4 ISI agents arrested

Crime Branch sleuths were tipped off that one Abdul Samad had been procuring confidential documents on the instructions of a Karachi-based intelligence officer. Some messages were faxed while others were ferried by associates who posed as passengers visiting Pakistan, said Police Inspector Vilas Tupe.

Samad had been kept under surveillance but was arrested on June 12 while faxing a message from a communications booth at Bhendi Bazaar. During interrogation he revelead the name of four associates, who were arrested between June 12 and 18.

The four agents have beenidentified as Abdul Hingore 32, owner of the booth, who was arrested from Dongri. The others are Mahamad Faiyaz 31, Imtiyaz Dalal and Abdul Dawood Darvesh 33.

The arrest of the four agents follows the arrest of another ISI agent, Sayyed Desai, who was picked up in Pune on June 14. Police said Desai used to exchange secret documents with Faiyaz at a hotel in Central Mumbai. Most of the money required for funding the operation was received through hawala transcations.

During Saturady8217;s raid police seized photocopying machines, two STD telephones with a conferencing facility, 29 passports and other documents exposing their nexus with Pakistani ISI agents. The four agents have been remanded to police custody till June 2.