HONOUR AMONG SPIES

HONOUR AMONG SPIES   by LT. GEN. (R) EX - ISI CHIEF ASAD DURRANI

 In May 2018, a book was published that set off a perfect storm in the intelligence circles in the subcontinent, and made people in the spy community sit up around the world. What made The Spy Chronicles unusual was that two of its authors, A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani, co-writing with journalist Aditya Sinha, had headed their respective spy agencies — Dulat had been chief of India's RAW, and Lt Gen. Durrani of Pakistan's ISI.

More remarkably, these former chiefs of two of the most powerful spy agencies in the world, which were also bitter rivals, discussed the necessity for peace and how the relationship between their two countries could be improved. The fallout of the book would result in Lt Gen. Durrani, a man who has been spoken of as one of the clearest and sharpest thinkers to head the ISI, being put on the exit control list and having his pension revoked.

Honour Among Spies is a fictional account of a spy who is sent out into the cold, but one that reflects all too accurately the predicament of a distinguished officer fighting to protect his reputation. Woven into the novel is a throwback to another famous incident the raid on Osama bin Laden, about whose hideaway and the raid itself Lt Gen. Durrani had made some prescient comments. These and other elements come together in this taut battle of wits that takes forward, in a way, the narrative of The Spy Chronicles.

  The Author:

 LIEUTENANT GENERAL ASAD DURRANI is a retired three-star rank general of the Pakistan Army. He previously served as the Director-General of the Pakistan Armys Military Intelligence in 1988-89 and the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence in 1990-91. He is the author of Pakistan Adrift: Navigating Troubled Waters and co-author, along with A.S. Dulat and Aditya Sinha, of The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace.