'ISI agent' who posed as labourer in Pathankot cantonment held

NEW DELHI: Suspected ISI mole Irshad Ahmed, who was working as a manual labourer at Mamoon cantonment in Pathankot, was arrested by the Punjab police on Tuesday. Irshad, who hails from Poonch district in Jammu & Kashmir, was allegedly using his smartphone to take pictures of sensitive equipment and installations inside the cantonment and passing them on to his Jammu-based handler Sajjad.

The arrest comes exactly a month after heavily armed Jaish fidayeen struck at the Pathankot airbase, killing seven security personnel and a civilian before they were killed.

Sources said nothing has been found so far to link Irshad to the airbase siege.

Irshad's handler Sajjad was recently arrested in Jammu in connection with an Arms Act case. He is being questioned on Irshad's disclosure that he used to pass on photographs of cantonment areas to his Pakistani handlers through emails and secure chat messaging services.

Irshad, son of Mohd Aslam, was tracked and arrested following a tip-off by the central intelligence agencies. He had managed to find a digging job inside the cantonment and used it as a cover for his spying assignment. Intelligence agencies have recovered several photos of sensitive installations from his smartphone. Sources said more leads are being worked on to establish where Irshad was getting instructions from and if there is any money trail of payments made to him in lieu of his espionage services.

Pathankot Cantt is one of the biggest and sensitive military bases of the Army. A division of the Army , which includes infantry and cavalry battalions, is based there.

Irshad is being considered a big catch as his arrest points to Pathankot still being on the terror radar even after the audacious attack at the airbase early last month. Most often, ISI tends to move on to a new target, realising that the level of guard is raised in the place that has already been attacked.

A close watch is being maintained to track any other espionage agents in Pathankot area.