New Delhi: Ajit Doval, the National security adviser (NSA) went to Iraq on a secret mission to steer India's diplomatic outreach to bring home 46 nurses as well as help thousands of other Indians leave the violence-torn country.
Their missions, which were kept secret at the time, were powered by phone calls from External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to her counterparts in the region.
At the end of June, the situation for both the 46 nurses in Tikrit as well as 39 men in Mosul seemed bleak, with no real intelligence on rebel groups that were in charge of them and why they were being forcibly held.
Faced with a grim situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Doval to convene a high-level meeting to discuss the latest intelligence on the fighting in Tikrit and Mosul, as well as the possibilities for a mass evacuation of “all Indians in Iraq, if necessary.”
A day after the meeting, on June 25, Doval went on a top secret mission to Iraq to understand the position on the ground and make high-level contacts in the Iraqi government.
Ajit Doval who belonged to Kerala cadre but never worked in the State; the real hero of the rescue operation is no stranger to such undercover operations.
He had retired as IB director and Modi brought him back as NSA with the mandate to monitor countries abroad. The announcement that Ajit Doval was made NSA saw Dawood Ibrahim go underground.
Doval had gone underground and surfaced in Pakistan to come back to India with a dossier on Pakistan N-Plant. Laldenga, founder of Mizoram National Front an outlawed outfit signed a peace accord with India, the reason being Ajit Doval went to Mynamar and came back with six commanders of the front.
Before the comduct of Operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple, there was an Operation Blue Thunder. A Pakistan ISI agent met Bhindranwale and he surfaced in Delhi as Doval with a file on the evidence of the neighbour helping Khalistan movement.
Ajit Doval flew to Damascus and used the Syrian agencies who had contacts with the ISISI .
Though ISISI had declared war on Syria, there are many non-State actors who are friends of the dissidents. These agencies were friends of the master spy of India.
