Third suspected ISI agent held in Gujarat
AHMEDABAD: A 31-year-old Jamnagar Municipal Corporation security staff member has been detained over his suspected links with Pakistan's ISI.
Police said Idrish Pinjara used to allegedly pass intelligence inputs about the Indian Air Force base in Jamnagar to ISI. Idrish's accomplice in Jamnagar has gone missing.
Idrish, who used to send emails to Pakistan regularly, is the third suspected ISI agent to be nabbed from Gujarat. Sirajuddin Fakir (23) was arrested first followed by Ayub Shaikh (22).
Fakir used to work with a private firm that had got a contract to supply poultry products to Army cantonments across Gujarat. Fakir used to get access to Army establishments while delivering the products.
"Two years back, Idrish had visited Pakistan. Tahir Khan, the ISI handler who had recruited Fakir during his Pakistan visit, had roped in Idrish too to report on the goings-on inside the IAF base in Jamnagar," said a crime branch officer. "The suspect works in Jamanagar Municipal Corporation's security division. Jamnagar airbase requires frequent assistance of JMC personnel for civic services. To attend to these jobs, JMC employees have to go into the airbase. Idrish often used to get in the JMC team going into the airbase. After noting the kind of aircraft and their make, he used to pass the information to ISI."
The official said when they realized that somebody from Jamnagar was passing information to ISI, the police checked the number of people, who had visited Pakistan in the recent past.
Around 250 people had gone to Pakistan from Jamnagar over the past two years. "Idrish was singled out after his background check revealed some suspicious factors. We have now got evidence that proves that he regularly passed on information about IAF base in Jamnagar to ISI," the officer said.
Crime branch sources said that Idrish was not the sole ISI contact in Jamnagar. While he was the information gatherer, another agent used to act as a mediator between Idrish and ISI for sending emails. He is the one who has gone missing. Gujarat police believe that he fled to Pakistan after the arrest of Sirajuddin.
In the case of Sirajuddin, an ISI agent is also missing. "The man who is now missing was based in Bhuj and used to collect information on Army movements for Sirajuddin who then emailed these inputs to Tahir of ISI," said another crime branch official.
