Are Pakistan high commission staffers running terror modules too?

Fresh leads in the spy ring reveal that Pakistan mission was also involved in building a terror module.

New Delhi, Oct 29: It was not just a spy ring that was operated from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. Fresh leads during the investigation have revealed that the staffer in the Pakistan mission was also involved in building a module in a bid to carry out a terror strike.

Mehmood Akthar, a staffer in the Pakistan mission was detained, questioned and released after it was found that he was running a spy ring. Further investigations have led the police to find that he was in touch with few persons and was trying to set the stage for a major terror attack in India.

An investigating officer says that this is the extent of the information they can provide for now. It is clear that the staffer was not just running a spy ring, but was also attempting to set up a module that could strike along the West Coast.

What is ironical is that this is the second time in three years that a Pakistan mission has been caught trying to set up terror modules. The last time was in Sri Lanka under consular officer, Amir Zubair Siddiqui.

Intelligence Bureau officials explain that the ISI picks people out of their agency and sends them to the high commissions. The job assigned to them is to build up a network of spies and gather as much sensitive information as possible.

If one were to look at the Sri Lanka case, there it went beyond spying.

In the Sri Lanka case, it was found that the consular officer, Siddiqui had not only built a network of spies to gather information on India, but also set up a full-fledged module. It was also found that he had hired several Sri Lankan Muslims to carry out reconnaissance in South India.

The tip off about a major attack being planned in Chennai came following the arrest of two persons in Chennai by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). One of the persons arrested, who operated under the name Arun, spilled the beans about the entire modus operandi.

He revealed that it was Siddiqui in the high commission who had ordered this operation. Further probing also revealed that Siddiqui's job was to set up a full fledged module in South India apart. It was also learnt that he had brought in a charity outfit to open shop in Sri Lanka so that a base for the Lashkar-e-Taiba could be built.

India had sought action against Siddiqui and had even moved to question him. However Pakistan immediately took him out of the mission and packed him off home.

OneIndia News