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Daniyal Khan

Daniyal Khan (1970-2015) was an Indian soldier and undercover RAW agent who, with the help of former RAW agent and security contractor Nawaz Mistry, and at the directive of RAW director Sabyasachi Roy, embarked on an assassination campaign against the leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba and the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in 2015 in a covert operation codenamed Operation Phantom. Khan succeeded in eliminating much of LeT's leadership before he was killed while attempting to return to India by boat.

Biography[]

Early service[]

Khan being arrested for desertion

Khan being arrested for desertion

Daniyal Khan was born in Delhi, India in 1970, the son of Colonel Usmaan Khan of the Indian Army. Daniyal Khan followed in his father's footsteps, rising to the rank of Lieutenant in the Indian Army, and he was stationed in the Doda Sector of Jammu and Kashmir. In June 2014, he attempted to defend his winter post from the Pakistan Army after his men suffered from 72 hours of shelling, and he volunteered to travel four hours to seek reinforcements after he discovered that his men's radios were down, and that none of his men were able to walk due to their lack of sleep. As Khan left, he was knocked down a mountainside by an explosion, and, when he was found, he was quite some distance away from his bunker, and all of his comrades had been killed.

Khan's actions were misinterpreted as an attempted desertion, and he was dishonorably discharged on 3 July 2014 for abandoning his post and his battalion a month earlier in the Kashmir valley. Khan was disowned by his father, and Khan decided to live off the grid on a chicken farm in remote Kashmir. In 2015, however, he was visited by RAW agents Rajesh Alok and Kishore Giri, who attempted to recruit him for a top-secret mission. Khan refused their request the first time, and, when they returned a second time, he fired a shotgun near them to scare them off. He was finally convinced to accept the job when RAW director Sabyasachi Roy and his right-hand man Samit Mishra came to the farm, and Roy convinced Khan that he would be able to regain his lost honor, restore contact with his father, and return to his Lieutenant rank in the military if he agreed to take part in a one-man, secretive assassination campaign against the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group before the LeT could carry out a terrorist plot discovered from captured LeT terrorist Mousa Hamid.

Operation Phantom[]

Daniyal Khan and Nawaz Mistry in London

Daniyal Khan and Nawaz Mistry in London

Khan was chosen because of his minimal social media presence or public profile, as well as because of his military past and his strong motivations. He was provided with false documents (identifying him as "Jude Rosario"), cash, a cell phone, and other materials to aid him on his mission, and his first target was the LeT trainer Sajid Majid, who was based in London. Khan was given tickets to the England-Pakistan cricket tournament in London, where he met with former RAW agent and Blackwater security contractor Nawaz Mistry. Mistry helped Khan identify the chain-smoking Majid at the cricket match, and they tailed him from Charing Cross Station to his apartment. While Majid was visiting a local convenience store, Khan infiltrated the apartment through the window, broke the neck of Majid's bodyguard, confirmed Majid's identity after discovering his passports, covered the windows with newspaper, and turned on the stove; at the same time, he had Mistry ask Majid for a light for her cigarette (supposedly so that she could verify his identity), as Majid would likely pull out a cigarette for himself after helping her. Sure enough, Majid walked into his apartment with a lit cigarette in his mouth, and Khan had Mistry lure away one of Majid's associates (who was carrying a child in his arms) by setting off his car alarm. This ensured that Majid entered his apartment alone, and, when he walked into his gas-filled apartment with a lit cigarette in his mouth, the contact of the cigarette with the gaseous air led to an explosion which killed Majid. Majid's death was reported by the local news to be an accidental death caused by a gas leak, but the RAW knew that his death meant that Khan was successful. Mistry was infuriated at Khan's duplicity, saying that he had put her life at stake, and she then stormed off.

