Agency had prepared a very detailed and thorough "brief" on what would happen if he is assassinated or makes an "abrupt departure" from the Indian political scene

Rajiv Gandhi

New Delhi: Five years before Rajiv Gandhi was killed in 1991, the US Central Intelligence Agency had prepared a very detailed and thorough "brief" on what would happen if he is assassinated or makes an "abrupt departure" from the Indian political scene.

A 23-page report, titled "India After Rajiv ..." was put out as early as in March 1986 for comments from other senior CIA officials. The "sanitised" report was declassified recently by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The report, whose complete title is not entirely available as it is part deleted, was prepared on the basis of inputs available to the CIA till January 1986.

The very first sentence of the report's available (undeleted) page reads: "Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi faces at least an even chance of assassination before his tenure in office ends in 1989." It, however, later clearly said that "assassination is the major near-term threat" to him.

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