New Delhi: Former Indian spy chief A.S. Dulat, whose new book on Kashmir has stirred a hornet’s nest in the disputed state, says he wants future talks with Pakistan to openly or quietly involve intelligence agencies from both sides to improve the chances of a durable solution.

Mr Dulat served as a ranking officer at the secretive Intelligence Bureau (IB) before taking over as the head of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) during the Vajpayee era.

He said on Saturday that he had met everyone among Jammu and Kashmir’s “separatist leadership” except Syed Ali Shah Geelani. “I would be happy if I could meet him.”

Some of the Kashmiris he named as accepting help or money from Indian spies denied the claims on Saturday. Yasin Malik, the chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, laughed away the claims of being given air tickets. “Is that what we are worth, some air tickets?”

The Hizbul Mujahideen said Mr Dulat’s claim that Hizb chief Syed Salahuddin had called up a senior IB officer to seek a seat for his son in a medical college was a “Himalayan lie” aimed at defaming their “freedom struggle”.

Indian Express said Mr Salahuddin’s son, Dr Wahid, dismissed Mr Dulat’s allegations as a “distortion” that sought to “malign the image” of his father. Stating that he was selected “on the basis of merit”, he said the only “favour” granted was that he was allowed to shift from Jammu college to Srinagar college because of “security concerns”.

OPEN INTERACTION: Advocating an open interaction between the spies of the two sides in each other’s country, Mr Dulat regretted in his book -- Kashmir The Vajpayee Years -- that he never met either of the two ISI chiefs – Gen Ziauddin Butt and General Mahmud -- during his time in office in Delhi.

“It’s not that I was overly keen to meet the ISI chief, but it is strange that I met the CIA chief, the Mossad chief, the Russian intelligence service chief – and even the inscrutable head of the Chinese secret service.

“Meeting other chiefs was a part of the job. One needed to maintain liaison with other services. What didn’t make sense was never liaising with the ISI chief.”

Mr Dulat also pointed out another absurdity in the postures between India and Pakistan when their ties hit rough weather. “The CIA and KGB never stopped talking to each other even during the worst days of the Cold War; it is documented that during the Cuban missile crisis at the height of the Cold War, US president John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev were writing and talking to one another. Whereas we, at the drop of a hat, stop talking to the Pakistanis.”

After leaving government, Mr Dulat worked with his former counterparts in Pakistan to promote the idea that spooks from both sides talk to each other. “I even wrote a paper about it with former ISI chief Asad Durrani, whom I often met at meetings of retired intelligence chiefs.”

Mr Dulat said making one of RAW’s posts in Islamabad “an open post on a reciprocal basis would be a good idea”. There was useful cooperation occasionally even without a public post in either country, though.

He wrote that the ISI “acknowledges” timely intelligence provided by RAW about a likely Jaish-i-Mohammed attack might have saved president Pervez Musharraf’s life. “Musharraf himself is said to have acknowledged it,” Mr Dulat wrote.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play