ABSTRACT
In autumn 1986, the Indian army conducted its largest military exercise ever with over 500,000 soldiers and thousands of tanks training within one hundred miles of the Pakistan border in Rajasthan. Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) and MI spies near the Indian cantonments detected stepped up troop movements and deployment of heavy equipment to forward operation bases closer to the Pakistan border. The Indians were 'becoming dangerously provocative' the Director General of ISI (DGISI) intoned, adding that ISI was increasingly concerned that the Indian leadership was about to 'do something dangerous'. On 23 January 1987, another emergency Defence Committee of the Cabinet was convened at Junejo's residence. According to one participant's account, DGISI Akhtar 'beamed with confidence' as he narrated how ISI had been accurate in its assessment of India's motives. US military attaches in India and Pakistan respectively were allowed into some deployment areas of their host countries to determine if war preparations were underway.
