ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security officials have foiled an attempt by the Indian intelligence to enact a fake encounter for implicating Pakistan in incidents of cross border terrorism, sources said on Monday.
The plan was unearthed when a suspect working for the Indian intelligence was apprehended in the Sialkot border area while attempting to cross over to India through the border security fence; an impregnable barbed wire obstacle whose entrance points are locked and controlled by the Indian BSF.
The suspect has confessed to working as an Indian spy who was tasked to recruit agents from Pakistan to work for Indian intelligence. The suspect, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, disclosed that his Indian handlers, Sharma and Amjad, had tasked him to recruit a Pakistani national by offering a large monetary reward, preferably carrying a weapon and send him across the border through the border barbed wire fence after liaison with the BSF troops.
Sharma had assured him that all the details of border crossing would be finalised by him and duly taken care off at his end. The suspect also disclosed that the Indian intelligence had planned a fake encounter to kill the border crosser and exploit the episode as proof of subversive elements launched by the ISI crossing over from Pakistan to commit acts of terrorism in India. He also said that he had held a few meetings with his Indian handlers in Islamabad as well.
According to observers, the arrest of the suspect has bared the presence of organised espionage networks, based in Pakistan and run by Indian undercover agents. While conducting acts of terrorism remains their top priority, current emphasis seems to have shifted to conducting fake encounters that should vitiate the environment for holding the Composite Dialogue Process that has lost all momentum in the wake of the Mumbai terror strike in Nov 2008.
With the possibility of a secretary level interaction emerging on the sidelines of a SAARC meeting in Thimpu Bhutan in first week of February, India should be interested in a few fake encounters depicting flow of terrorists from Pakistan, that would strengthen its position to format any future discussions centered on terrorism rather than finding ways to tackle the core issue of Kashmir.
The episode also points to the involvement of Indian undercover intelligence officers stationed at its Islamabad Embassy, engaging in espionage activities in grave violation of their diplomatic status, say observers.