‘ISI agent’ honey trapped, promised good job

LUCKNOW: Pakistan’s secret agency, Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) used its ‘tried and tested’ modus operandi to lure suspected ISI agent, Rashid Ahmed (23), who was arrested from Varanasi last Sunday, into its fold by honey trapping him and promising to provide him a ‘good’ job.

Senior police officials of the state anti terror squad (ATS), who are interrogating the suspected ISI agent Rashid Ahmad said that ISI in the past too had lured people in its network by honey trapping them and promising them jobs or easy money in lieu of leaking classified information about Indian defence forces to it, while staying in India.

The ATS officials are quizzing the suspected ISI agent since Tuesday morning after procuring his 3-day police custody remand from a court that will end on Friday morning.

The officials said Rashid Ahmad revealed during interrogation that two ISI personnel with whom, he had met during his visit to relatives in Pakistan in 2017 and 2018, had promised to get him married the cousin Anam.

They said the ISI personnel apparently used the woman to drag him in their net and convince him to work for them while staying in India.

“Besides, Rashid Ahmad was promised a good job through people in the ISI network in India,” a senior ATS official emphasised.

The official said the ISI had similarly used many other people from the country including an Indian diplomat’s cook Ramesh Singh Kanyal (43), who was arrested from Pittoragarh, Uttarakhand in September, 2018, in its network by honey trapping thrm. He said BSF jawan Achyutanand Mishra, who was arrested from Noida on charges of spying in May, 2018, was honey-trapped by ISI over social media by an unknown Facebook user posing as a woman.

He said the ISI trap trend was not limited to the armed forces alone but some common men were also trapped in this manner for recce of important installations and collect crucial information. Citing a case, the official said the Uttar Pradesh ATS had tracked one similar case where a 19-year-old youth from Alwar, Rajasthan was trapped through the same trick.