The tension between India and Pakistan escalated as one of the staff from Pakistan High Commission has been charged with defense espionage on Thursday.

One of the Pakistan High Commission staffer Mehmood Akhtar has been charged with defense espionage as the he was found in possession of sensitive data related to Defense by Crime Branch unit of Delhi Police. Akhtar was arrested, detained, briefly interrogated before he was let off.

Interestingly, when Akhtar was approached by the Delhi Police he claimed that he is an Indian citizen. He even produced a fake Aadhar card. But the Delhi Police Crime Unit had received intelligence information and arrested him.  “On being questioned, the Pakistan high commission official identified himself as Mehmood Rajput. He had an Aadhaar card and said he was a resident of Chandni Chowk. When pressed more, he revealed he worked for the high commission… He invoked diplomatic immunity,” one of the senior police officials stated.

Apparently the Police had come seeking him after the two Indians they had arrested in Rajasthan had dropped Akhtar’s name as one who received the sensitive defense documents. He was briefly interrogated by Inter State Cell of Crime Branch before he was released “as he enjoys diplomatic immunity”, revealed Delhi Police Joint Commissioner Ravindra Yadav.

Commenting on this issue Vikas Swarup, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman stated on his Twitter, “FS (foreign secretary) summons Pak high commissioner to convey that Pak High Commission staffer (Mehmood Akhtar) has been declared persona non grata for espionage activities.”

The two Indians from Rajasthan who were caught with the sensitive data were Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir. The Delhi Police Joint Commissioner stated that they both were booked under the Official Secrets Act. “The spies are residents of Rajasthan working for Pakistan’s ISI. The spies were in touch with the staff here at Pakistan High Commission and were providing sensitive information,” Mr Yadav disclosed.

Throwing the light on the modus operandi of Akhtar and two Indians Mr Yadav said, “He (Akhtar) was a havildar in Baloch regiment of Pakistan army, was later hired by ISI and was working in visa department in high commission.” “The Pakistan high commission official was the kingpin. He used to recruit Indians for spying and send information to Pakistan… The (spying) module was active for one-and-a-half years. We were working (to bust) it for the past six months. We recovered documents on defense deployment and border area maps. They had lists of BSF men who were deployed, transferred or retired,” MR Yadav further elaborated.

The Delhi Police also speculate that the racket involving the espionage mission has been going on for over one and half years.

It has been reported that the caught Indian spies were collecting information on Border Secuirty Force (BSF) and used to pass them to intelligence operative”  i.e. Akhtar. The spies had defense deployment maps, border area maps and visa related documents when they were taken into custody by the police.

The Pakistan diplomat Mehmood Akhtar, has been asked to leave India.

The police also informed that the search for another one of the spies, ‘Shoaib from Jodhpur’ is on, as he too is the part of the espionage ring.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has ‘condemned’ India’s actions of indicting Mehmood Akhtar on the charges of spying.  Lashing out on India, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry issued a statement, “The Indian action has been accompanied by an extremely negative and orchestrated media campaign,”

The Ministry further clearly rejected India’s espionage allegations.  “We reject the Indian allegations and deplore the Indian action which is indeed a violation of the Vienna Convention as well as the norms of diplomatic conduct especially in an already vitiated atmosphere,” Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs said. “This act clearly reflects Indian actions to shrink diplomatic space for the working of Pakistan High Commission,” its statement read.

The statement further accused India of cooking up theories to divert the attention from the Kashmir crises. “The Indian attempts to escalate the tensions and divert the international attention from the grave human rights violations being perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir can never succeed. Pakistan urges the international community to take notice of the Indian designs,” the statement went on.

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