Indian Military has been involved in sensitive covert operations in Pakistan as well as their homeland India.
A special unit called Technical Services Division was setup by Indian Army Chief General Vijay Kumar Singh for sensitive covert operations in Pakistan for assisinating alledged Mumbai Attack Mastermind, Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
"Our main task was to combat the rising trend of state-sponsored terrorism by the ISI and we had developed contacts across the Line of Control in a bid to infiltrate Hafiz Saeed’s inner circle," an Official who served with the controversial Technical Services Division said.
Army documents, reveal the Senior-Most Officers signed off on the formation of this Unit. File No A/106/TSD and 71018/ MI give details of approvals by the Director General Military Intelligence, Vice-Chief and Chief of Army Staff.
However, soon the unit started spiying on Indian Defence Ministry Officials through off-the-air interceptors - was raised as a strategic force multiplier for preparing, planning and executing special operations "Inside depth areas of countries of interest and countering enemy efforts within the country by effective covert means."
The TSD - which reported directly to General VK Singh - also used Secret Service Funds to initiate a PIL against Current Chief General Bikram Singh.
Reported during October 2012, secret funds were paid to an NGO to file the PIL, in a bid to stall Bikram Singh’s appointment as Chief of Staff.
Though covert operations were formally shut down by Indar Kumar Gujral when he was Prime Minister in 1997, sources reveal the TSD carried out several such operations within and outside the country — such as Operation Rehbar 1, 2 and 3 in Kashmir, Operation Seven Sisters in North-Eastern India and Operation Deep Strike in Pakistan.
Furthermore, the TSD also tapped the phones of J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and of his colleagues in the Cabinet during the protracted faceoff in 2011 between the government and the Army over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
Snooping activities by TSD were first picked up by the J&K Police in Jammu, and the Chief Minister was subsequently informed. It was a DIG-Level Officer of the J&K Police who apprised his Senior Officers about alleged surveillance activity being carried out from the Sunjwan camp in Jammu and a private house rented by the TSD in a housing colony at Channi Himmat in Jammu.
A Police Team was deployed to cross-check, and it came back with the confirmation. Moreover, the snooping was also confirmed to the Chief Minister later by a Senior Army Officer.
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