Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, March 4

Shopkeepers in Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s home town Bijbehara in Anantnag district today downed their shutters and blocked the national highway to protest the alleged high-handedness of Army men.Traders in the Goriwan market of Bijbehara alleged that Army men had been harassing people in the name of frisking and checking for some time now. Protesting shopkeepers said Army men allegedly thrashed a truck driver today for no fault of his.“They (Army men) have been letting loose sniffer dogs into our shops regularly in the name of so-called security. We cooperated, but now they have started beating innocent people,” shopkeepers said.The business community, joined by locals, today confronted Army men for beating the truck driver and blocked the traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway. The protesters raised pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. They were later pacified by the police.“Yes, there was some altercation between shopkeepers and Army men. We pacified both parties. The locals were told to come and lodge a complaint but nobody has come forward as of now,” said SDPO, Bijbehara, Tanveer Ahmad.A spokesperson for the Army was not available for comment despite repeated attempts.

Arun Joshi
More than 100 Kashmiri Muslims have registered themselves as migrants in Jammu in the past one month. They claim that they were under the threat of militants in the Valley. A sequel to the October 5, 2016 order, kept under wraps until last month, it has re-opened the registration of migrants halted in 2008. Implications for Kashmir’s internal situation are unfolding, leading to a trust deficit.

Crisis of confidence: A view of the Jagti Township allotted to Kashmiri migrants in Nagrota. A Tribune file Photograph

IF the Muslims in Kashmir are under militants’ threat and need to flee from the Valley, then it begets a question: Why? The PDP-BJP government thought it prudent to enable them to register themselves as migrants without making an assessment of the level of threat. It is seen as a safety valve for them. The Executive order said, “Sanction is hereby accorded to the reconstitution of the committee for screening the applications for registration of bona fide Kashmiri migrants.” The migration from the Valley started in 1990, with the eruption of militancy. Kashmiri Pandits fled the Valley. This renewed registration is essentially meant for Muslims as there are hardly any Hindus left in the Valley. Do Kashmiri Muslims need the protective cover of “migrants” to settle in a safe place like Jammu to escape the  militants’ guns? No one can deny them the right to life. It is the duty of the government to protect them but this has re-opened the chapter of   migration with a single executive order, without taking the cabinet into confidence. The registration was frozen in 2008 by the State Administrative Council, equivalent to the cabinet when the state is under Central rule.It doesn’t matter whether they are Hindus or Muslims. During all these years of militancy in Kashmir, the Muslims in the Valley have felt the heat of militants’ fury. They shifted to Jammu and constructed homes. As state subjects, they are within their right to settle in any part of the state. But there was no official migrant tag. Such a tag makes it mandatory for the government to provide them with accommodation, cash relief, free ration and facilities the Kashmiri Pandit migrants get. This also draws attention to several uncomfortable truths, with implications for the state and the rest of the country. Firstly, it is a big rebuke to the claim by Delhi and Srinagar that the Valley has witnessed vast improvement in the situation since 1990. Then, more than 3.5 lakh Kashmiri Hindus fled the Valley under the fear of persecution by militants. Conversely, it also is  an admission that the situation has further deteriorated. This goes on to prove that the campaign to ensure the return and restoration of Kashmiri Pandits to the land of their ancestors is devoid of any substance.  