Rajasthan man arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan

The Rajasthan Police on Thursday arrested a man from Jaisalmer for allegedly spying for Pakistan, reported PTI.

The man, Hanif Khan, has been accused of passing confidential information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency in exchange for money.

Vishnukant, the inspector general of police, Criminal Investigation Department (Security), told The Indian Express that the CID’s intelligence wing had been monitoring espionage activities and found Khan to have been in regular contact with handlers of the Pakistani intelligence agency through social media.

The 47-year-old man is from Jaisalmer’s Basanpir Juni village and was living in the Bahla village along the India-Pakistan border, The Indian Express reported.

The newspaper quoted officials as saying that Khan had easy access to sensitive areas such as Mohangarh and Ghadsana as he was living near the border areas.

The police alleged that Khan had details of military installations and movements of soldiers. He has also been accused of having passed on information to the Pakistani handlers during Operation Sindoor.

A technical analysis of his phone and interrogation showed that he was allegedly sharing strategic military information with the ISI in exchange for money, the newspaper quoted officials as saying.

Khan has been booked under the 1923 State Secrets Act.

This is the fourth espionage-related arrest in Jaisalmer this year.

Since May, several persons, including two YouTubers, have been arrested on allegations of spying for Pakistan.

The arrests came amid heightened military tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad that escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

On May 30, the National Investigation Agency conducted raids at 15 locations in eight states that were suspected to be linked to alleged Pakistani intelligence operatives.