Chinese, Pakistani agencies lure poor, unemployed Indian youth with ease

There has been an increased attempt on the part of both Pakistan and Chinese agencies to trap Indian youth who are poor and unemployed, Intelligence Bureau officials have said.

There is a systematic pattern that is in place to trap such youth and these revelations were made following the arrest of Ravi Kumar. He was arrested in a joint operation by the State Special Operations Cell and the Military Intelligence

Investigations show that Ravi Kumar was poor and hence fell into the trap of the ISI. He worked as a salesman for a soft drink company. He was in a weak situation financially and hence fell trap easily to the ISI, investigations have also suggested.

On the basis of specific information, a team of SSOC led by Inspector Gurinderpal Singh arrested Ravi Kumar from the Chatiwind police station area in Amritsar district.

Photographs of vital installations, hand-made maps of restricted areas, photocopies of restricted training manuals of the Army and information regarding Army attack formations were recovered from him, according to a Punjab Police release.

He has been booked under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, and Section 120-B of the IPC.

The preliminary questioning of Kumar revealed that he was recruited by an official of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) through Facebook about seven months ago.

He gave them information with regard to the movement of "Army units, construction of new bunkers on the Indian side of the border, photographs of Army vehicles and their formation signs, exercises and trainings and activity/construction", the release read.

Investigations have revealed that Kumar was in regular touch with Pakistani intelligence officers through mobile phones and Internet and was provided funds routed through Dubai.

The release read: "It has also come to light that Pakistan-based agencies operate a large number of fake Facebook accounts in the name of young girls who actively try to befriend with unemployed young people and retired/serving officials in the armed force and subsequently try to allure them into espionage activities."

Investigations are being conducted to identify and track such fake accounts. Defence establishments are also being appraised regarding this new threat for necessary action at their end, it said.

OneIndia News