Return of the Superspy
The New Indian Express
By Yatish Yadav, 8th June 2014
No spymaster before him is so
fabled for running meticulously conceived anti-terror operations deep inside
enemy territory. He has personally trained agents in the dangerous art of
exhaustive reconnaissance of insurgent hideouts in troubled Kashmir, at great
risk to life and liberty. He has spent decades tirelessly tracking down
suspected militants in the treacherous terrain of the North-East, infiltrating
terrorist outfits in Punjab, conducting dangerous counter-insurgency missions,
and, most importantly, acting as the father figure for India’s intelligence
operatives working thousands of miles away from home running covert operations
that no other Indian agency—perhaps with the exception of the Technical
Services Division dismantled by General Bikram Singh— had dared to attempt in
the past.
Ajit Kumar Doval, 69, former
Director of Intelligence Bureau and now the new National Security Adviser in
Narendra Modi’s government, is a revered figure in the secret world of Indian
espionage. The ‘Master’ as a field agent had successfully broken the back of
the North-East insurgency in 1986 in an undercover operation that gave him
lasting fame—the defection of 6 out of 7 commanders of Laldenga’s outfit to the
Indian cause, forcing the secessionist leader to sign the peace accord. In his
heydays as an operative, Doval’s addiction to danger, instead of safely
spending life behind a babu’s desk in the North Block, drafting and signing INT
reports, marked him for greatness. As a young man, he was a thrill seeker—in
the Eighties, the 1968 Kerala batch IPS officer, a master at disguise and
embedded deep undercover in Pakistan for almost six years, pulled off daring
coups that left ISI clueless. With years of experience in dealing with
insurgency and terrorism in Kashmir, the new NSA is expected to shake up New
Delhi’s moribund security establishments paralysed by UPA’s inaction and
inter-organisational politics. Veteran intelligence analysts feel the Doval
Effect will also impact the PMO’s aggressive foreign policy towards Pakistan
and China.
Hours after the formal
announcement of his appointment last week, terrorist chatter on the Kashmir
border revealed that terror commanders in Pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK) are on
knife edge. India’s Most Wanted Dawood Ibrahim, who is the ISI’s prized guest
in Karachi, immediately shifted his base closer to the lawless Pak-Afghan
border. Doval’s experience in covert actions deep into enemy territory left the
don fearing an unexpected Osama-like op. The legend of Doval, who for the next
five years will command Indian security and Intelligence to ruthlessly protect
Indian interests, stands to be reborn again.
DC Pathak, former Director of
the Intelligence Bureau, who had worked with Doval, says the government’s
choice of NSA is perfectly tailored to the task. “The challenges and problems
we face are well known to all. Now we have the right man for the job. I have
always advocated someone with field operations background should be the NSA,”
feels Pathak. Some of the best spies in the CIA, Mossad and the now defunct KGB
with field experience as either soldiers or spooks make it to senior positions
in government and intelligence across the world.
Sometime in 1988. Residents of
Amritsar around the Golden Temple where Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale once held
sway, and Khalistani militants spotted a rickshawpuller plying his trade. He
was new in the area and he looked ordinary enough. The suspicious militants put
him on their watch list. It took 10 days for them to make contact; or for him
to approach them, as the confusing game of spycraft unfurled within the sacred
precincts. The rickshaw puller convinced the militants that he was an ISI
operative, who had been sent by his Pakistani masters to help the Khalistan
cause. Two days before Operation Black Thunder, the rickshaw-puller entered the
Golden Temple and returned with crucial information, including the actual
strength and positions of the terrorists inside the shrine. He was none other
than Ajit Doval undercover. When the final assault came, the young police
officer was inside Harminder Sahib, streaming much needed information to
security forces to carry out search-and-flush operations.
“His piercing gaze and
mysterious smile is etched in my memory forever,” says an intelligence officer
who met Doval after Operation Black Thunder. “The risk was high but our
security forces got the blueprint for the attack from Doval. Maps, details like
strength, weapons and the location where militants was hiding were given by
him. The IB passed over the information to NSG, saving countless lives and
preventing further damage to the temple,” he recollects.
Doval’s bravery and ingenuity
earned him the Kirti Chakra, the first cop to win the gallantry award,
previously given to Army officers only. Similarly, his operations in the ’80s
in Mizoram had an unprecedented success rate in eliminating and effecting the
surrender of important insurgent leaders. Doval’s strategy was to use
information from agents on the ground to keep a tight leash on rebels while
covert operations were carried out against hardcore anti-nationals. An
intelligence officer, who served under Doval, describes his informal style
towards trusted agents engaged in field operations. They were encouraged to
“live” their roles and could come to work dressed anyway they liked, with no
questions asked.
“We were not required to dress
like babus,” the officer recalls. “Operatives would come in kurta pajamas and
lungis, wearing sandals. Anyone preparing for an op deep inside enemy territory
was allowed to grow a beard ‘to get into the role.’ Others could hire maulvis
to learn Urdu and Arabic. As part of their cover, some agents spent days
learning shoe-making and later worked as mochis in targeted areas including
foreign countries. Doval saab himself is expert in Urdu,” the officer adds
proudly.
The surrender of the dreaded
Kashmiri militant Kuka Parray was a feather in Doval’s cap in the Nineties.
Such was his acumen that, armed with terrorist psycho profiles, he was able to
brainwash and persuade Parray and gang to become counter-insurgents. “He met
Parray sometime in the 1990s and motivated him to help the government,”
confides a serving intelligence operative who had seen action in Kashmir as a
young man, refusing to divulge further details. Parray and his outfit Ikhwan-e-Muslimoon,
neutralised top militant commanders in the Valley with the help of the Indian
Army. Turning Parray was a political victory as well; the operation enabled the
Centre to subsequently hold the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in 1996.
Parray, who became an MLA, was killed in a terrorist ambush later. The official
says then “New Delhi” was not certain Doval would succeed, being aware of the
complex political situation. But, the coup earned him the respect of even his
staunchest critics within the agency, who were advocating a peacenik policy
with Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits. A master of psychological warfare,
Doval’s role in several near-mythical exploits in Kashmir expanded from being
just a ruthless spymaster to a master-strategist, who brought various
separatists including Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah Maulvi Farooq, and even the
hawkish pro-Pak SAS Geelani to the negotiating table.
Intelligence agents admit that
though India’s George Smiley hung up his boots in 2005, he was still
unofficially in the field, directing covert missions. A Wikileaks cable dated
August 2005 had suggested that Doval had planned the failed IB operation to
take out Dawood, who escaped after some bad ’uns in the Mumbai police had
tipped him off. “The reports of Dawood shifting his base in Pakistan appears
credible as Doval has been pursuing him for over a decade,” said an
Intelligence officer.
Doval’s New Strategy
■ Strengthening, reviving and
ensuring coordination among the security and intelligence apparatus that were
systematically dismantled by the previous regime.
■ Maximise the authority of
security agencies undermined by the bureaucratic set-up to deal with cross-
border terrorism.
■ To formulate a firm policy
in dealing with Pakistan and other neighbouring countries known for harbouring
anti-India elements.
■ Strengthening and ensuring
penetration of human intelligence (HUMINT) at district and local level.
■ Launching National
Intelligence Grid for the integration for intelligence.
■ Evolving a uniform
anti-Naxal policy to deal with the menace.
■ Ensuring a system where
innocents are fully protected and cases of those languishing in jail are
expedited.