Pak High Commission officials wanted to extract details of army movements via trains: Probe

The probe into two Pakistan High Commission has revealed that they wanted to acquire information about the movement of Army units and hardware via trains.

Two officials of Pakistan High Commission, identified as Abid Hussain and Muhammad Tahir, were arrested and were declared 'persona non grata' by India on charges of espionage.

They were caught by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police from central Delhi's Karol Bagh while they were obtaining sensitive documents, official sources said.

The FIR into the matter alleges that when classified documents related to deployment and movement of armed forces were recovered from them when they were arrested by the cops.

One of the ISI agents posing as the driver even tried to flee but was apprehended.

On the directions of ISI in Pakistan, Abid and Tahir were trying to obtain information from the Railways and armed forces, sources said.

The officials were working at the visa section of the Pakistan High Commission and confessed during the interrogation that they worked for Pakistani spy agency ISI.

During the investigation, it emerged that accused Abid operated under several fake identities to lure persons working in organisations and departments of his interest.

He posed by the name Gautam, a brother of a media person, to establish contact with an individual working in the Indian Railways. He tried to gain his confidence by pretending that he needed information about rail movements for his brother who was supposedly doing a story on Indian Railways and for which he was willing to pay money.

The real motive was to lure and trap the railway staff and then acquire information about the movement of Army units and hardware via trains, sources said.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Ministry of External Affairs had said, "The government has declared both these officials persona non grata for indulging in activities incompatible with their status as members of a diplomatic mission and asked them to leave the country within 24 four hours."