The infamous name of a woman spy, Mata Hari, has again come to the fore. The Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad (Pakistan) has demanded that the British and Pakistani governments reveal the identity of the woman defence academic linked to the disgraced minilitary attache in the British High Commission at Islamabad, Brig Andrew Durcan.
According to the Dawn, a Pakistani daily, Dr Shireen Mazari, Director-General of the Institute demanded that naming the woman was required to save other academics from unwarranted suspicion in the guessing game.
Brig Durcan was removed from his displmatic assignment about six months ago for carrying on ‘an inappropriate relationship’ with a female defence academic of Pakistan.
Writing in the Hindustan Times (India), Manoj Joshi recalled a similar incident. May be it’s the air in Islamabad, or it could be the wildly attractive Pakistani women. But something seems to take a toll of diplomats stationed there.
In the early Nineties, an Indian naval attache had to be recalled by India when ISI, the intelligence agency of Pakistan videotaped his liasions with a woman and blackmailed him to work for Pakistan. Interestingly, to avenge itself, the Indian navy sent the substitute of the disgraced naval attache, who happened to a heptathlon champion.. Every morning he would bike up to the Margalla Hills adjacent to Islamabad, and then run along the mountain trails overlooking the city. Following up behind them, sometimes after an hour or so, would be a couple of exhausted and footsore ISI minders.
