India gave Kargil tapes to Sharif a week before release
RITU SARIN
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NEW DELHI, OCT 24: "This is Pakistan. Give me room No 83315...'' Thus began the ill-fated telephone conversation between Lt General Mohammed Aziz, Pakistan's Chief of General Staff and his boss, the Army Chief General Parvez Musharraf. The General was in a hotel room in Beijing, speaking secrets on an open trunk line and somewhere in the skies above, the listening posts were whirring.
At least two conversations of May 26 and May 29 -- when the Kargil hills were afire -- between the two Pakistani Generals were picked up and ``bull's eye'' was the phrase resounding in the headquarters of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). By June 1, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and members of the Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) had heard the tapes.
And by June 4, India had taken the audacious step of delivering the Musharraf tapes, along with a written transcript to Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself.
If the Musharraf tapes were India's biggest intelligence breakthrough during Kargil, theundercover operation of handing them over to Islamabad was equally significant. A series of high-level meetings were held to discuss it and it was decided that the best way to convince the Pakistanis about the authenticity of the tapes was to let them listen to Aziz and Musharraf talking Kargil. But who would courier the sensitive cargo?
A via-media between a diplomatic mission and purely a Track-Two option was found. R K Mishra of the Observer group, who was in Australia, was asked to return to New Delhi and assigned the job. Fearing detection, or maybe just a cumbersome baggage search at the airport, the big-wigs at North Block decided Mishra must have the cover of diplomatic immunity. MEA's Joint Secretary, Vivek Katju was asked to board the PIA flight along with Mishra and either on the night of June 3 or June 4, the duo landed in Islamabad.
The Indian Embassy worked late that night, as the Musharraf tapes were played and re-played for senior members of the mission.
Those in the know say thatMishra's appointment with Nawaz Sharif was fixed by a senior member of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for the breakfast hour the following morning. Mishra went alone at about 8:30 am, handed over the tape and transcript and apparently made it known that this was just a sample of the ``evidence'' of military involvement in possession of New Delhi. It is not known whether Sharif listened to his military commanders' conversations in front of the Indian emissary or did so afterwards. What is known is that a worried-looking premier said he would look into the contents and act accordingly. Mishra and Katju left for New Delhi the same evening, mission accomplished. Mishra now says he is not willing to talk about his visit to Islamabad and says if anyone is talking about his assignment, they were being ``irresponsible.''
From the Indian viewpoint, the Musharraf tapes nailed Pakistan's lie that the Kargil intrusions were a non-military affair. Two, they exposed the fact that Musharraf and his fellow commanderswere dealing with Nawaz strictly on a need-to-know basis. The Indian A team, which included former RAW Secretary, Arvind Dave, National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had calculated that once brought face to face with such evidence -- and the hint of more tapes and wire-taps in India's possession -- the Kargil situation might improve.
On June 11 -- a full week after Sharif had heard the tapes and on the eve of Sartaj Aziz's India visit -- that the conversations were made public at a press conference, though everyone was left guessing on the source for the intelligence scoop.
Members of the intelligence community are still hesitant to talk about how and where the Aziz-Musharraf conversations were mapped, saying it would be unwise for India to talk about such capabilities. But the fact that this was ``our own'' handiwork (and not that of the CIA, for instance) is well known by now. Those who have heard the tapes say the conversations are more audible fromthe Aziz end, indicating that the listening posts got their break over Islamabad, not Beijing.
Others say that the manner in which Musharraf discussed operational details of the Kargil war on a public line was typical of Pakistan's new commander-in-chief. But Musharraf is optimistic: he has ordered an inquiry and has decided to turn the tables on Nawaz and make the phone-tapping incident part of the chain of conspiracy against him.
What the tapes contain
May 26
(The Army Chief is informed that India has begun strafing and bombing their positions from high altitude.)
Lt Gen Aziz to Gen Musharraf: ``The situation is that we are along our defensive Line of Control...they (India) are not agreed on the demarcation under UNs verification, whereas we are agreed. We want to exploit it."
Musharraf: Has this MI-17 not fallen in our area?
Aziz: No sir. This has fallen in their area. We have not claimed it. We have got it claimed through the Mujahideen.
Musharraf:Well done.
May 29
(The day Indian air-strikes began)
Musharraf to Aziz: ``The door of discussion, dialogue must be kept open and rest, no change in ground situation.''
Aziz: ``We told him (Nawaz Sharif) there is no reason of alarm and panic. Then he said that I came to know 7 days back, when Corps Commanders were told. The entire reason for the success of this operation was this total secrecy.''
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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