Khan in prison

Khan beeing booked in prison

Months later, Khan travelled to Chicago, Illinois in the United States to assassinate David Headley, the Pakistani-American terrorist responsible for photographing the targets of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He paid a large amount of money to the stuntman Matthew Brody to lead him to a bridge in a dramatic car chase before fighting with him on the bridge, allowing for Khan to kick Brody from the bridge to his apparent death. Khan was arrested for murder, although Brody had - as according to plan - survived the fall and went about his usual life. Khan, as "Jude Rosario", was found guilty of murder and sent to a state correctional facility, the same one where Headley was imprisoned. While in prison, Khan found a job as a bathroom janitor, allowing for him to spy on Headley as he showered. He was able to use his phone time to contact Mistry and persuade her to send him $200 through Jpay.com (a money transfer website for inmates), using the money to purchase an MP3 player and take out its batteries, which contained harmful toxins. Khan's plot to kill Headley sped up after an Indian inmate told Khan that Headley was soon to be transferred to a high-security prison in Texas, and he placed the battery in the showerhead that Headley used. Headley ingested the water touched by the toxins while washing out his mouth, and he collapsed as he was escorted out of the shower by prison guards. However, Headley survived the attempt on his life and was transferred to the Texas prison, with the media falsely reporting his supposed death.

Khan contacting the ISI

Khan contacting the ISI

In any event, Khan - believing Headley dead - returned to London, where he aimed to trick the Pakistani embassy into putting him in contact with Lashkar. He called High Commissioner Shahriyar Beg and told him that Sajid Majid's death was not an accident, and that he was an ex-Indian Army soldier who wanted to get into contact with the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Beg was infuriated, saying that he was not a servant of Lashkar, and he warned Khan not to call him again. However, Beg contacted the ISI, whose chief Haider Khalol and agent Firoz Bhatt began to investigate him. When Khan called Beg a second time, he was informed that Beg was not available, but he was called shortly after by the ISI, who asked him about his knowledge of Majid's death. Khan said that he wanted vengeance against India for dishonorably discharging him, and also said that he wanted to meet the LeT leaders Haaris Saeed and Sabauddin Umavi in Pakistan. Bhatt said that Khan could not come to Pakistan, but Khalol had Bhatt invite Khan to meet with ISI agents in London to show them the proof of Majid's murder. Khan said that he did not want to meet with the ISI agents, but with the leader of Lashkar, so Khalol had Bhatt suggest that he meet the LeT leaders in Afghanistan. Khan said that there were too many Indian agents there, but, before Bhatt could tell him that there was nothing more he could do, Khan suggested that he could meet the LeT leaders in Syria, where Lashkar had fighters. Khalol had Bhatt tell Khan to wait for another call in five minutes, and Khalol told Bhatt that Syria would be the perfect place (adding that Syria was full of Lashkar's people, as well as Pakistan's), as, if Khan was telling the truth about Majid's death, he could come to Pakistan; if Khan was lying, however, he would just be another dead body, and nobody would notice his death amid the chaos of the Syrian Civil War. Bhatt then called Khan back and tersely told him to go to Syria, saying that, if he was smart, he could rendezvous with Lashkar's people.

Infiltrating Syria[]

Khan meeting with Mistry in Beirut

Khan meeting with Mistry in Beirut

Khan proceeded to fly to Beirut, where he met with Mistry and told her of his intent to get into Syria and meet Lashkar's leaders. Mistry laughed and told Khan that Syria was a warzone, and that every self-styled jihadi was going to Syria to fight. Mistry said that Khan could join the jihadists, as nobody asked for a visa or passport. Khan retorted that Mistry knew where he could find Lashkar's people, and that trying to search for them himself would take longer. Mistry said that she did not know where Lashkar's leaders were, and that Blackwater was only in Syria to protect the refugee camps, but Khan interrupted her and said they both knew the real nature of Blackwater's activities: America supplied weapons to jihadis in Syria (including Lashkar) through Blackwater while using the refugee camps as a front. Mistry gave up her pretense and reluctantly agreed to help Khan, and they travelled to the Syrian border together.

