The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) nabbed two suspected Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agents from Kutch district, who were allegedly involved in sending sensitive information about the movement of the Indian Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) to their Pakistan-based handlers.
An FIR under various sections of the Official Secrets Act and Indian Penal Code was registered against the accused on Thursday.
The suspected ISI agents were apprehended in a late night operation in Bhuj town on Wednesday. According to sources, ATS officials recovered several incriminating documents of the Indian Army and the BSF from them.
They have been identified as Alana Hamir Sama (40) and his associate Shakoor Sumra (38).
The ATS personnel were keeping a close watch on the movement of these two residents of Khavda town of Kutch district, following information that they were allegedly working for Pakistan’s Intelligence agency ISI for the last two years, officials said.
“Both of them used to communicate sensitive information to Pakistan. The ATS recovered one Pakistani SIM card along with a mobile phone and a Pakistani I-card during the search of their house. They had apparently become active after India carried out surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir last month,” said a source close to the development.
One of the suspects, Alana Hamir Sama visited Pakistan four times on an Indian passport, and once illegally too.
Official sources said that both the suspected ISI agents were honey-trapped by a 17-year-old girl named Razia, who had allegedly become a bridge between officials of the ISI and the duo for exchanging important information and documents. Police are now trying to find the whereabouts of Razia.
Both of them are now being questioned in Bhuj by various State and Central agencies to dig out more information.
Sources in the security forces said that all the five Intelligence agencies of Pakistan, the ISI, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Military Intelligence (MI), Naval Intelligence (NI) and Air Intelligence, have become active in the wake of the tension along the border.
With Gujarat being a border State, an alert has been issued to counter Pakistani Intelligence agencies and their agents. ATS officials are now in the process of collecting information about others who are involved in such anti-national activities in Kutch and North Gujarat areas near to the Pakistani border.