Operation Sun Rising was a

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

military intelligence program run by the ISI of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

during the late 1970s. In the 1970s, the program was launched when the ISI believed the

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Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

was planning of sabotaging and infiltrating the highly clandestine atomic bomb projects. The program's purpose was to collect

intelligence cycle The intelligence cycle is an idealized model of how intelligence (information gathering), intelligence is processed in civilian and military intelligence agency, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement organizations. It is a closed path (gra ...

on potential contingency plans of

Carter administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...

sabotaging of certain bomb-related installations and facilities. The program was initiated in 1979 by Imtiaz Ahmed, then chief of Intelligence Bureau. The ''Sun Rising'' was downscaled with the arrest and conviction of an agent working for CIA and the declaration of a few undercover CIA agents and US diplomats as

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and their return. The program remained highly secretive for several years after its operational activities activated since 1979. The program's existence was discovered by espionage investigative journalist,

Ansar Abbasi Ansar Abbasi () is a Pakistani right-wing commentator and columnist associated with ''The News International''. Investigative articles Chief Justice Choudhry Abbasi was among the first to bring forth allegations against Chief Justice Iftikhar C ...

of the ''News International'' in 2009. Since its discovery, the exact notion and nature of the program has been criticized by prominent

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of Pakistan.

References

{{Inter-Services Intelligence 1979 in Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence operations Cold War conflicts