Military Digest: Operation Reverse Osmosis – The Sting

ISI operatives Tahir Khan (foreground) and Abid Hussain (background) photographed at their first rendezvous with their Indian contact at a Karol Bagh restaurant in February this year.

Indian military intelligence (MI) is a shadowy organisation as befits any body in the business of intelligence-gathering, counter-intelligence and security (securing one's own personnel, documents, plans and secrets). It operates through a large number of intelligence-gathering units located on the nation's borders and in insurgency-hit areas and what are euphemistically called liaison units spread all over the country. Though lacking resources, the MI has done a remarkably good job particularly in the Kashmir Valley.

Recently the specialised unit keeping the National Capital Region (NCR) safe from spies targeting the military's secrets scored a success in the unending spy game using innovative methods and some fine work by its personnel. It was a classic sting operation in intelligence terms with the bounty of exposing two Pakistani intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover. Not some spur of the moment thing but a carefully crafted operation spread over a period of some months to trap the…