This would send a message  to the rest of  India that after 27 years, Kashmir has been distanced, physically and psychologically, from  the country. Again, if the Muslims are encouraged to migrate, what about some 2,000 Kashmiri Pandits who are still living in the Valley? With their Muslim neighbours moving out, their existence becomes untenable in this “government-encouraged” atmosphere of fear. If Muslims are looking for a bright future for themselves and their families out of the disturbed Valley, surely non-migrant Pandits cannot be expected to stay back.An announcement  of the opening of fresh migration of the threatened Muslims  has  created  more space for radical elements supporting militancy and  guns they believe would deliver them “freedom from the Indian occupation”. The responsibility to check their free run, in which an Islamic State-type enclave  falls within the realm of reality, will fall on the Army. More gunfights and killings cannot be ruled out, howsoever dreadful the thought. Already, there  have been glimpses of that in the past few months. The two sides have had formidable fights, drawing national and global attention. Politically, it suits separatists and their mainstream supporters. It will evoke international attention and undermine the possibility of resolution through  dialogue. Is the government’s defreezing of migration a genuine move to save lives or a design? Either of this could be true. The security situation in the Valley is palpably very bad. Fear is rampant and all-pervasive. Family members suspect each other and neighbours have perfected art of doublespeak. No one knows who would be dubbed as a police “informer” and eliminated by militants.   Perhaps, the government found a convenient  way to help  its own people. South Kashmir, the bastion of the ruling PDP, was the epicentre of trouble and violence in 2016. The design is to overwhelm Jammu, the Hindu-majority area until now,  to get overwhelmed by the  Muslim population. That, in the long term could validate claims of Pakistan and separatists that the aspirations of the people of Jammu  and Kashmir are for “freedom.”At a deeper level, this belies the very idea of the return of the  migrant Kashmiri Pandits to their homes in the Valley. Almost all have been saying that the Valley is  “incomplete without them,” but the “incomplete” Valley has become a meaningless cliché. In the first place, the executive order runs against the spirit of the resolution passed by the state legislature that circumstances should be created for an early return of migrants to the Valley. This resolution gets reduced to just a paper when more migration is encouraged. The question, “If Muslims in the exclusively Muslim Valley are not safe, how could the Kashmiri Hindus be”? stares at the government.  The other side is that the government would breathe easy as it would escape the pressure of  facilitating the return of Kashmiri Pandit migrants to the Valley. Once that happens, there would be no need for a transition camp for the migrants in the Valley. The separatists would have their say that there would be no separate colonies for Kashmiri Pandits. For argument’s sake, even if it is believed that Muslim families registering themselves  as migrants  are under the threat of militants, then who occupies the space left by them? Obviously, the answer is the radicals and the militants.That may throw a challenge to the government at the Centre as well as give an excuse to go in for military action against the armed radicalised elements in  Kashmir. This scenario is fraught with danger. The Centre cannot remain indifferent. If today, it is a problem to restore Kashmiri Pandits to the land of their ancestors, tomorrow it may be a similar problem for Kashmiri Muslims. If this is allowed, Kashmir will  be a very different and a very dangerous place. The promised land of Jammu is having serious thoughts about its identity.  The only way out is to involve Jammu and Kashmir politically and lift it out of fear through sustained dialogue and measures that spell hope and promise. ajoshi57@gmail.com

