The Story of Sehmat: A Young Kashmiri Woman Who Entered Pakistan as a Spy and Helped India During the 1971 War

A young Kashmiri girl, barely out of her teens, studying at Delhi University and leading a carefree life, was thrown into a world of espionage, sent as a spy to Pakistan. This is the story of Sehmat, and the year was 1969. Daughter of a businessman named Hidayatullah, a die-hard patriot of India who worked for Indian Intelligence. Through his business, he had forged extensive trading contacts in Pakistan. He was diagnosed with cancer before the 1971 war, and during that time, he had been sourcing information about the plans of Pakistan’s army, as it was preparing to launch an offensive against India.

Harinder Sikka, author of the book Calling Sehmat, wrote, "Brigadier Sayeed was Hidayatullah's friend and contact in Pakistan. They were also related to each other. When cancer-ridden Hidayatullah realised he had little time, he sought Sayeed’s son's hand in marriage for Sehmat, to carry out what he might not finish with a war looming over the country. Both Sayeed and his son accepted immediately, as Sehmat was quite beautiful." Sehmat wasn't a trained spy. With barely any training, she was married to Sayeed's son, Iqbal, who was also an officer in the Pakistani army, planted as a spy in their home.

Her mission was to simply keep an eye out for anything critical. She was also trained to install a device and relay SOS messages using Morse code. For the unversed, Morse code is a method of transmitting information using a code in which letters, numbers, and punctuation are represented by a sequence of dots and dashes. She became a teacher at an army school, where the children of Pakistani army officers studied. She began wielding influence, which even helped elevate her father-in-law’s position within the core intelligence network.

According to Sikka, "She passed crucial information about the positioning of Pakistani submarines at the Bombay and Visakhapatnam harbours. This information matched with the intelligence in possession of the Indian Navy." This led to the sinking of the Pakistani submarine Ghazi at Visakhapatnam harbour. The other two submarines, Hangor and Mangrol, escaped but not before launching a deadly attack on INS Khukri on 9th December 1971, off the coast of Diu in Gujarat.

While Sehmat somehow managed to reach India safely, she led a quiet life and, according to reports, suffered from deep depression. Her story was published in a book called Calling Sehmat by Sikka. It was later adapted into the film Raazi, starring Alia Bhatt in the role of Sehmat and Vicky Kaushal as her husband.

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