Tribune News Service,Jammu, November 7
Following questionable telephone calls by Pakistani intelligence operatives (PIOs) to various defence installations in recent times in the country, the Northern Command in Jammu and Kashmir has strictly barred “suspicious” phone calls, including ISD calls beginning with code “92”, at its formations. “There are serious instructions from the top not to attend calls beginning with Pakistani ISD code ‘92’. Not only calls starting with code ‘92’ but all other suspicious calls have also been barred,” said a senior Army officer on condition of anonymity.
Though it is a rule of thumb in the Army, the Northern Command has again reiterated all Army formations in the state not to discuss any military matter, even if trivial in nature, over the phone, he added. “PIO call our formations but they are simply not taken for security reasons,” the officer said. “With so many cellular companies in the fray providing mobile phone services in the country with different 10-digit numbers, it has become essential for us to keep in place a foolproof mechanism,” he said. There was a time when various Army formations in the state were getting calls from PIOs frequently but now their frequency has gone down considerably, the officer said, adding that this form of information technology-aided espionage has been taken seriously by the Army.
The state has seven telecom companies: BSNL, Aircel, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance and Tata Indicom. “The Army maintains a very high level of secrecy for obvious reasons. Forget about mobile phones, now even officials of the Defence Ministry go through a strict procedure of checks and counter checks before being given access to any senior Army officer on a landline telephone in the state,” said a source in the Defence Ministry.
In August this year, a telephone call from Pakistan at Jodhpur railway station seeking information about the movement of the Army via train had prompted the Intelligence Bureau to warn the railway authorities not to share any information about the Army over phone.