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<v Speaker 1>Welcome back everyone, and today we're going to be taking

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<v Speaker 1>a journey to a different part of the world in

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<v Speaker 1>the world of espionage. We're going to go to India.

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<v Speaker 1>We've covered a lot in England and some in France,

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<v Speaker 1>and of course a lot in the US. But we're

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<v Speaker 1>not the only countries with spies, so I thought it

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<v Speaker 1>might be interesting to see other spy stories from around

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<v Speaker 1>the world. Today we're looking at the Black Tiger, the

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<v Speaker 1>raw spy who became a Pakistani major. Ravandra Koshik was

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<v Speaker 1>born on April eleven, nineteen fifty two, in Rajasthan, a

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<v Speaker 1>town that sits near the border. His father served in

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<v Speaker 1>the Indian Air Force. The Wars of sixty five and

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<v Speaker 1>seventy one were not distant history for him. There were

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<v Speaker 1>the background noise of childhood. In college, he studied commerce,

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<v Speaker 1>but what stood out was his stage presence. He liked

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<v Speaker 1>to act and he liked to debate, something that intelligence

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<v Speaker 1>officers noticed. In nineteen seventy three of twenty one, he

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<v Speaker 1>told his family he was taking a job in Delhi.

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<v Speaker 1>Stead he entered two years of training with the Research

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<v Speaker 1>and Analysis Wing. They taught him Urdu. They taught him

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<v Speaker 1>the rhythms of Pakistani life. He underwent circumcision. Every official

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<v Speaker 1>Indian record of his existence was eventually erased, and in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventy five he crossed into Pakistan as Nabi Ahmen Shakhir.

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<v Speaker 1>He enrolled at Karachi University and completed a law degree.

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<v Speaker 1>Then he entered the Pakistan Army, not as a frontline officer,

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<v Speaker 1>but as a clerk in the military accounts department. Over

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<v Speaker 1>time he rose to the rank of major. From nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>seventy five to nineteen eighty three, he lived the life completely.

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<v Speaker 1>He was married, they had a son. To his wife

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<v Speaker 1>and colleagues, he was a Pakistani Muslim working inside the

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<v Speaker 1>military system. To raw he was a pipeline the intelligence.

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<v Speaker 1>He passed troop movements, logistical details, a kind of persistent

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<v Speaker 1>in reporting that shapes decisions. Earned him the informal title

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<v Speaker 1>Black Tiger from Indira Gandhi. For nearly eight years, the

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<v Speaker 1>cover held as part of the story that still feels

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<v Speaker 1>almost unreal, total immersion, day after day, year after year,

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<v Speaker 1>while knowing a single slip could end everything. In September

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<v Speaker 1>of nineteen eighty three, the end came through another agent.

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<v Speaker 1>Ross sent a low level operative named yat Masi to

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<v Speaker 1>re establish contact with Koshuk. Pakistani counterintelligence caught Masi. Under pressure,

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<v Speaker 1>he gave up the identity of the man he was

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<v Speaker 1>supposed to meet. Issi arranged a meeting in a park.

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<v Speaker 1>When Kashak arrived, they arrested him. What followed was not

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<v Speaker 1>pleasant interrogation and torture. In Salkot, accounts described two years

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<v Speaker 1>of sustained pressure. He never broken the sense of turning

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<v Speaker 1>against India. In nineteen eighty five, at Pakistani court, suddenced

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<v Speaker 1>him to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

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<v Speaker 1>He spent the next sixteen years moving between prisons. At

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<v Speaker 1>this stage he was in nineteen he was thirty two.

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<v Speaker 1>He was being moved from Salkot to kot law Pot

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<v Speaker 1>to finally Central Jail in my own wally. From inside,

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<v Speaker 1>he managed to smuggle letters to his family in India.

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<v Speaker 1>The tone is not heroic. It is exhausted and bitter,

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<v Speaker 1>and one he had asked in essence whether this was

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<v Speaker 1>but people who sacrifice for a large country like India receive.

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<v Speaker 1>In another written near the end, he said that if

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<v Speaker 1>he had an American agent, he would have been out

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<v Speaker 1>in three days. His health collapsed under the conditions. Pulmonary

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<v Speaker 1>toberculosis and heart disease finished him. He died in two

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<v Speaker 1>thousand and one at the age of forty nine. His

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<v Speaker 1>family learned of the death through unofficial channels. His father,

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<v Speaker 1>the former Air Force officer, reportedly suffered a heart attack

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<v Speaker 1>shortly after receiving the notice. The Indian government never publicly

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<v Speaker 1>acknowledged Kaushik as one of its own during his lifetime

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<v Speaker 1>or even immediately after. There was no diplomatic campaign ever

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<v Speaker 1>for his release, no state recognition. While he was alive,

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<v Speaker 1>the family received modest monthly support than silence for them.

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<v Speaker 1>The silence was the second betrayal. There are complications in

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<v Speaker 1>the record, some details of exact rank, the precise value

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<v Speaker 1>of the intelligency delivered in the full extent of his life,

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<v Speaker 1>family life undercover very across accounts Indian reporting agree on

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<v Speaker 1>the core timeline. Recruitment in the seventies, insertion in seventy five,

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<v Speaker 1>exposure in eighty three, death in two thousand and one.

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<v Speaker 1>Bollywood has circled the story ek the Taiga Romeo Akbar

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<v Speaker 1>Walter without fully owning it. His family has claimed the

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<v Speaker 1>films drew from his life filmmakers have denied it. The

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<v Speaker 1>result is a strange half life. The story is known

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<v Speaker 1>enough to be referenced, but not enough to be settled,

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<v Speaker 1>but makes Kashik's case lingers the completeness of the erasure.

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<v Speaker 1>Most spies retain some thread back to their real identity,

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<v Speaker 1>some safe house, some periodic extraction plan. He lived as

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<v Speaker 1>Nabir Shakir for years, built the family, wore the uniform,

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<v Speaker 1>and still fed information home. When the cover collapsed, there

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<v Speaker 1>was no extraction. There was only the long decline inside

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<v Speaker 1>the prison. The letters he sent are the closest thing

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<v Speaker 1>we have to his final voice. They don't ask for metals.

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<v Speaker 1>They ask a harder question about the reciprocity between the

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<v Speaker 1>individual who disappears for the state and the state that

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<v Speaker 1>prefers the disappearance to remain complete. And that question is

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<v Speaker 1>not unique to India or to the nineteen eighties. In

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<v Speaker 1>that fact, Ravenda Kashik' story is clean in its outline

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<v Speaker 1>and messy in its aftermath. A young man recruited for

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<v Speaker 1>theater and nerve two years of training that rewrote him.

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<v Speaker 1>Eight years inside the target military, sixteen years of imprisonment,

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<v Speaker 1>death of a disease in a Pakistani jail, a title

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<v Speaker 1>Black Tiger that floated for decades without an official owner.

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<v Speaker 1>I think we'll leave it there tonight