Top Indian and Pakistani spooks meet at LSE
LONDON What happens when two former chiefs of intelligence agencies of India and Pakistan meet in London – not covertly but openly in the company of diplomats, students and current operatives in the academic environs of the London School of Economics?
AS Dulat, the former head of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and Ehsanul-Haq, former chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), retired long ago but the event on Friday night was marked by much banter and barbs.
Dulat and Ehsan, who served in their respective offices in the early 2000s, were key players in sensitive issues, often taking adversarial postures and actions, but at LSE they could not agree more with each other on Jammu and Kashmir, terrorism and peace talks. Lost in the air was the theme of the seminar - “Can intelligence services do good?”.
Ehsan dwelt on what he called the “mass uprising in Jammu and Kashmir since July last year”, following the death of jihadi commander Burhan Wani, and harped on the need to resume the stalled dialogue between the two countries. Dulat agreed with him that India had committed “mistakes” and created “a mess” in the state.
Dulat also agreed that talks should be resumed between the two sides, since war is not an option and dialogue is the only way out.
The former RAW chief said: “The magic of it all, as Ehsan-sab said, is mainstreaming and also democracy. The mistakes that we are making, apart from the mess that we have created, still not talking to people, high time we started talking to people…We need to deal with Kashmir in a more civilised manner.
“The PDP-BJP coalition was expected to bring Jammu and Srinagar closer, but it has taken them further apart because Kashmiris have never forgiven the PDP for bringing the RSS into the (Kashmir) valley.
Another point of agreement between the two was the need for cooperation between Indian and Pakistan intelligence agencies.
Dulat also reminded Ehsan of his “relationship” with his Indian counterpart, of India tipping off Pakistan about a potential threat to the life of former president Pervez Musharraf, and of covert talks defusing a major flashpoint in the early 2000s.