A gripping espionage thriller on counter-terror and counter-insurgency

By Vishnu MakhijaniNew Delhi, June 18 : Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Prabhakar Aloka (IPS officer of 1986 batch), with a three-decade stint at the premier intelligence agency, brings "Operation Sudarshan Chakra" (Penguin Random House India), a gripping espionage thriller that provides an insiders expert view of Indias counter-terror and counter-insurgency actions through Ravi Kumar and his team of young recruits.

Ravi Kumar, Head of the Central Counter-terrorism Command (C3) of the Intelligence Bureau, is haunted by the partial success of Operation Haygreeva.

He and his team of young recruits -- Mihir, Cyrus and Jose -- exposed the designs of a hitherto-unknown terrorist outfit, the Lashkar-e-Hind (LeH), responsible for the Mumbai train blasts.But the mission they had staked their lives on remains significantly unfinished.

The LeHs leader, Tabrez, had managed to escape to Pakistan.Looking to expand the scale of his operations and strike back at India in previously inconceivable ways, Tabrez becomes the lynchpin of a sinister K2 plan of the Pak ISI to leverage different socio-political anxieties and create a vast network of radicalised minds penetrating deep into Indian society, to destabilise the delicate fabric that holds the nation together.

Despite having faced severe personal trauma, Ravi and his team come together to launch deft counter-terror and counter-intelligence maneuvers, codenamed Operation Sudarshan Chakra, putting everything, including their individual safety, at risk.This is the much-awaited sequel to Alokas "Operation Haygreeva", that introduced the reader to Ravi Kumar and his team of unorthodox but brilliant methods that uncovered a plot that threatens the very fabric of the countrys peace and stability.

In nearly three decades of service with the IB, Akola was rigorously trained in covert operations while in pursuit of hostile elements, serving in counter-terror, counter-insurgency and anti-Maoist theatres.(Vishnu Makhijani can be reached at vishnu.makhijani@ians.in)vm/khz/ #espionage #thriller #insurgency #Delhi #Mumbai #Darshan #Uma #Jose #Delhi #New Delhi #Akola #Mumbai .