‘Pakistan mission official posed as journo kin’

TWO PAK NATIONALS WERE EXPELLED BY INDIA AFTER THEY WERE CAUGHT ALLEGEDLY OBTAINING CLASSIFIED MATERIALS ON SECURITY INSTALLATIONS

A day after two Pakistan high commission officials – Abid Hussain Abid and Mohammad Tahir Khan – were apprehended on charges of espionage, the Delhi Police special cell probing the case said on Monday “Abid operated under several fake identities to lure persons working in organisations and departments of his interest”. Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah said during the investigation, it emerged that Abid impersonated posed as the brother of a media person to establish contact with an individual working in Indian Railways.

“Abid tried to gain that individual’s confidence by pretending that he needed information about rail movements for his brother who was supposedly doing a story on Indian Railways and for which he was willing to pay money. The real motive was to lure and trap the railway staff and then acquire information about movements of Army units and hardware via trains,” added Kushwah said.

A senior Delhi Police officer privy to the development said the two Pakistani nationals were expelled by India after a joint team of Military Intelligence (MI) and special cell caught them allegedly obtaining classified materials on Indian security installations from defence personnel, who were used as decoy, at Bikanerwala Chowk in Karol Bagh at 10.45am on Sunday,

A third Pakistani national was driving the car, in which the two came to collect classified materials and landed in the trap. The driver was let off after the Indian law enforcement authorities questioned him and found that he was not involved in the espionage.

A statement issued by Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson, Aisha Farooqui, said the Indian Charge d’affaires was summoned to the Foreign Office in Islamabad on Sunday for a strong demarche that conveyed Pakistan’s condemnation of the Indian decision to declare two officials persona non grata.

“It was conveyed that the Indian action was in clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the diplomatic norms,” Farooqui said in the statement.