Ex-CIA Officer Reveals Secret India-Israel Plan to Target Pakistan’s Kahuta Nuclear Facility

In a startling revelation, former CIA counter-proliferation officer Richard Barlow has disclosed that Israel once offered to help India carry out a joint airstrike on Pakistan’s nuclear enrichment facility at Kahuta in the early 1980s. The plan, aimed at halting Islamabad’s march toward developing nuclear weapons, was discussed at a time when global intelligence agencies were closely monitoring Pakistan’s atomic ambitions.

According to Barlow, Israel proposed to send its fighter jets to India, from where the strike on Kahuta could be launched with logistical and radar support from the Indian Air Force. The Israeli offer came after reports suggested that Pakistan was on the verge of producing weapons-grade uranium, sparking fears of an “Islamic bomb.”

However, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ultimately rejected the proposal. She was reportedly concerned that such an operation could trigger a full-scale war with Pakistan, invite severe international backlash, and draw condemnation from the United States, which at the time was supporting Pakistan during the Soviet-Afghan conflict.

Barlow described the aborted plan as a “missed opportunity,” claiming that it could have changed South Asia’s strategic balance. “It’s a shame Indira Gandhi didn’t approve it,” he said, noting that the move could have “solved a lot of problems.”

Experts, however, believe that Gandhi’s caution prevented possible escalation into a nuclear confrontation in the region. The episode remains one of the most secretive and debated moments in India’s modern strategic history — a reminder of how close South Asia once came to a major military flashpoint.