The Monstrous Face of ISI
Author: Bhure Lal
Siddarth Publications,
Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110020. Price Rs. 375
A no non-sense IAS officer while in service, who made name for himself particularly under the short-lived National Front government of Prime Minister Viswanath Pratap Singh, the author presents a fascinating account of the Pakistani agency. Reading the book when the present ISI chief Shuja Pasha’s is the much solicited presence in Kabul and Washington makes interesting reading. It also brings the reader face to face with the ugly face of the Pak agency which is very much a part of the army of the country but enjoys a prestige and stature that go beyond normative nature of similarly placed agencies in the West or the East.
Preface to the book sets the tone of the unfolding chapters while tracing the genesis of the ISI, its growth and its overbearing presence not just in Pakistan, but insidious designs on India with the observation “Pakistan’s ISI has done what its Army can never do. Its tentacles spread from Gujarat to Assam (and) from Kashmir to Kerala (in India). It can trigger blasts in remote areas, fuel communal riots in peaceful cities and blow up railway stations anywhere it wishes to. It can spread terror whenever, whenever it wants”.
‘For Islamabad’, says the author, ‘the liberation of Kashmir is a sacred mission, the only task unfulfilled since Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s days’. The ISI mark jihad has married religion with terrorism and geo-political goals.
The author credits Gen Zia-ul-Haq with conceiving ISI’s India specific plan “Operation Topac” to ‘disintegrate India’. Obviously, the Pakistan dictator, who had sent charismatic Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the gallows on a trumped up charge, was not content with the havoc his ‘agents of change’ had caused in Punjab and Kashmir.
How the transformation in the ISI creed and performance came is by itself an interesting study for students of strategy and diplomacy. The author does disappoint the reader with his focus more on ISI’s monstrous face as he likes to call. Nonetheless he does some justice to the subject by familiarising the reader with the organisational structure.
According to the author, till 1969, the ISI was a non-political, non-descript department under the Ministry of defence, headed by a brigadier. Post-1971 war that resulted in the emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation from the Pakistani womb, the ISI acquired a new profile. And it not only graduated into a parallel government, and became the ‘establishment’ along with the GHQ in Rawalpindi but also acquired colossal resources- material and financial, and clout. Its forte is no more mere espionage, and disinformation campaign. Its portfolio includes now subversive activities, buying support through bribes and terrorism and sabotage
Organisationally, ISI works under a Director-General, who is serving Lt. General in the Pakistan Army. And the incumbent is generally a handpicked man of the army chief. He is assisted by three Deputy Directors-General, drawn from the police, paramilitary forces and the army.
Training and intelligence are the preserve of the Operations Branch while the logistics wing deals with collection, allocation and dispatch of weapons and ammunition. Another section runs the psychological welfare, which is also one of its reason d’être. Then, there are the usual frills like a joint counter-intelligence bureau, a joint intelligence signal bureau, joint intelligence finance and a public and service group besides other formations to handle a whole lot of activities.
ISI has any number of fronts to carry out its jihad in mission mode. The “Pasban”, a front of the jamaat-e-Islami, and the Jamaat-ul-Fuqra, is identified as fronts. Post 26/11, LeT and its clones have emerged as the new foot-soldiers. The ISI grip over the front footsies became clear during the recent Raymond Davis saga when an orchestrated anti-American frenzy was a controlled implosion that lasted as long as the requirements of back channel dialogue demanded.
According to the author, the ISI used to aid Kashmiri and Sikh terrorists in the initial days of export of terrorism across the LOC. These activities have since been outsourced for tactical reasons, obviously. Much of the funds flowing into Kashmir are routed through the World Kashmir Freedom Movements, the Kashmir American Council and the Public Relief Trusts, the author opines while listing all the major terrorist groups that are linked to the ISI, and which have been active in India now or in the past.
Osama bin Laden phenomenon and Talibanisation are also discussed. Also the Kargil war, which was perpetuated by Gen Pervez Musharraf in his capacity as the army chief of the day. Jury is still out on whether Musharraf took his Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif into confidence before mounting the operation. There is enough evidence on record in public domain to show that Sharif knocked at the White House to ‘save’ Pakistan face on Kargil heights.
The book is dedicated to the martyrs of the Kargil war.
