As the Indian Air Force’s “most potent” weapon made its way over Rajasthan to Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab on May 7, it represented the life’s work of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who had tracked the Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters since his posting in Islamabad as a mid-level diplomat from 2000 to 2003.

He arrived in Islamabad as hardline groups in Pakistan were celebrating the setback inflicted upon India’s security establishment following the hijacking of the IC814 flight and the release of Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief ‘Maulana’ Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Zargar.

Speaking at a recent meeting, Mr. Misri recounted the “decades-long” history of Pakistan’s state policy on terrorism and said the base in Bahawalpur was indeed the strongest link between the Pakistani deep state and terror groups. As the targets for Operation Sindoor were chosen, it was the research done by Mr. Misri during his posting in the Indian High Commission office in Islamabad that came in handy.

Also read: Operation Sindoor 2025 | Complete coverage from The Hindu

Mr. Misri’s field of interest spans beyond cross-border terrorism. Born in 1964, he grew up in a Kashmiri Pandit family in Srinagar and graduated from Hindu College of the University of Delhi’s North Campus before joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1989 — the year India witnessed a change of government.

The period was marked by cross-border terrorism, the dominance of the U.S. as a superpower and the emergence of China as a challenger in the Indo-Pacific. This meant Mr. Misri had his plate full. His first posting abroad was in Brussels, where he was part of a team led by diplomat Jayant Prasad who subsequently served as the Indian Ambassador in Kabul in 2008. Mr. Prasad remembers Mr. Misri as an “extremely hardworking officer” who worked with the rest of the team to calibrate India’s response as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was being replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Over the next three-and- a-half decades, Mr. Misri served in Madrid, Tunis, Islamabad, and other locations, and in the Prime Minister’s Office under three different leaders from across the political spectrum — I.K. Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi.

Interesting turn

But Mr. Misri’s career began to take an interesting turn with his posting to Myanmar in 2016, where he served till 2019. His next career high came in 2020 when Indian and Chinese troops clashed in eastern Ladakh, leading to the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers and several Chinese soldiers. Mr. Misri was the Indian Ambassador to China during this period and handled several tough negotiations with Chinese officials helping to de-escalate the situation.

But the most challenging part of his career coincided with his lifelong research into terror groups. As the name The Resistance Front (TRF) flickered in news tickers on TV channels after the group took responsibility for the attack on tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, Mr. Misri had no doubt that it was the same group he had tracked earlier in Islamabad. During the subsequent Operation Sindoor, Mr. Misri, flanked by Col. Sophia Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, became the face of the counter-attack as he briefed the media both on and off the record.

The toughest point of this episode came when Mr. Misri announced the “understanding” arrived at by both parties to stop all firing and military action on May 10, which was soon challenged by Pakistani forces’ alleged violations. While Mr. Misri’s handling of the tense moments of Operation Sindoor gained him admiration from colleagues and friends, it also exposed him to online “trolls” who accused him of not going the full distance with a full-scale war with Pakistan.

Mr. Misri’s popularity was proved beyond doubt when several current and former diplomats and bureaucrats came to his support. Jayant Prasad, his senior colleague, summed up his career: “From the beginning, there was no doubt that Vikram would go places. He started his career with solid economic diplomacy and now has excelled in political diplomacy.”