Qureshi filming Khan

Mukul Qureshi filming Khan

Shortly after arriving at the refugee camp, Mistry told Khan that the ISI had already informed Lashkar about him, and Khan was taken across the border by a taxi driver. He was taken to the rebel-controlled quarter of Qudsaya in Rif Dimashq Governorate, where he was dropped off near the Lashkar base. However, Khan was butted in the back of the head by one of the Lashkar fighters wielding an AK-47, and he was interrogated by the terrorists until their leader Mukul Qureshi arrived. Qureshi was presented with Sajid Majid's false passports, which had been taken from Khan, and Qureshi asked Khan where he got the passports. Khan claimed that he had his sources, and he promised Qureshi that he could get even better information through them. Qureshi proceeded to video-tape Khan as he attempted to force a confession of guilt out of him, but Khan instead claimed that he had inside information on military facilities and airbases. Qureshi was unable to send the tape to the ISI, as the area had a poor wi-fi signal due to the war, so Qureshi resolved to send the tape once he reached Salayiddin. Khan warned Qureshi that, if Qureshi did not take him to Pakistan, he would regret it, so Qureshi said that his chiefs in Pakistan would decide if they would regret that or Khan. Meanwhile, the taxi driver Alam told Nawaz about Khan's kidnapping and took her and a team of Blackwater mercenaries across the border; upon seeing Qureshi leave, Nawaz had Alam follow the Lashkar trucks and let her know where they were going.

Khan escaping the dead Lashkar fighters

Khan escaping the dead Lashkar fighters

Just then, the Syrian Arab Army attacked the rebels, creating a chaotic scene. Qureshi ordered his subordinate Bahadir Jamshidi to get Khan and the Lashkar fighters out of the area, but Nawaz and her mercenary team arrived and killed Khan's captors. Khan angrily told Nawaz that she had ruined his plan, and that everything had been going just fine before she and her mercenaries arrived. However, rather than argue, they immediately gave chase to Qureshi's escaping vehicle on foot, as Khan would certainly be killed if Qureshi was able to provide the ISI with Khan's confession.

Khan preparing to shoot Qureshi

Khan preparing to shoot Qureshi

Khan, Mistry, and the mercenaries evaded both the Syrian army and the Lashkar fighters amid a fierce shootout, and they ultimately cornered Qureshi and his chauffeur Taheri Zubairi's trapped car after commandeering a jihadist technical, with Khan firing its machine-gun at Qureshi's car as a frantic Qureshi told ISI Agent Bhatt that he was unable to send the video due to poor signal. Qureshi attempted to escape, but Khan chased him down and cornered Qureshi as Qureshi was about to send the video to the ISI. Qureshi managed to say "Daniyal" before Khan riddled him with bullets, infuriating ISI Chief Haider and prompting the ISI to retaliate. The Indian Consul General in Jordan, Rajan Sampat, was killed by ISI operative Roshan Basra in what appeared to be an accidental gas explosion, and RAW Director Roy called Khan shortly after and chided him for the stupid mistake of killing Qureshi, who was not on his list. By then, the Indian media suggested that Sampat's death was a "gas explosion for a gas explosion", and thus hinting that Sajid Majid's death was a RAW assassination; this led to Prime Minister Narendra Modi firmly reminding Roy (who lied about the RAW's responsibility for Majid's death) that he did not have permission for such actions. Roy told Khan that the ISI knew everything about him, and he told Khan that he wanted him to come back to India before things could get out of hand. Khan said that Qureshi couldn't send the video, and that the ISI only heard his name; however, Roy warned Khan that the media was talking about the operation, and that the government was getting suspicious. Roy then declared, "The mission is over. Come back, right now."