Bundle of nerves: Are we getting paranoid about freedom of speech?

TWO events over the last few days, on opposite continents of the world, raise questions about the future of democracy in the US, the world’s most powerful, and India, the world’s most populous. On February 22, Srinivas Kuchbhotla was gunned down in Kansas, sharing a drink with a friend after work, by a white US navy veteran, in patently a hate crime. In India, at Ramjas College, New Delhi, a fracas broke out when BJP-aligned students’ union, ABVP, disrupted a function organised by campus students not aligned to them and invitees from JNU. The passively observant police intervened, more to rough-up the organisers than restrain ABVP disruptors. The allegation is that anti-national slogans were in the air. The attention got diverted from the melee when a young student, Gurmehar Kaur posted on social media placards denouncing the ABVP high-handedness, arguing that like her father — martyred fighting militants in Kashmir when she was little — she was unafraid to confront intolerance. The battle lines got promptly drawn, with intemperate remarks or tweets by an actor, a cricketer, a Union minister of state, and so on. In Gurmehar’s defence rose up senior journalists, retired soldiers, television anchors,  etc. By nightfall, BJP spokesmen began distancing themselves from Gurmehar’s tormentors as their standard dubbing of any critic as anti-national did not work against a martyr’s daughter. The elections in UP also made it unwise to offend serving and retired servicemen. The distraction aside, the issues in the US and India are not that apart. The rise of Modi and the continued Cabinet slots for those preaching sectarian hatred is not much different from President Trump listening to the whisperings of Rasputin-like Stephen Bannon, erstwhile publisher of Breitbart News — the mouthpiece of ‘alt-right’, who is White House chief strategist. Both leaders prefer political rallies and one-way communication with chosen media outlets than transparent and frank interaction with the media. If Modi has never contradicted ministerial colleagues tarring the media with the abusive phrase ‘presstitutes’, Trump does one better by directly and almost daily referring to ‘The Fake News’. At a Florida rally, he confidently advocated — uncaring that independent media strengthens democracy — that media ‘is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people’. A former President, George Bush, has been constrained to contradict Trump’s condemnation of the media, despite both being Republicans. Both the racist killing of an Indian techie in Kansas and the ABVP use of violence to drown alternative views spring from identical philosophies and narrow visions. In case of India, it brings up the freedom of speech, while in the US it raises the spectre of nativism fed by a mix of xenophobia and fear of Islam. It is thus supremely ironical that while the Indian Government sends Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to intervene with the US on the rising danger to Indian diaspora from white vigilantism, when under their noses similar intolerance is being happily marketed daily from election platforms in UP. Illustratively, RL Stevenson related the story about George Meredith, author of the 19th century novel, The Egoist, written to purge Victorian England of this evil, that when a young friend of the writer complained that the protagonist ‘Willoughby is me’, the writer replied: ‘No, my dear fellow, he is all of us.’ The issues arising need a closer analysis. At stake in India is the defiition of freedom of speech. Having inherited the common law-based criminal justice system from the British, India clings to antiquated laws on sedition. In the US too, immediately after their independence they enacted a sedition Act, which was allowed to lapse in 1801 as the nation matured and gained self-confidence. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the fear of Communism made the US pass the Federal Espionage Act in 1917. Thus, while the British Common Law treats freedom of speech as ‘residual freedom’, circumscribed by societal needs of morality and public order, the US Supreme Court started treating it as a ‘fundamental right’ flowing from the First Amendment from 1925. In 1969,  it upheld the right of students to wear black bands to protest Vietnam War. Justice OW Holmes ruled that while a nation is at war, many things that can be said in time of peace are taboo, but the test has to be whether there is ‘clear and present danger’ of sedition, not merely the expression of an opinion or a thought. What a person, in the exercise of his freedom of expression, is doing must be more than public inconvenience or annoyance, or even unrest. India, with a concept of ‘Fundamental Rights’ borrowed from the US practice has to assess if what happened at JNU earlier, or now at Ramjas College, passes the Holmes test. The definition of nationalism cannot be crafted in Nagpur and implemented by an evangelical lynch mob. Is that not the same question that the US is today required to answer, whether ordinary whites carrying guns can ask any non-white to prove their immigration status, or why they are in the US at all. So, the diaspora that came to Madison Square Garden to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, in response to Modi’s incantations, are being put to the kind of test of loyalty that misguided flag-carriers of the BJP, or fringe organisations of the Sangh Parivar, have been putting to their own countrymen. How does India ask Trump to be more considerate when President Obama reminded the Modi government before emplaning for the US in 2015, in his speech at Siri Fort, that Article 25 ensured freedom of conscience and it was the government’s responsibility to uphold it. While it is true that the Indian geo-political environment does compel the government to be ever-alert to forces endangering Indian territorial integrity or sovereignty, but surely campus students holding placards, or sloganeering do not compose such a threat. As Voltaire, some say wrongly quoted, said: ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ Perhaps like the US Supreme Court, India’s highest court needs to re-balance the fundamental rights and the State’s obligations, and in the process, re-educate the lawyer-ministers of the BJP. The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External 

New Delhi, February 27

An FIR was registered on Tuesday against unknown persons in connection with the case of Kargil martyr’s daughter Gurmehar Kaur, who complained of receiving “rape threats” allegedly from ABVP members.Yesterday, police had received a letter from Delhi Commission for Women demanding immediate registration of an FIR against those who had threatened Gurmehar (20).The FIR was registered under relevant Sections of the IT Act and the IPC, said a senior police officer.“Yesterday, DCW forwarded a complaint of a DU student reg. online abuse. Immediately, area DCP spoke to her & provided necessary security. Her complnt was examined by Cyber Cell& an FIR No.32/17, u/s 354-A,506 IPC & 67 IT Act,PS EOW has been registerd & invstigation tkn up,” Delhi Police said in a series of tweets.

Further details are awaited.

