LAHORE: Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has dismantled, what it says, a highly-sophisticated network being run by the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and their local facilitators.
The bust, executed under the code name ‘Operation Yalghar’, has led to the arrest of six suspected RAW facilitators in Toba Tek Singh district.
Sources say the law enforcement agencies acted quickly when they detected audio calls of two individuals identified as Major Rawindra Rathor and Inspector Singh — both officers of RAW — to their local handlers.
The recordings reveal that the RAW officers were issuing instructions to the local handlers how to do recce of some sensitive installations and carry out an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast at a mosque to cause large-scale casualties and other damage.
Suspects were to carry out blasts at a mosque, Bahawalpur Railway Station
They were also being assigned some other tasks from RAW officers, including targeted killings, picking up IEDs from a Indian Border Security Force (BSF) gate, planting the explosives at the Bahwalpur Railway Station, besides passing instructions to them regarding border crossing.
In the audio recordings (also available with Dawn), they also discussed a deal to make payments with the local facilitators against each Indian-sponsored task they were to complete, and the mode of payment through their Dubai-based agents.
Meanwhile, senior police officers held a press conference here at the Central Police Office, saying they seized a cache of sensitive material, including maps of strategic locations in Pakistan, detonators and high-grade explosives.
Punjab Additional IG (Operations) Shahzada Sultan says that was not an isolated operation as in a parallel development the Bahawalpur CTD apprehended more suspects allegedly linked to the same RAW-sponsored network.
He said a Raw-sponsored Dubai-based payment facilitator, Zulfiqar, a resident of Dera Ghazi Khan, was apprehended from Bahawalpur, besides Azam alias Jajji and Manzoor alias Qari, both residents of Bahawalpur and one Amjad of Pakpattan.
These individuals, according to the CTD officials, received financial support routed through Dubai and consignments of IEDs directly from India’s BSF.
“The suspects were actively plotting attacks on a mosque and a local [Bahawalpur] railway station,” Mr Sultan said. “Had they succeeded, the consequences would have been catastrophic.”
The police officer said that perhaps most alarming was the intelligence haul accompanying these arrests.
“Forensic examination of the digital communications intercepted by the CTD has unearthed audio recordings of two individuals identified as Major Rawindra Rathor and Inspector Singh, alleged officers within RAW, who were giving direct operational instructions to the apprehended men,” he said.
In the recordings, the two RAW officers can be heard directing the execution of attacks on “sensitive installations” across Pakistan.
The police officers termed the development very significant as Pakistani authorities have not only named, but also provided “direct evidence” of Indian intelligence operatives orchestrating subversive activities on Pakistani soil.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the CTD vowed to safeguard the national security.
“We will not compromise on the sovereignty of Pakistan,” the agency said. “Anyone involved in aiding any foreign attempt to destabilise our country will be brought to justice.”
This crackdown reinforces Islamabad’s long-standing claims of external interference, particularly by New Delhi, in its internal security affairs.
The CTD says the proxy networks, their clandestine facilitators and hybrid warfare are fast becoming the new norm in South Asia’s security theatre.
This episode is likely to further deteriorate the already tense relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, and will certainly feature in the diplomatic back channels between the two countries, if not escalating into open recriminations on global forums, says the agency.
