Jaipur: The rampant usage of social media and honey trap by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to lure the Army officials for espionage has caused the Rajasthan intelligence wing to intensify their crackdown on the spies. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are using fake social media accounts with female names to befriend, lure and also to blackmail India’s defence personnel into committing espionage.
The frequent arrests of spies, having access to social media accounts, has prompted the police department and other agencies to step up their vigilance and arrests are being made on the specific intelligence inputs from the military's intelligence wing.
In January, it was discovered that a 42-year-old man, identified as Satyanarayan Paliwal, a resident of Jaisalmer, shared classified information about the Indian Army. Paliwal confessed to being in touch with an agent of Pakistan intelligence agency and possessing sensitive military information and was arrested by Rajasthan police on charges of espionage.
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In October last year, a spy allegedly working for ISI and reportedly on a mission to extract information from the Army and Border Security Forces (BSF) was arrested by the Anti-terrorist Squad (ATS).
The state intelligence wing in coordination with several other agencies has arrested at least eleven people in the past two years. Reports suggest that Indian Army personnel, officials of Military Engineering services and people residing in border areas constitute a larger proportion of the arrests.
DSP of state special branch Haricharan Meena told ETV Bharat, "Spies are deployed to convey sensitive information about the Indian Army to Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI."
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"Now, Pakistan's ISI has constituted a special women wing, who use fake social media accounts, with an aim to lure Indian men for espionage," he added.
Meena said that ISI deposits the lump sum amount in the bank account of friends and relatives of spies', adding that direct transfers are avoided.
Asked about which social media platform pose a greater challenge, the officer said, "The spies generally come in contact with ISI agents through messaging applications like Whatsapp and Facebook. The agents use WhatsApp calls and Facebook messenger to communicate with the spies and also share photographs, maps and other crucial and sensitive information. The technical branch always keeps an eye on such suspicious social media accounts and arrests are made."