Nawaz approaching a distraught Khan

Nawaz approaching a distraught Khan

That night, over dinner, Mistry said that the cancellation of the mission would mean that the main plotters of the Mumbai attacks would never face trial, and that everything Khan had done thus far would have been a waste. Mistry accused Khan of running away from trouble, but an angry Khan said that he was not running away, and he proceeded to leave Mistry by herself at the table. Mistry caught up to a brooding Khan, who recounted how an former comrade of his, Dilawar Singh, used to salute him enthusiastically; he stated that he wanted to continue the mission because he wanted Dilawar Singh to respect him the way he used to. He then told Mistry of how he had been mistakenly accused of desertion and was dishonorably discharged, and, upon seeing how distraught Khan was, and how motivated he was to succeed, Mistry told Khan that she could take them both to Pakistan.

Final targets in Pakistan[]

Khan arriving in Lahore

Khan arriving in Lahore

Khan and Mistry flew to Lahore, Pakistan while using false passports, with Khan claiming to be the South African "Arif Mirza", an employee of the Red Cross. Mistry had herself rejoined the Red Cross as a front, and she introduced Khan to a former colleague of hers, giving him cover as a new Red Cross employee. Khan and Mistry were both given ten-day visas, and they booked a room in the Pearl Hotel. Both the ISI and the RAW sought to track Khan down, as the RAW sought to cancel the mission and use the Mohalla Johar eatery owner Khalid Middat (an RAW agent of three years) to locate Khan, and the ISI sent an operative to the home of Khan's parents. Kamshad Laar, posing as an elections official, obtained an old photo of Daniyal Khan from his mother while asking for photos to verify that there were three registered voters at their household, helping the ISI track Khan down. Meanwhile, an Indian embassy official left Khan a message in a discarded cigarette box, instructing him to meet with Khalid. Khalid showed Khan that Haaris Saeed was guarded by Lashkar fighters and ISI agents in Lahore, and also informed him that Umavi was in Rawalpindi Jail, which functioned as a hotel; he had two children while "imprisoned" there. Khalid also told Khan that Saeed planned to hold a huge rally in five days, although Nawaz said that it would be impossible to kill both Saeed and Umavi.

Khan and Nawaz in Lahore

Khan and Nawaz in Lahore

The next day, Khan came to Khalid's shop, where he heard Khalid arguing with an employee, Shehzad Gulati, over Khalid refusing to lend Shehzad ₹100,000 for his wedding to his poor fiancee Aasia; Khalid told Khan that the Mujahideen were much better than Khalid, as they recruited him at their training camps for ₹3,000 a month and gave him and the others automatic guns and boots to wear. After Shehzad stormed out, Khalid and Khan sat down, and Khalid told Khan that Umavi had a back problem, and he was frequently visited by a doctor who gave him an injection to make him feel better. Khan found out that the doctor visited every Friday, and Khan realized that the visit would occur a day before the rally. When Khan asked if he could approach the doctor, Khalid warned him that the doctor had been with Umavi for 20 years and was a loyal Lashkar supporter, and that he could be broken neither by force nor with money. However, the doctor had an old nurse named Amina Bi, who had lost her militant son in a suicide bombing. Meanwhile, the ISI obtained the Chicago prison's files on the inmates present at the time of the assassination attempt on Headley, and Haider had all of the files photocopied. Khan, who had noticed that Saeed used microphones provided by Rasheed Tent Service, had Khalid rent a microphone from them, ostensibly for a school function, and he told Nawaz about Amina Bi, whose son Arshad Bi had killed himself for Lashkar, only for few Lashkar leaders to give their sympathies to Amina, or to give her the money normally given to the families of suicide bombers; Amina hadn't let the leaders into her house, and rejected their money. At the same time, Khalid gave Shehzad ₹300,000 for his wedding at Khan's behest, and Nawaz persuaded Amina Bi to visit the medical camp after telling her that she heard about her son, and that many of the blast victims at the camp were Arshad's age. Amina was overwhelmed by grief, and she cursed the leaders of Lashkar for slaughtering her son; Nawaz persuaded her that those who would separate a son from his mother and turn him into a murderer should go to hell, although, just as earlier, Amina was initially hostile about the idea of helping Nawaz. Meanwhile, Khan persuaded the owner of Rasheed Tent Service, Zubaid Rasheed, to give him the equipment necessary for the wedding just two days before the wedding, promising to pay him in cash, and to let the business owner keep his share.

