RAWALPINDI: Lt. Gen (R) Asad Durrani’s name placed on ECL, Name of Lt. Gen (R) Asad Durrani has been placed on ECL by Interior Ministry on the recommendation of MI Directorate Tuesday 29th of May here.
MI held that an enquiry was going on against him regarding his oeuvre The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI, and the Illusion of Peace that he co-authored with former chief of Indian agency RAW.
Earlier DG ISPR took to the twitter to inform that Durrani had been called at GHQ to explain his position on the recently launched book. He further stated a formal Court of Inquiry headed by a serving Lt. General had been ordered to probe the matter in detail. DG ISPR also told that competent authority had been approached to place his name on ECL.
Relevant pieces published earlier:
i) Lt. General Asad Durrani (R) has been called at General Head Quarter (GHQ) today to explain his position on recently launched book Spy Chronicles: RAW/ISI and the Illusion of Peace. FIA has been contacted for support in the probe while competent authority has been contacted in order to place the former top spook’s name on ECL. According to details former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt. General (Retd.) Asad Durrani had been summoned at GHQ to explain his co-authoring a book with ex-Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) head Amarjit Singh Daulat and Indian journalist Aditya Sinha in violation of Military Code of Conduct applicable to all serving and retired military personnel. The volume presents the observations (about issues like Kashmir, Hafiz Saeed, 26/11, Kulbhushan Jadhav, Osama Bin Laden, Surgical Strikes, US/Russian/Indo-Pak Relations etc). (28th of May, 2018)
ii) ISI chief Lt. General Asad Durrani (R) has been called in General Head Quarters (GHQ) on Monday 28th of May to explain his position on views attributed to him in the book The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, he co-authored with former RAW chief A.S. Dulat and journalist Aditya Sinha. It is pertinent to mention here that the book was released jointly by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Vice-president Hamid Ansari, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha at an event held in New Delhi. Since Asad Durrani was not granted visa by the Indian government, he could not attend the launching ceremony. On the occasion of the book launch, Durrani’s pre-recorded video message was played: “… a very special thank to the Indian deep state. “By denying me the visa, they have saved me from the wrath of our hawks. They will be happy to know that I have not yet been cleared by the South Block (which houses India’s PMO and Ministries of Defense and External Affairs).”
According to details journalist, Aditya Sinha had conducted dialogues between the two chiefs of Indo-Pak spy agencies and discussion had been penned in Spy Chronicles. Topics like Kashmir, Kulbhushan Jadhav, Balochistan, surgical strikes etc. are dealt with in the volume. Durrani said that the oeuvre was a literary collaboration… simply a case of two people with experience in Indo-Pak affairs joining hands to discuss their respective perspectives. Maintaining that the focus of criticism should be on the book and not the authors, Durrani stated that those who were criticizing the book had not read it and were simply reacting to distorted news items. Voicing his reservation, former chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani pointed out that a politician would have been termed a traitor for co-authoring such a volume. Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif demanded emergency National Security Council (NSC) meeting to discuss the situation. One may recall on 14th of this month, a meeting of the NSC had been called to discuss his ‘Mumbai’ statement. (26th May 2018)
