It began with hushed conversations in hotels dotted around Asia, and resulted in a nearly unthinkable book: "Spy Chronicles", a secret collaboration by former intelligence chiefs of India and Pakistan that has caused uproar in Islamabad.
The book, published last month, was co-authored by retired General Asad Durrani, head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) between 1990 and 1992, and his counterpart A.S Dulat, who led India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) from 1999-2000.
They are the two most powerful intelligence agencies in the neighbouring countries, who have been fierce adversaries since Partition in 1947. "The CIA and the KGB had lines of communication, even at the height of the Cold War. But ISI and RAW don't," Indian journalist Aditya Sinha, who facilitated the conversations, told AFP.
The project, which he said was conducted covertly, took two and a half years to complete. It required four marathon sessions in neutral territory - Istanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu - organised on the sidelines of meetings between Indian and Pakistani officials seeking to hold dialogue.
"We did not wear overcoats or glasses. But the two chiefs have a lifetime habit of being discreet," Sinha said. "We met in each other's hotel rooms. In (Kathmandu), we found a corner of a lobby. If somebody came near our corner, everybody would stop talking."
In India, where New Delhi's Kashmir policy has been severely and widely criticised, "Spy Chronicles" received a fairly positive reception and Dulat gave televised interviews. Late last month in Pakistan, Durrani was summoned by the military to explain himself. He was also forbidden to leave the country.
He was not given permission to write the book, military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told a press conference on Monday, adding: "When you commit a mistake there will be a strong reaction".
"When this book went out, there was a lot of political pressure. The army had to do something," says former Pakistani general Saad M. Khan. Pakistan, which has been ruled for nearly half its 70-year history by the military, is a "national security state" which "looks at all subjects from a paranoid angle", Khan said.
For ex-general Talat Masood, Durrani "crossed certain limits" and "should have projected Pakistan in a better light". The usually outspoken Durrani has not talked to the media.
But Dulat says he "can't understand" the furore. "After so many years in the business, you know what to say and what to not say. Both of us knew that," he told AFP by telephone. The book was written, he says, to show it is possible to progress the Pakistan-India relationship.
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