Kaur had last week changed her Facebook profile picture to one in which she was holding a placard reading, “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me. #StudentsAgainstABVP.”Ramjas College had last week witnessed large-scale violence between members of the AISA and the ABVP.The genesis of the clash was an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar on ‘Culture of Protests’ which was withdrawn by the college authorities following opposition by the ABVP. — PTI

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 25

Former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma today said it was for the first time that a Prime Minister had tried to gain political mileage by highlighting the achievements of the Army such as surgical strike during election rallies.Addressing a press conference here, he said such acts of the PM only belittled the sacrifices and achievements of the Army. “The Army does not belong to the Prime Minister or the BJP but to the entire nation,” he said. Neither the Congress nor the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee ever tried to take such credit. Sharma said even during the 1971 war when over one lakh Pakistani army personnel surrendered, the Congress did not capitalise on this victory. “Even during the Kargil War when Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, the Army was never dragged into the political arena,” he remarked. He advised the PM to exercise restraint and maintain a balance in his speeches.He lamented that Modi had brought the standard of political debate to a low. “We can’t stoop to the level of Modi when he compared us with a Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab,” he said. He took strong exception to the remarks made by Modi not just about the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, but also about leaders of other parties like the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BSP.He said the PM was an authoritarian who only believed in adopting a confrontationist approach and not engaging in dialogue. “I would like to advise the PM not to treat his political opponents as his personal enemies,” he said.He also lashed out at the pernicious campaign of the RSS and the BJP against Rahul Gandhi. “They have launched a campaign against him as they fear that he will take on their party,” he said.Sharma said despite none of the reasons cited by Modi for demonetisation, including fighting corruption, black money and terror-funding being justified, the PM is unwilling to debate the issue. “He is accountable to the nations as the GDP has gone down, almost four crore to six crore jobs lost, 70 per cent of the factories have closed down and the unorganised sector has been the worst hit,” he said.

Advice to Modi

• The Congress did not capitalise on the 1971 war victory when over one lakh Pakistani army personnel surrendered
• Even during the Kargil War, when Vajpayee was the PrimeMinister, the Army was never dragged into the political arena
• He advised the PM to exercise restraint and maintain a balance in his speeches

Army men carry the coffin of Lance Naik Ghulam Mohiuddin Rather, killed in Thursday’s ambush in Shopian, during his funeral procession in Anantnag district on Friday. Tribune Photo: Amin War

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 24

A day after the killing of three soldiers, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat today made it clear that “anti-militancy operations will continue with vigour and action will be taken against those indulging in stone-throwing to disrupt such operations”.General Rawat had rushed to Srinagar hours after the Shopian attack to assess the security situation. The Army has lost nine men, including an officer, in less than two weeks.During two high-level meetings at the headquarters of the Army’s counter-insurgency divisions — Victor and Kilo Force — the Army Chief listened to officers engaged in anti-militancy operations.The officers, sources said, informed the Chief about the dual challenges — one from militants and another from stone-throwers. He was also briefed about the recent four operations in which the Army had suffered casualties.Sources said the Army Chief expressed concern over the high number of the Army casualties during these operations. “The Chief made it clear that the anti-militancy operations will continue with vigour. At the same time, he said, strict action will be taken against those who hurl stones and interfere in such operations,” a source said.Despite General Rawat’s stern warning last week, the youth in Kashmir continue to hamper anti-militancy operations.Meanwhile, a defence spokesman in Srinagar said the Army Chief along with Northern Command and Chinar Corps chiefs Lt Gen D Anbu and Lt Gen JS Sandhu visited Victor and Kilo Force Headquarters.The spokesman said the Army Chief also reviewed the collaborative measures of security forces towards ensuring peace and calm in the region. He interacted with local commanders and troops and urged them to continue discharging their duties with utmost professionalism.“Reinforcing the need to maintain high vigil, the Army Chief also discussed the issue of stone-pelting during Army operations and impressed upon all to synergise efforts with other security agencies in dealing with such situations effectively,” the spokesman said.

