Pakistan’s Azad Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday arrested three suspected operatives of India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, according to local media reports. Rawalakot Deputy Inspector General Chaudhry Sajjad on Saturday said they were taken into custody for alleged subversive activities and booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Explosives Act, reported Dawn.
The suspects were masked when produced at a media briefing in Rawalkot. The police claimed that the trio was targeting Chinese engineers, installations and the under-construction China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. “The Indian spy agency had assigned them new targets such as the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalakot, the CPEC project, Chinese engineers and sensitive installations in Azad Kashmir,” Sajjad said, according to The Express Tribune.
The Pakistani officers identified the suspects as Mohammad Khalil, Imtiaz and Rashid. Poonch Deputy Superintendent of Police Sajid Imran said Khalil had visited the region in November 2014 and had recruited Imtiaz and Rashid, for which he was given Rs 5 lakh.
DIG Sajjad added that they had crossed the Line of Control several times and also carried out an attack at the Abbaspur Police Station. Khalil is believed to have admitted to crossing the LoC 15 times in the past two years, while the other two did so at least six times. “The Indian intelligence agency was providing them huge amounts of funds to carry out subversive activities,” he claimed.
The arrests come at a time when India has been piling diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to release former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who Pakistan has on a death row on charges of terrorism and espionage. New Delhi has said that it would treat it as murder if the neighbouring country went ahead with his execution.
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