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Pakistani espionage network: UP ATS to bring 3 suspects face to face, grill them over links
U.P. ATS arrested Shahzad from Moradabad and Tufail and Harun from Varanasi and Gautam Buddha Nagar respectively
Three arrested espionage suspects will be brought face to face during their ongoing police custody remand to ascertain whether they had links with one another while allegedly spying, arranging funds and doing other work for Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), senior U.P. Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) officials said on Wednesday.
These three men are Rampur resident Shahzad Wahab, Tufail Maqsood of Varanasi and Delhi resident Mohammad Harun.
The trio had initially denied links with one another during preliminary questioning conducted after their arrest during the ongoing crackdown to smash the Pakistani spying network operational across different states, U.P. ATS officials said.
U.P. ATS arrested Shahzad from Moradabad on May 18 for allegedly arranging funds for ISI agents and passing on crucial information related to internal security to Pakistani handlers. Tufail and Harun were arrested from Varanasi and Gautam Buddha Nagar respectively, on May 22.
“Shahzad was sent to jail before the arrest of the two others, so we have sought their custody remand to interrogate them face to face to ascertain possible links between them. The local ATS court has granted the police custody remand of 10 days (for Shahzad) since Monday while seven days’ custody remand of two others was granted since Wednesday morning,” said a senior police official privy to the development.
“Besides, ATS will also try to extract more information about this espionage network spread across different states,” he said.
The official said questionnaires have been prepared for all three accused.
Shahzad will be questioned about other people including three women, whom he had allegedly added into the espionage network. He said similarly Harun will be asked about his network spread across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and other states.
He said Harun was in touch with a Pakistani ISI operative working under diplomatic cover at the Pakistan High Commission. The operative was declared Persona Non Grata on May 21 and asked to leave India within 24 hours. He said the ATS will try to unearth his network and confirm identities of other people working for Pakistan’s ISI operatives.
Similarly, Tufail Maqsood was in touch with at least 600 Pakistani mobile numbers and sharing sensitive information related to national security of the country, the officials. The trio has been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 148 for conspiring to commit offences related to waging, attempting to wage, or abetting the waging of war against the country and section 152 for act that endangers the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India in three separate FIRs registered with the ATS police station in Gomti Nagar, Lucknow.
