THE TALE OF TSD or TECHNICAL SERVICES DIVISION

THE TALE OF TSD or Technical Services Division - the tragic tale of Col Hunny Bakshi and the betrayal of capable officers as also the Nation, by those within (from a posting in Quora)

What could have stopped a Pulwama like attack? India did have the capability, but that capability was dismantled. 

This is purportedly the story of the top-secret military intelligence unit of Indian army, TSD (Technical Support Division) and how it was sabotaged by UPA-II govt, hand in gloves with indian media, much to the relief of Pakistani establishment and ISI. And how they ruined the life of some of the finest men in uniform in the process. 

A movie named Aiyaari was based on this unit but it was fictional account, much adulterated, loosing the real account. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

THE FORMATION OF TSD

After 26/11 attacks, Indian military realized the failure and inefficiency of existing Indian intelligence units i.e. RAW and IB to be an effective counter against the increasing terror threats from Pakistan. They realized that these organizations have become too large and unwieldy. ISI and Pakistani establishment has successfully infiltrated them at various levels through sustained efforts for years.

After 26/11 attack, the then NSA, M.K Narayanan, met heads of all spy and security agencies individually to find out if they had the capability to attack home bases of terror groups in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. None had. So Narayanan asked military intelligence to raise a team which has the capability to fight back the enemy. To answer them in the language they understand.

Hence, DGMI(Director-General of Military Intelligence) decided to form a top secret, covert military intelligence unit, with some of the finest, very efficient, incorruptible military intelligence officers with highest level of integrity and willingness to sacrifice everything for their country. 

Lt Gen R.K. Loomba, then DGMI, approached the new chief, General V.K. Singh, saying that he could raise and train a Special Ops team. Singh gave his go-ahead and so TSD was formed.

Loomba then handpicked one of his finest spies, Colonel Hunny Bakshi, to raise and train the unit. Bakshi is among the few officers who joined the DGMI directly from the Indian Military Academy. While serving in J&K he risked his life to save a Brigadier who was ambushed by terrorists. In 2006, he went for his intelligence training to Israel. After training, Mossad's supposed to have offered him a blank cheque to stay permanently and work for them. Apparently, he has turned out to possess exceptional ability to gather intelligence and displaying outstanding spying skills. But he turned down the offer and returned to India after training.

A FEW GOOD MEN

In 2010, TSD was formed with Colonel Hunny Bakshi as its commanding officer, 5 other officers of his choice and 32 other subordinates.

Bakshi’s first pick was Lt Col Vinay B. aka Birdie, who had served in the RAW. He was Bakshi’s point man against terrorist groups in the northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.

Lt Col Sarvesh D. was the second man to be picked. The veteran skydiver with 3,000 jumps under his belt commanded an Army company during the Kargil war. Later, he was part of a special action group of the National Security Guard. During a counter-terrorist operation in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, Sarvesh sensed that his men were in danger and barged into a house where Afghan terrorists were holed up. He killed them all and saved his men.

No 3 was Lt Col Alfred B., a seasoned negotiator. While serving with 28 Assam Rifles, he created assets in the dreaded United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). These assets were later used to persuade the ULFA leadership to come to a truce with the Army, which ensured peace in Assam for quite a while..

Lt Col Zir was the fourth. Known for his wide network among terror groups in the northeast, Zir had brought about the cease-fire deal with the Dima Halim Daogah ultras of Assam. He had played a key role in the arrest of some DHD leaders. Zir gathered crucial intelligence on arms trafficking into India from Myanmar and helped intercept consignments.

Bakshi’s best pick, perhaps, was Lt Col Anurag aka Naughty. Diabetic and overweight, he looked quite unlike an Army spy. Many laughed when Bakshi picked him. But, they soon found that he could walk for miles through the hilly Jammu and Kashmir terrain with a walking stick for support. A master in cultivating assets among the terrorist groups, he was the one who helped the Army identify the real troublemakers during the stone-pelting protests in Kashmir in the summer of 2010 and putting down the unrest.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS

The going was good for a short while. The intelligence inputs provided by unit helped a great deal in putting down 2010 Kashmir unrest. Many covert operations were done by the team, including ones in the northeast and in Pakistan. Especially highlighted was one in an Inter-Services Intelligence office in Faisalabad, Pakistan. 

For the first time in past 20 years, Pakistani military and intelligence were on their back foot. They had put in a great deal of efforts to infiltrate all major institutions in India including RAW but here was a unit about which they were totally in dark and it was giving ISI sleepless nights. They were clueless about its operational procedure and feared from it far more than RAW.

“The unit was working very efficiently. It was an asset for the Army and the country,” said Loomba, about the TSD. It reportedly conducted 8 covert operations in neighboring countries with 100 percent success rate. 

But it was not only ISI which was troubled. More troubled from TSD were the corrupt elites of Lutyens Delhi. Some of them did Hawala transactions with ISI and passed on crucial information to it. Many politicians were on payroll of Dawood Ibrahim and narcotics mafia. And all of them feared exposure.

THE WORMS IN THE WOODWORK

During the tenure of VK Singh as army chief, Retd. Lt Gen Tejinder Singh was an arms dealer who tried to offer a bribe of 14 crores to General VK Singh for clearing a tranche of "sub-standard" Tatra trucks for the force. As trucks were of poor quality, overpriced and had issues of underperformance, VK Singh refused to sanction the deal and stalled procurement order approved by his predecessor. So as to make VK Singh fall in line, Tejinder Singh decided to blackmail him. Being an ex-army man himself, he used his connections to fetch details about TSD. He bribed a clerk of TSD named Shyam Das to get classified information from him about TSD. He threatened VK Singh to leak information about TSD to media. 

