Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, has disclosed in his latest book, ‘Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan,’ that Pakistan's spy agency ISI tipped off India about an impending al-Qaeda plot in Kashmir in June 2019.
Bisaria recounted the late-night phone call that kickstarted this unexpected collaboration, stating, "A few days later in June, I received a phone call in Islamabad at two in the morning. My caller was a contact close to the ISI, and I assumed he was calling me simply because he was up late like most folks in Islamabad awaiting the sehri meal in the month of Ramzan."
The call, initially perceived as routine, took a serious turn as the ISI insider revealed specific details about an al-Qaeda attack planned for Kashmir.
"I asked if this information had been conveyed through the normal military channels, the DGMO hotline. I was told it might have been, but that the ISI leadership was keen to escalate the information to my level so that I could convey this to India," Bisaria explains, highlighting the unusual diplomatic channel used for such sensitive information.
Concerned about potential manipulations, Bisaria passed on the tip-off to India, expressing, "It turned out that this was a genuine enough tip-off when an attack was indeed attempted close to the predicted time and place. This was an unusual input that Pakistan seemed to be giving to India."
Delving into the motivations behind this unconventional communication, Bisaria speculates, "One theory about why the high commission was used as a channel was that the ISI was taking no chances and wanted no repeat of Pulwama; it wanted to make it clear at a political level it was not involved with the revenge attack being planned, but was only giving India a friendly tip-off with a piece of intercepted intelligence."
As the story unfolds, another layer emerges involving General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the army chief, who, through the ISI, aimed to "improve the atmospherics in the relationship in the run-up to the Bishkek summit of 14 June." The hope was that Pakistan's sincerity about enhancing relations would register on the Indian side.