Mumbai: Three suspected agents of Pakistan's ISI have been arrested from Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh, police said on Thursday.
An official said the arrests were made in a joint operation by anti-terrorism squads of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, PTI reported.
Acting on leads provided by ISI suspect Aftab Ali, arrested from UP’s Faizabad on Wednesday, the UP ATS picked up Altaf Qureshi on Wednesday night from south Mumbai’s Masjid Bunder and Javed Iqbal from Agreepada, also in Mumbai, on Thursday morning, IG UP-ATS Aseem Arun said in Lucknow.
According to police, the trio was involved an espionage racket, with Aftab, believed to have been trained by ISI, maintaining constant touch with officials in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
IG Arun said pictures of the cantonment area in Faizabad have been recovered from Aftab’s mobile phone. He was also allegedly keeping a close vigil on the movement of troops in the area, especially between Faizabad and Lucknow.
Following Aftab's interrogation, Qureshi, a hawala operator who also allegedly worked for ISI was held,
while Iqbal, the third suspect, is an aide of Qureshi.
Qureshi had allegedly deposited money in the bank account of Aftab for carrying out espionage activities. ATS officials seized a cellphone and Rs 71.57 lakh in cash from Qureshi’s house. He was in the
hawala business at the behest of Jawed Naviwala, the official said.
Javed told police that he used to get instructions from Pakistan and on Qureshi’s orders often deposited money in Aftab's bank account. Javed was in constant touch with ISI officials.
Aftab, booked under the Official Secrets Act, had allegedly passed on information about Indian Army's movements to officers posted at Pakistan High Commission and also to ISI, the official claimed.
He had allegedly provided information about the army's movements and units in Faizabad, Lucknow and Amritsar.
with PTI Inputs
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