ISI spy assigned to set up base in NE

SILIGURI, Jan 12— ISI spymaster Mohammed Dilshad, arrested for running an espionage ring in North Bengal, was nabbed just as he was preparing to leave for Guwahati to open a clandesting network in Assam, and thereafter in other North-eastern states sources said on Friday, report agencies. Dilshad, described as a ‘Resident Agent’ had handlers identified only as Col Khatak, Commanding Officer (Operations) of the ISI and his deputy Maj Ahmed based in Hyderabad in Pakistan’s Sindh province, the sources said. They had recently instructed Dilshad to expand his espionage activities to the entire North East, barring Nagaland and Manipur, the sources said. He was earlier instructed to spy on army bases at Kalimpong, Binnaguri, Khaprail, Sukna and Bengdubi, besides collecting information on troops movements and photograph vital installations and important bridges, the sources who interrogated him said. Among the 19 photographs seized from him during his arrest on January 14, were those of Army bases at Kalimpong, Binnaguri, Khaprail, Sukna and Bengdubi, besides collecting information on troops movements and photograph vital installations and important bridges, the sources who interrogated him said. All the photographs had been taken with a high resolution digital camera, which, Dilshad told his interrogators who ‘missing’. Just before he was arrested, Dilshad had sent a parcel through a private courier to Dubai, the sources said. 32-year-old Dilshad, now in police remand for 14 days, was trained in photography besides in drawing maps from memory after a visual survey, the sources said.

The duo entered India through the Wagah border in September, 2000. Dilshad first went to Darjeeling, but reached Siliguri a few days later. The ISI instructed Dilshad, who has been booked under the Official Secrets Act, the Explosives Act, the Foreigners Act and under various sections of the IPC, to marry a local girl and settle down as a cover, though he had a wife and a boy and a girl at Hyderabad in Pakistan. The Rs 70,000 in expenses for his marriage in June, 2001 here was borne by the Pakistani intelligence agency, the sources said. Dilshad’s Indian wife, who is pregnant now, was initially picked up on January four together with him, but was released the same night, the sources said. Dilshad regularly sent information over telephone to Maj Ahmed from PCOs. Telephone bills amounting to Rs 2.72 lakh for calls made to Pakistan, Dubai and Delhi in the last six months were seized from his Adarshnagar residence, the sources said. For funds, he was given an allowance of Rs 2000 per month during his training in Pakistan, while his Pakistani family at Hyderabad received Rs 4000.