Former RAW chief, AK Verma has a contrarian take on the former head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, who passed away recently. General Gul has been described in the mainstream media as a ‘monster’. He is alleged to be the ‘originator and perpetrator of terrorism against India’. But Verma claims there is another side to his story that needs re-telling.
“In early 1988, General Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s President, expressed concern that the Pakistan Army was consuming almost 48% of the nation’s budget,” Verma writes in The Hindu. Zia sought a meeting between the intelligence chiefs of India and Pakistan to explore the possibilities. In order to mediate between the two sides, the General approached the then-Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan.
Move Towards Peace Talks
India agreed to the proposal immediately when Prince Hassan carried it forward. Subsequently, the intelligence chiefs of the two countries met in Amman.
The final agreement between the two Intelligence Chiefs envisaged: a) withdrawal of the Pakistani forces to the west to the ground level of the Saltoro mountains; b) giving up of Pakistani claims to territory from NJ9842 to the Karakoram pass; c) the Line of Control to run North from NJ9842 along the western ground level of Saltoro exactly North till the Chinese border; and d) reduction of Pakistani troop strength by two divisions with corresponding adjustments on the Indian side.
— AK Verma in The Hindu
As if to cement this relationship, Gen Hamid Gul also decided to return four Sikh soldiers who had defected to Pakistan following the Indian Army’s assault on the Golden Temple. The four were handed over to the BSF from a previously specified location and date. The BSF was never told how the release had been made possible.
Talks Derailed
The Defence Secretaries of the two countries were already scheduled to meet. However, the day the Indian defence delegation left for Pakistan coincided with the shocking announcement that Gen Zia-ul-Haq had been killed in a plane crash. Pakistan subsequently refused to meet the Indian delegation.
In Pakistan, the only person aware of this covert operation was the Pakistani High Commissioner, Niaz Naik. He died under mysterious circumstances. Gen Hamid Gul was ousted as the Director General of the ISI as a civilian government took over Pakistan.
When the Indian authorities made efforts to pick up the threads of the covert operation, they were told that no such operation was ever carried out. There was not a single paper in the Pakistani records which would testify to its existence.
In light of these revelations, Gen Gul emerges as the principal architect of the new Zia line in Pakistan, which, if it was allowed to fructify, could have taken the Indo-Pak relationship on a completely different trajectory. Is it time we retold the story of Lt Gen Gul with its many intricacies, and not stick to the one-sided ‘perpetrator of terrorism’ narrative?
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