ISI luring military veterans via fake 'welfare agencies'

NEW DELHI: With several ISI-linked spy rings being exposed in recent weeks, it has come to light that Pakistan's infamous intelligence agency is floating fake ex-servicemen organisations to lure former forces personnel to ferret "authentic" information about serving officers and troop movements.

The former soldiers are being drawn to these fronts by offers like jobs and other rehabilitation measures purportedly intended to further their welfare with gullible, mostly low ranking ex-servicemen falling for the ploy.

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According to intelligence sources, ex-servicemen are being "trapped" by ISI agents posing as representatives of organizations working for welfare and rehabilitation of retired personnel and seeking "reference" information.

"This is a common modus operandi of ISI noticed in north Indian states, particularly Punjab, with agents reaching out to ex-service personnel looking for jobs and other benefits. The latter are asked to enrol themselves, and subtly asked to provide details like names and phone numbers of serving commanders, deployment details and, where possible, information on troop movement," said a senior intelligence source.

The former Army personnel are persuaded to part with information on the pretext that it is "routinely needed to fill up the forms before finding them suitable recruitment," said the source who said that though much of the details were fairly harmless, the risk could not be ignored.

"Success in such operations may just embolden ISI to get further entrenched in the system, expand spying activities and get more crucial details as the net grows wider," warned the officer.
Intelligence agencies had alerted the ministry of defence to this modus operandi of ISI around six months back. As many as 36 persons, including 13 serving and retired armed forces personnel and one serving BSF personnel, have been arrested over the past three years on charges of spying for ISI.

As per statistics furnished by the home ministry in reply to a Rajya Sabha question during the just-concluded winter session, 20 civilians and two foreigners, including a Sri Lankan and a Pakistani, were placed under arrest between 2013 and 2015 for passing on information to the ISI.

Minister of state for home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary told Elders that 14 persons have been arrested for alleged espionage on behalf of ISI so far this year. They include five serving or retired armed force personnel, one serving BSF personnel, seven civilians and one Pakistani.

The number of serving or retired armed force personnel has swelled to seven since, with two fresh arrests over the past couple of days. In 2014, seven persons, including four serving or retired armed force personnel, two civilians and a Sri Lankan, were arrested on similar charges. The 13 persons arrested in 2013 on charges of espionage for ISI included two serving or retired armed force personnel and 11 civilians.

"During the course of neutralization of Pak espionage modules between the period 2013-15 (till date), 34 accused have been arrested under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, 1923," according to Chaudhary.

Citing the assessment of the intelligence agencies, the minister claimed no significant information pertaining to core issues of national security was compromised by the security force personnel arrested for allegedly spying for the ISI, "since most of them were low-ranking personnel with no access to such information".