1,100 people on friend list of 13 fb users in Pak under scanner

Facebook users, who had been approached by the ATS, being alerted about the ISI traps for extraction of information, say officials

LUCKNOW : At least 13 facebook account users in Pakistan and 1,100 others on their friends’ lists have come under the scanner of police and security agencies, a probe into the ISI ‘social media trap’ has revealed.

UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) investigators zeroed in on 13 fb accounts with different names and identities that are suspected to be operated by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), said a senior official associated with the probe.

The ATS came across these suspicious accounts while scanning hundreds of facebook profiles, after the arrest of BrahMos aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal and BSF jawan Achuytanand Mishra, who was allegedly ‘honey-trapped’ by ISI over

facebook, he said.

Asim Arun, IG, UP ATS confirmed that the agency had zeroed in on multiple suspicious facebook accounts while officials were further exploring the ISI social media network after the arrest the BrahMos engineer and the BSF jawan.

“The ATS has also zeroed in on around 1,100 users that are on the friends’ lists of the suspicious accounts. The process of crosschecking the credentials of people on the friends’ lists is already on,” he added.

He said the 1,100 fb account users had been segregated into three categories – those related

to defence and armed forces, those posted in important and sensitive installations and general users.

The IG said it was mandatory to approach each user in the first category to know whether they shared any information to the suspected ISI operated accounts knowingly or unknowingly.

The process of questioning second category users was also on while the third category users were being examined and would be questioned, if anything was found suspicious.

He said there were possibilities that other users on the friends’ lists of the suspected accounts may have shared some crucial details related to national security.

Moreover, the facebook users, who had been approached by the ATS, were being alerted about the ISI traps for extraction of information, he added.

Earlier, the UP ATS had arrested Brahmos engineer Nishant Agarwal from his Nagpur residence on October 11 on charges of espionage.

He allegedly leaked crucial information to two ISI operated facebook account users after getting friendly with them.

BSF jawan Achyutanand Mishra, whose was arrested from Noida on September 19, was ‘honey-trapped’ by a similar fake facebook account being operated reportedly by the ISI.

He was accused of sharing crucial information about armed forces and movement of troops with a facebook friend.

He allegedly also chatted with a woman on WhatsApp who used a mobile number registered in Pakistan.