‘Okay, so if you are talking about Karachi, let’s say you have to meet somebody discreetly somewhere around the Manghopir Lake off Naya Nazimabad football stadium. The rule, in the world of intelligence, is that if you are caught once, there won’t be a second chance. So, you have to ensure you are not under the enemy’s surveillance. For that, apart from taking a set of measures to ensure you are not being tailed by the enemy’s counter-intelligence watchers, you must know how to determine whether you are being shadowed by the enemy or not.’

‘How does one know whether he is being followed?’

‘First of all, begin early. Prepare well in advance. Know the topography of the area where the meeting is going to take place. To find out if you are being shadowed, you should prepare what is known as a surveillance detection route or SDR.’

‘An SDR, what’s that?’

‘The SDR helps you determine if you are being followed, if you are being watched. We should always be in a position to keep the enemy under watch and not vice versa. To know if we are being followed, we have to take note of any person, or car or bike or any vehicle that appears more than once around us on a given day,’ Milind explained. ‘For, once is a coincidence, but twice is enemy action, as we say.’

‘Sir, how do you create an SDR?’ asked Atharv.

‘I’m coming to that. To create an SDR, pick three or four places in different parts of the city. Find plausible reasons to go there, for example, to visit an office, a bank, the post office, a hospital or a restaurant. The last location should be selected with a view to exposing anyone shadowing you. A long narrow alley, or a bridge, work well for this. Anyone shadowing you will have to follow you into the alley or on to the bridge and will be easy to spot.

‘While visiting the places you have selected, keep an eye out for any person or vehicle that you spot more than once. If you see a person or a vehicle twice, you have been found out. You need to disappear, escape from their trap, at once.’

‘What next, sir?’

‘So, the locations of an SDR should be such that they allow you to hoodwink the tail and escape. Run and lie low till a fresh plan, a more careful plan, is drawn up by you or your superior.’

‘Tell us more, sir! These are interesting tips you are sharing with us,’ Atharv said.