ISLAMABAD – In an unprecedented development, former spy chiefs ofPakistan and India have co-authored a book having a plethora of sensationaldisclosures about the security discourse of South-Asia and other issues ofprominence.
The book named ‘The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace’ iswritten by General Asad Durrani and former chief of Indian Research andAnalysis Wing (RAW), A S Dulat and reveals shocking aspects of how the sonof Asad Durrani, former Inter-Services Intelligence chief, was releasedafter Indian spy agency RAW intervened in the matter.
It states that in May 2015, Osman Durrani came to Kochi (Indian port) forwork on behalf of a German company and according to visa restrictions, heshould have left the country from the city that he entered from but hisoffice booked him from a flight back via Mumbai; he was detained byauthorities in Mumbai following which 24 hours of backchannel networkinghelped release of Durrani’s son, despite the visa violation.
Asad Durrani, who is also making headlines in Pakistan due to Asghar Khancase, continues in the book that his family was in a panic because theywere unaware of how events would unfold after the detention of his son.
“But even those people (Mumbai special branch) did not grill him about hisBombay visa and did not put him behind bars. That could have happened, butit didn’t,” stated Durrani.
The former spy chief recalled that in the meantime, his family wasconcerned about the consequences if someone reported that the son of aformer ISI chief was roaming around Mumbai, at a time when the Indianshadn’t forgotten 26/11; even then he enlisted the help of Dulat.
“Dulat called several people including then RAW chief Rajinder Khanna. TheIndian intelligence establishment sprung into action as Osman wasstonewalled. Things however worked out and Osman was able to fly back toGermany after a day from Mumbai,” wrote Durrani.
In the page-turner, Dulat recalls that the most touching part of theincident was that when he called Khanna to thank him for his help, the RAWchief said in reference to Durrani, “It’s our duty, after all, he’s acolleague.”
The book is of pivotal importance especially in the backdrop of how boththe neighbours harboured a grudge against each other, however, their spychiefs were having cordial relations.
The rescue of Osman Durrani was also confirmed by his father in a briefinteraction with a leading newspaper.
The book, which will be available in Pakistan soon, also sheds light on theso-called surgical strike of the Indian Army in Azad Kashmir, the arrest ofKalbhushan Jadev, Nawaz Sharif, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Kashmir, MuzaffarBurhan Wani Shaheed and Akhand Bharat plan of India.
Besides narrating the spine-chilling incidents, former Indian RAW chief ASDulat – who served as the RAW boss from 1999-2000 – has reminded the Indianleadership to address the Kashmir issue first of all. Despite dim hopes,the book has also indicated the possibility of resumption of talks betweenPakistan and India in the wake of forthcoming elections in theMuslim-majority nation.
The book is hitting the shelves days after Pakistan and India renewed theTrack II diplomacy with an Indian delegation holding talks with a Pakistaniteam on April 28-30.
Although India claims that the recent efforts for detente did not signifyany watering down of New Delhi’s position that terror and talks can’t gotogether, a senior bureaucrat privately admitted that such a dialogue wouldsurely be at the behest of the government.
The Track II diplomacy is generally called Neemrana Dialogue, named afterthe fort in Rajasthan where it was first held in 1991, but it is brushedaside by New Delhi, with Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson RaveeshKumar saying that “…functional exchanges between the two sides havecontinued and is actually a part of normal process between the twocountries. So there is nothing new which we see in this dialogue”.