Tribute paid to slain soldiers

• Army chief General Bipin Rawat paid tribute to the three soldiers (Lance Naik Ghulam Mohi ud Din Rather, Sepoy Vikas Singh Gurjar and Sapper Sreejith MJ) killed in the recent militant attack at Shopian
• Wreaths were also laid on behalf of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti by two ministers Abdul Haq Khan and Ghulam Nabi Lone
• Officials of the civil administration and security agencies also paid tribute to the martyrs at a solemn function held at the Badami Bagh cantonment

Despite matric being minimum qualification, graduates & postgraduates also appear for test

Aspirants take a physical fitness test at the Army recruitment rally in Ludhiana on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Himanshu Mahajan

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 22

The minimum qualification for joining the Army in the ongoing recruitment drive for 14 vacancies in the 152 Infantry Battalion (Territorial Army) Sikh is Class X only, but graduates and post-graduates are also appearing for the recruitment.It is the penchant for wearing olive green, according to some of them, which is dragging them to the venue near Jagraon Bridge.As many as 6,400 youth have appeared in the recruitment rally so far and many of them are graduates and post-graduates from various streams. Some termed unemployment as reason behind joining the Army, but many categorically said the craze and penchant to wear olive green was the main cause.Rohit Sooden, who has a BSc degree from Himachal Pradesh, said: “I had a dream to wear olive green since my childhood. No one from my family is in the Army, but my father has always motivated me to join the Army. I came all the way from Himachal. I hope my hard work and passion will yield results.”Another candidate Sunny Sharma, who came from Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, is a post-graduate in Hindi, has completed BEd and is now pursuing MEd, said, he wanted to join the Army to serve the country and countrymen. “Presently, I am teaching at a private school, but my ultimate target is to join the Army. Even if I don’t get through this time, I will continue to try my luck in future,” he said.Manish Kumar from HP, who has done BCA, said he could not find a suitable job despite completing his graduation, adding that now he was trying for the Army. “My foremost reason to join the Army is to serve the country. This employment will also give me bread for my entire life. Apart from a good salary, the Army offers many other facilities as well so this is obviously a great choice,” he said.

Highlights

• Only 578 of total 6,400 candidates have cleared the physical test so far
• The pass percentage stands at 9% only
• A total of 3,000 candidates from Punjab appeared, of which 325 cleared the physical test
• From J&K and Himachal Pradesh, 900 appeared, of which 99 cleared the physical test
• From Haryana and Delhi, 2,500 appeared and only 154 passed the physical round

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 20

China today praised as well as taunted  India over its record-breaking satellite launch last week. While China, in its state-run media, praised India for its ability to send commercial satellites into space at a low cost, in the same vein it also taunted New Delhi for lacking the technological ability to launch multiple satellites into various orbits. China, of late, has used commentaries and articles in the Global Times (GT) to indicate to India and other countries its stand on various issues. The GT article today praised the launch and said it was “India’s latest triumph for its space programme”. Further on, the article pointed out that what India needs “to do is to avoid the conflicts among satellites, which involves lots of calculation and data analysis, but is not a tough task”.The article quoted Zhang Yonghe, director at the new technology department of the Shanghai Engineering Centre for Microsatellites, who said that, “The launch indicated that India can send commercial satellites into space at lower costs, giving the country’s competitiveness in the global race for the burgeoning commercial space businesses.” Zhang also said India’s record-breaking launch would speed up China’s commercialisation of rocket launches. He also credited India for doing a better job in promoting its launch services internationally as compared to China.Last week, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched 104 satellites on a single rocket, breaking the record set by Russia in 2014 when it launched 37 satellites in a single mission.

India can develop space station, says ISRO chief

Indore, February 20

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman A S Kiran Kumar today said the country has the capability to develop a space station, but it needed a long-term approach and an ambitious planning.His comment follows ISRO display of technological prowess last week by launching 104 satellites in a single mission.”We have all the capabilities to set up a space station.The day the country takes the decision, we will ‘ok’ the project. Just draw a policy and provide us necessary funds and time,” Kumar said here.He was in the city to attend the foundation day ceremony of Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology (RRCAT).”We still talk about what would be the immediate benefits of a manned space mission. That is why the country hasn’t made up its mind about when to invest in a space station,” he said.A long-term thinking was needed for setting up a space station, he said, adding “the sooner the better.” Kumar said ISRO was also mulling tying up with the industry to enhance the country’s satellite launching capability.Many more satellites were needed to keep a tab on the land and weather conditions and to enhance the communication network, he said.This would be possible with increase in the number of satellite launches, for which the country needed to enhance the basic infrastructure and reduce the cost of equipment, he added.The number of companies manufacturing small satellites has gone up across the world, but these companies could not launch them, therefore this area had immense commercial potential and India could tap it by enhancing the launch facilities, the ISRO chief said. — PTI

