Ravindra Kaushik-Black Tiger

Not every hero has a cap on his head and medal in chest

#RAVINDRA_KAUSHIK - THE BLACK TIGER

Born in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, Ravindra Kaushik was an avid theatre artist. He was only 21 when officials from RAW spotted him at one of his performances. In the next 2 years of his training, he learned Urdu, Islamic religious texts and about the terrain of Pakistan.

At 23, with all his Indian documents destroyed, in 1975, he entered Pakistan as Nabi Ahmed Shakir and got himself enrolled in Karachi University to pursue LLB.

After graduating, he joined the Pakistani Army as a commissioned officer and even got promoted to the position of Major. He married a local girl named Amanat and also fathered a son. Between 1979- 1983, he kept passing classified information to the Indian army.

But one major blunder from Inayat Masiha, a lower level operative sent by RAW to get in touch with Kaushik, blew his cover and he was arrested in 1985. The Black Tiger, a name given to him by former PM Indira Gandhi for his valuable contribution, spent the last 16 years of his life in Mianwali jail in Pakistan where he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and died in 2001.