Operation ‘Fox-Hunt’ Read Free Page A

guest house frequented by international aid workers. Sanjay had arrived earlier in the day from Kandahar in a helicopter chartered by an Indian aid agency.
    “It was a pleasure, boss,” Sanjay was dressed in half sleeve shirt and khaki chinos, a combination favoured by aid workers. “You are going back to Delhi tonight, Sanjay. You have done a great job and you deserve a home posting and a promotion.” Sanjay smiled and accepted the glass of Jack Daniels and Coke his boss offered him.
    “Finest, the CIA station chief sent a case over,” the station chief said beaming.
    In a few hours he was airborne on an Indian Air Force communication Embraer jet to Delhi. The other passengers in the plane included a Tajik along with his young family heading to a senior command training course at the Indian Army War College, Mhow, courtesy the Government of India.
    “Thank you, Samsher, I owe you a big one,” the Tajik officer said as he introduced his wife and his young boy.
    “No, you owe me nothing. Afghanistan will require officers like you when the US leaves. It’s my honour… it is Colonel, now I see,” he smiled as he extended his hand to congratulate the Tajik.
    “Lieutenant Colonel, actually,” the Tajik’s eyes twinkled as he accepted Sanjay’s hand.

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    ISI Headquarters, Aabpara Junction, Islamabad Present day: 0900 hours PST

    M ajor General Akhtar Abbas, Assistant Director, Joint Intelligence Bureau, ISI, waited impatiently for the officer heading the Joint Intelligence (North) to finish his briefing. He had something urgent to discuss with the Brigadier who was in charge of the ISI division responsible for the operations in Kashmir. He looked at his watch for the third time, a Rolex, his only indulgence. It was a gift from his son settled in the US and he loved it. What he hated were these long drawn-out ‘briefing’ sessions for sundry civilian officers and politicians. They seemed to understand nothing and all of them wanted the backing of his agency just before elections. He was always amused by the number of politicians who asked for his card or tried to press their contact details into his hands. After all he headed the ISI’s strongest division, the one that took on India every day in the hazy battlefield of espionage and special operations.
    The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, as it is commonly known, is the premiere intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is considered by many to be the most powerful secret service organisation in the Indian subcontinent. Over the years ISI has made a reputation for itself by significantly altering thecourse of conflicts in Afghanistan and Kashmir. It was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that changed the profile of the agency from a political cloak-and-dagger establishment to a serious international intelligence organisation. As the US joined hands with the Pakistani dictator General Zia Ul Haq to harass the Russians in their new adventure to give the Soviets a taste of Vietnam, overnight the ISI became the frontline ally in a war against communism. All activities related to training and arming the Afghan tribals for Jihad were under the purview of the ISI. In fact a large number of ISI officers were embedded with the jihadis.
    The ISI and the Pakistani establishment claimed the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan as their victory. The fact that a communist government continued to control Afghanistan for almost ten more years did not figure in the boast. It was only when key parties like the Uzbek warlord General Dostum decided to part with the communist government that it fell. This part of the story is glossed over both by the western media, looking for ‘reasons’ for the fall of the Soviet empire, as well as the Pakistani establishment. A large amount of money and material destined for the Afghan conflict was siphoned off for the training and arming of groups which could be used against Indian interests. A large part of the weapons and resources