Ruined by spy scandal, ex-ISRO scientist fights for justice in SC

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 20

“The system I designed is being used in Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan and PSLV that launched 104 satellites in one go. But I am still fighting to get justice,” says former ISRO scientist S Nambi Narayanan whose career was ruined by the 1994 ISRO spy scandal.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) On Monday, Narayanan (75) was in the Supreme Court to attend hearing on his petition for action against those who finished his career and sullied his reputation.“I have wasted 25 years of my life fighting a legal battle to get justice. I want those responsible for foisting a false charge on me to be punished,” Narayanan told The Tribune.The Kerala Police had arrested Mariam Rasheeda—a Maldivian woman on October 20, 1994 for over staying in India after the expiry of her visa. It turned into a sex-spy scandal allegedly involving two senior ISRO scientists, some businessmen and others. They were accused of passing on ISRO’s cryogenic programme secrets to the women who in turn supplied the same to Russia and Pakistan’s ISI.In 1996, the CBI probe cleared all the accused. It concluded that the entire scandal was fabricated by Kerala Police officers who had investigated the case.All the accused were discharged in May 1996. Along with the closure report, the CBI had also sent a confidential report indicting the state police officials.But following a change of guard in Kerala, the state government withdrew the consent given to the CBI to probe the case and asked the state police to re-investigate it.However, the Supreme Court in April 1998 quashed the state government’s decision and all the accused were freed.Rasheeda too was released in 2001. The Kerala High Court had in September 2012 ordered the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim relief to Narayanan.Acting on his petition, the Kerala High Court had in October 2014 ordered action against the state police officials based on the CBI’s confidential report. But a Division Bench of the High Court reversed the order in March 2015.It’s this Division Bench verdict that Narayanan is fighting against in the top court now.On Monday, Sibi Mathew – one of the police officers indicted by the CBI – sought four-week adjournment but a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra declined to give that much time and fixed the matter for further hearing on February 23.Narayanan exuded confidence that he will get justice from the Supreme Court.

Hafiz Saeed

Islamabad, February 18

Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, who is under house arrest, has been listed under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism Act, a tacit acknowledgement of his links to militancy.Dawn News reported that the Punjab government had included the names of Saeed and one of his close aides, Qazi Kashif, in the fourth schedule of the Anti-terrorism Act (ATA). (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Three others — Abdullah Obaid from Faisalabad and Zafar Iqbal and Abdur Rehman Abid from the Markaz-i-Taiba in Muridke — were also included in the listThose listed face a barrage of legal consequences like travel bans and scrutiny of assets. Violation of the provisions may draw jail of up to three years and fine or both. — PTI

iStock photo for representation only.

Jodhpur, February 17

Suspected Pakistan spy Haji Khan, who was arrested earlier this month by the security agencies, had been using name of weathers as code word for passing on information to ISI and other agencies about the movements of the BSF, Army and Air Force, his interrogators have said.

According to an intelligence source, he used the word “cold” for BSF, “hot” for Army and “rain” for the Air Force.

“When border surveillance by BSF would be stepped up, he would convey to the Pak agencies it was too cold and the same was the method for the Army and Air Force,” the source said.

As per his disclosure earlier, he had been actively working for ISI and two other agencies for about past 3 years and has got about Rs 15 lakh from these agencies by way of deposits in his wife’s bank account in Pakistan or through hawala transaction to his cousin in Dubai.

“In order to extract information from the border guards or Army soldiers, he would sit with them near the bordering areas and offer them milk and tea of goat milk,” said the source.

Security agencies have been interrogating Khan since he was caught in Kishangarh in Jaisalmer district on February 11.

The agencies are trying to find out through interrogation what information, he has shared so far with the Pakistani agencies, and how important and serious were they in nature. — PTI