Khan and Nawaz talking about the Taj Hotel

Khan and Nawaz talking about the Taj Hotel

On the day before the rally, Amina placed the wrong injections in her doctor's bag, forcing him to return to the prison the next day with injections which Amina had poisoned. At the same time, however, a CIA agent dressed as a burglar entered Matthew Brody's house and viciously beat him and shot him in the leg until he confessed taking a large bribe from Khan to fake his death and land Khan in prison, and the CIA passed this information on to the ISI, who deduced that Khan wanted to be in prison in order to assassinate Headley. Haider then had Bhatt present him with the photos of everyone who entered Pakistan after Headley's assassination attempt, and he identified "Arif Mirza" as the same man as "Jude Rosario" and Daniyal Khan. Meanwhile, Khan received the microphone from a RAW agent who replaced the battery with a bomb, similar to the one used in the Boston Marathon bombing. That night, after seeing jihadist propaganda depicting the burning Taj Hotel, Nawaz recalled how her father used to take her and her sister to the hotel's tea room whenever they had childhood achievements, and how the Mumbai attacks felt like someone had set fire to her childhood. Khan invited her to join him for tea at the Taj Hotel on their return to India, and the two bonded for a moment before going to sleep.

Khan heading off to join the Lashkar rally

Khan heading off to join the Lashkar rally

The next morning, Khalid gave Shehzad a large amount of money and tearfully told him to get out of the area, while denying anything was wrong. At the same time, Haider discovered that Khan had entered Pakistan five days earlier, and he had the ISI search every hotel and guesthouse around the Johar area. Shortly after Khan and Nawaz checked out of their hotel, the receptionist discovered that they were wanted people, and he hurriedly informed the ISI that he had seen them. Meanwhile, Khalid drove Khan and Nawaz to the Lashkar rally, and Khan - wearing a bandana to appear to be a jihadist - left to join the rally, while Khalid said that they would meet at the same location in an hour and then head to the airport. Khan joined the crowd of Lashkar supporters as they gathered to hear Saeed take the podium and speak, despite a brief run-in with the police, who were initially suspicious of Khan having a remote-controlled racecar with him (which Khan claimed was for his son). Khan listened as Saeed decried the United States and India and praised Pakistan for upholding Islam; meanwhile, the ISI found out that Khan had just checked out of the Pearl Hotel, and Haider had Khan's photo circulated among all of the security personnel at Saeed's rally. Additionally, Amina Bi's nephew discovered that she had sent poison with her doctor to Umavi, but Umavi ignored Amina's nephew's calls, as Umavi's assistant told the doctor that Umavi was in great pain. The prison guard Faizan Sayyed also ignored the call, in spite of the phone's frantic ringing.

Saeed surviving the assassination attempt

Saeed surviving the assassination attempt

While Khan's detonation device did not work, and the microphone did not explode, the doctor injected Umavi with the fatal dosage just before he was tackled by security, as Sayyed finally picked up the cell phone and received the warning. After Umavi's death, Haider ordered all airports, land borders, trains, and buses closed. Haider also had his men escort Saeed out of his rally, and a police van interrupted the rally, with a Punjab policeman whispering to Saeed that his life was being threatened. As Saeed was ushered away, Khan finally detonated the bomb, but it was too far away to harm Saeed. Khan stole a police Toyota and gave chase to the fleeing Saeed, losing his police pursuers by crashing through bamboo scaffolding supports to trap the police behind him. He then cut through an alleyway and rammed the side of Saeed's truck as it began to drive off following a traffic jam, flipping Saeed's truck over and killing his chauffeur Noomyalay Nishapuri and his two bodyguards.

