Directorate of Military Intelligence (India)

The Directorate of Military Intelligence (M.I.) is the intelligence arm of the Indian Armed Forces.

The agency was set up in 1941 as part of the erstwhile British Indian Army to generate field intelligence for the army. The agency is based at Sena Bhavan in Delhi. M.I. was initially tasked with generating only tactical or field intelligence in all countries bordering India. Its geographical mandate was set to 50 km from the border. These limits were quickly crossed in the mid-1990s when the organisation began playing an increasing role in countries within the subcontinent and its outer periphery. M.I.'s mandate also includes counter-terrorism in the north and the north-east and generating pinpoint intelligence for small team operations. It is also tasked with counterintelligence in the army, which entails detecting spies in military areas.

The agency was set up in 1941 to generate field intelligence for the Indian army. After independence in 1947, it became a small army department primarily that investigated corruption within the force. Little is known about its activities.

In 1978, the directorate was involved in the Samba spy scandal, wherein it was later found that the directorate had falsely implicated three Indian Army officers as Pakistani spies.

The agency gathered momentum in the 1990s especially after the Kargil War with Pakistan. The army had to handle the poor quality tactical intelligence provided by the Intelligence Bureau and R&AW. Hence the M.I.'s mandate was ultimately boosted.

M.I. operatives moved into Tajikistan and later into Afghanistan in support of the Ahmad Shah Massoud–led Northern Alliance that overthrew the Taliban in 2001 with the aid of U.S.A.-led coalition forces in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent War in Afghanistan.

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