TSD has purchased off-air mobile interception equipment from a Singapore-based company in November 2010 to monitor phone conversations. When VK Singh refused to budge, Tejinder leaked information to media about TSD and rumours started spreading about TSD using the mobile interceptor to snoop on phone conversations of then defence minister A.K. Antony and other defence ministry officials. Many powerful elites of Lutyens were rattled due to this information. All their dirty secrets were under threat of exposure. Although Lt. Tejinder Singh was arrested later on by the CBI on bribe charges, but the damage to TSD was already done by then.

THE ROT WITHIN

TSD unit during its snooping realized how deep the rot goes in Indian establishment. It found out that it goes right up to the very top during UPA II rule. Many ministers in UPA II felt insecure about TSD operations so they decided to use the army hierarchy to shut down the TSD. Some senior army officers easily became a party to political manoeuvring despite adverse impact on army capability and national security because TSD was also challenging orthodox military hierarchy. While ordinary military intelligence had to follow procedures and wait a long time to get funds released, TSD was directly reporting to the army chief VK Singh, having no intermediaries. There was no paucity of funds for TSD. It made many in the top brass of military jealous of TSD and its officers having direct access to the chief.

Till VK Singh remained army chief, he shielded TSD from all pressures within the army and from outside political pressure. But after his retirement in 2012, TSD and its officers were left on their own without any support. 

Soon an inquiry was conducted by Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia who was the then Director General Military Operations (DGMO) on the directions of defence minister A.K. Antony, at Army Headquarters. The inquiry stated that the TSD had claimed to have carried out at least eight covert operations in a foreign country. It had also paid money from secret service funds to try and enrol the secessionist chief in a province of a neighbouring country. There were also allegations of unaccounted diversion of funds for various illegal purposes although they were based much on unsubstantiated rumours.

Under political pressure, the new army chief Bikram Singh suspended all its operations and virtually disbanded it. Files related to TSD were burnt and all sophisticated surveillance equipment worth crores were destroyed. TSD was thus disbanded. The internal enemies of India dealt a heavy blow to the country’s security. But the ordeal of TSD officers was only getting started, they were yet to pay the price of serving their motherland.

THE WITCH HUNT

Officers and troops of the TSD have since been subjected to several inquiries, but nothing unlawful has been established to date. As no charges held water, the officers were shunted out to nondescript jobs. The ill-treatment of these officers was never-ending.

The leader of the team, Bakshi, is with a unit in Ladakh, where his job is to count snow-jackets and shoes being stocked for the winter. Despite being close to the Chinese border the super spy has no role in monitoring activities of Chinese troops. Shattered by the hostility shown to him by colleagues and seniors, Bakshi underwent psychiatric treatment in a Delhi hospital. 

His wife told the defence ministry and the prime minister Modi that he has developed suicidal tendencies. His son, an engineering student in a college outside Delhi, fears payback from those his father took on, while in the TSD. His wife admitted that he has been subjected to “extreme humiliation, indignity and fear by the hands of the top-most hierarchy of the country’s Army”.

All top guns of the TSD are in Bakshi’s predicament. 

Birdie is with the Military Engineering Services in Shillong, where he oversees plumbers and masons who maintain the official quarters of Air Force officers. 

Sarvesh, the skydiver, maintains land records of a small formation in Jharkhand. 

Alfred used to manage a poly-clinic in Deolali in Maharashtra. After his father, a retired Major, wrote to the Army that his son was threatening to kill himself, Alfred was posted closer to home—as a National Cadet Corps officer in Rajasthan. 

Zir is at a poly-clinic in Karnataka, clearing medical bills of retired officers and jawans. 

Naughty, too, is with a medical facility in Madhya Pradesh. 

More than the humiliation of these postings, the officers are tormented by the strain on their families. Two are facing divorce proceedings, with their wives alleging prolonged years of separation. 

THE VICTIMS AND AFTERMATH

 As a DGMI officer stated:

“Covert capability is supposed to be covert and there is always the factor of deniability. But, if our own people start documenting the deeds of intelligence officers and start feeding it to the media, then we are destroying our present and future assets.” 

Needless to say that after TSD was disbanded, the terror activities against India surged again. 

- India suffered Pathankot and Uri attacks in succession.

- Protests in Kashmir have risen to an all-time high level.

- Pulwama was a direct result of Intelligence failure along with increased radicalisation of Kashmiri youth. 

India has a country has been rendered weak and exposed to external threats, all due to vested political interests and corrupt nexus of UPA ministers, officials, media presstitutes etc.

NOTE : Finally, in March 2018, all charges against Col Hunny Bakshi were dropped by military court, but not before causing irreparable damage to the all TSD officers’ morale and their lives. Thus a brilliant unit was scrapped, and its officers continue to live their life in misery and ignominy, as a punishment for serving their nation with all their hearts and souls and India was once again left exposed for its enemies to attack.

https://www.quora.com/What-can-the-government-of-India-do-to-avoid-another-incident-like-the-Pulwama-attack-upon-the-Indian-soldiers