Khan running away from Saeed's exploding truck

Khan running away from Saeed's exploding truck

Khan then exited his vehicle, killed two Pakistani policemen on their pickup truck, and confronted Saeed. He reminded Saeed of how he often asked what India wanted, and Khan proceeded to say, "What India wants is...justice." He then shot a terrified Saeed in the head with an AK-47, and he ran through a crowd as the overturned vehicle exploded. Khan proceeded to run to Khalid and Nawaz's car, and he found out that Amina Bi had shot herself before the police could arrest her for murdering Umavi. He called RAW director Roy, who asked if Khan had an exit plan, and told him to get out at any cost. Nawaz had Khan take off his clothing and duck in the trunk, and she stuffed the clothing into her belly and pretended to be pregnant when stopped at a traffic check, leading to the police allowing the car to pass through without a check. Meanwhile, the ISI ordered the borders near Lahore closed, soon followed by the rest of Pakistan's borders, so Samit Mishra had Roy order Khan to head south for Karachi and arrive in India the same way the Mumbai attackers had - in a boat. Rajesh Alok suggested that Khan meet up with another RAW informant who manned the Manora Jetty petrol pump in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, as the man could take Khan back to India on his boat.

Escape attempt[]

Khan and Nawaz discovering Khalid's death

Khan and Nawaz discovering Khalid's death

However, the ISI interrogated Shehzad and found out Khalid's license plate number, revealing that he lad left Lahore at 11:00 AM from the Lal Kuan checkpoint. Haider had the car number sent to the Karachi police, leading to the trio's white Suzuki being stopped at a checkpoint outside of Karachi that night. However, the license plate was changed before the getaway, and Khalid said that they were driving to Mauripur. The head of the checkpoint had the trio take a guard with them, but, as he opened the back door, the original license plate, "LEA 1901", fell out of the car. This resulted in a shootout as Khan and Nawaz shot the guards who raised guns at the car, and they threw the surviving guards into the hut and shot their phone. Upon returning to the car, however, Khan and Nawaz found that Khalid had been shot in the neck and killed.

Pakistan Navy boarding the Firoza

The Pakistan Navy boarding the Firoza

Khan and Nawaz made it to the jetty by themselves, and they were greeted by the boatman, who said that he would take them to the limits of Pakistani territorial waters, where they would be picked up by the Indian Navy; the Pakistan Navy would be patrolling the maritime border for the fugitives. However, the ISI had discovered that the car was headed to Mauripur, and Firoz suggested that they were headed for the Manora jetty, where they would get out using a boat. Haider had Firoz alert the naval command to stop all boats in the area, and a Pakistani military vessel halted the fishing boat, the Firoza, just ten minutes out from international waters.

Death[]

Khan's body sinking into the Arabian Sea

Khan's body sinking into the Arabian Sea

Khan and Nawaz were forced to hide underwater, but the Pakistani captain Nasuh Jarwar spotted their air bubbles and had his men fire machine-guns in that direction. Khan was struck by one of the bullets, but, as the Pakistani boatman was ordered to turn his boat towards Karachi, he stealthily kicked a life raft off the boat and towards the two Indians. The Indian Navy captain Anil Dhawan decided to turn his ship around after detecting the Pakistani boats turning back towards Karachi, but Mishra gave a rousing speech about how Khan had single-handedly killed those responsible for the day when ten men humiliated a billion Indians, and how their technology and power meant nothing if they could not save that man. At the same time, Khan began to succumb to his wounds, and he told Nawaz that he didn't think they could have tea at the Taj as they had hoped. Nawaz said that they would, even if it meant that they had to swim all the way to Mumbai, so Khan responded, "Okay then, Nawaz Mistry. Have a cup for me as well." Khan's body then slipped from the raft and into the depths of the sea, and Nawaz was unable to swim deep enough to bring him back to surface, losing him forever. When Nawaz was rescued by the Indian submarine, she silently shook her head to Mishra as he looked for Khan, and, after Nawaz headed below deck, a tearful and shaken Mishra saluted in the direction of Khan's last location.

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