ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday said eight Indian ‘diplomats’ in Pakistan allegedly members of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) are suspected of involvement in terrorist and subversive activities.
FO Spokesman Nafees Zakaria, during a weekly press briefing in Islamabad, said a number of Indian diplomats and staff belonging to the Indian intelligence agencies RAW and IB had been found involved in aiding terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan under the garb of diplomatic assignments.
Zakaria provided details of the activities of the ‘undercover agents’, alleging that the suspected RAW and IB operatives handled Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) factions, fueled sectarianism in Pakistan and created unrest in Balochistan, Sindh, and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
According to the FO, suspected RAW operatives at the high commission were: Rajesh Kumar Agnihotir (commercial counsellor and RAW station chief), Anurag Singh (first commercial secretary), Amerdeep Singh Bhatti (attache visa), Dharmendra Sodhi (staff member), Vijay Kumar Verma (staff) and Madhavan Nanda Kumar (staff).
Giving details of the suspected IB operatives, the FO said that Balbir Singh (IB station chief) had been working as the first secretary, press information, while Jayabalan Senthil was working as assistant personnel welfare officer.
The FO claimed that the Indian High Commission official Surjeet Singh, who was declared persona non grata a few days ago was also an IB operative working under Balbir Singh.
“Surjeet was using a fake identity, [living] as Abdul Hafeez [and] pretending to be a telecom company’s employee,” the FO alleged.
“We are disappointed that India has not only been found involved in promoting terrorist activities and terror financing – as was disclosed by Kulbhushan Yadav, and further confirmed by the statements at the highest political level on August 15 and earlier during a visit to Dhaka – India has also been using its diplomatic mission for its nefarious designs,” the FO spokesman said.
Giving details of the alleged activities of suspected RAW and IB operatives, the FO said they were involved in espionage, subversion, supporting of terrorist activities and fuelling instability in Balochistan and Sindh, especially Karachi.
Authorities said that the accused had also been tasked with sabotaging the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, creating unrest in Gilgit-Baltistan and expanding network of operatives and agents under the guise of commercial activities.
They said the operatives also worked for damaging the Pak-Afghan relations through a variety of activities, and used to infiltrate Indian agents into the social, media and political circles for propaganda purposes and activities detrimental to Pakistan’s interests.
The FO said that the agents used to fabricate evidence to portray Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, and at the same time handled factions of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.
The Indian High Commission officials were also accused of fuelling sectarianism and maligning Pakistan with propaganda on human rights issues, besides their activities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir that were detrimental to the Kashmir cause.
The FO said that those Indian agents had also been misleading the international community about the indigenous movement for self-determination in Indian-held Kashmir.
“India has violated diplomatic norms and the code of conduct for maintaining relations between two sovereign states,” the FO said, adding that India had violated the Vienna Convention by declaring Pakistan High Commission staff member in Delhi, Mehmood Akhter, persona non grata.
“They [India] are desperate to hide their crimes against humanity from the international community’s scrutiny,” the FO said.
“In desperation, they have turned their guns onto the innocent civilians across the Line of Control.”
The FO also condemned Indian atrocities in IHK and India’s unprovoked ceasefire violations that had killed innocent civilians.
“The last few months have been very painful, as Indian occupation forces have continued killing defenceless Kashmiris,” he said.
