Soldier leaked Army’s top secrets to Pakistan’s ISI

The Army has confirmed that a Lance Naik attached to 4 Corps Headquarters in Tezpur passed on sensitive documents to the Inter-Services Inte...

The Army has confirmed that a Lance Naik attached to 4 Corps Headquarters in Tezpur passed on sensitive documents to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. The documents, sources say, include details of deployment of Indian troops along the China border and minutes of high-level strategic meetings.

Arrested on July 12, Lance Naik Javed Khan will be brought to the Capital soon for further interrogation by officials of the Intelligence Bureau. The liaison department at 4 Corps, under Gen H.S. Lidder, is currently investigating the breach in coordination with the police and IB.

‘‘There has definitely been a security breach in which some documents have been stolen and passed on to Pakistan. The Army has taken due cognizance of the incident. We are now investigating the extent of the security breach,’’ Army spokesperson Brigadier S.C. Nair told The Indian Express.

According to sources, the documents passed on by Lance Naik Javed Khan and his father, retired IAF Sergeant Hanif Khan, include minutes of a meeting held in October 2004, in which the then Army chief, Gen N.C.Vij, was present, and another in April 2005 which was attended by the present Army chief, Gen J.J. Singh, details of missile deployments and weapon upgradation, redeployment plans of infantry battalions, sector-wise deployment of 4 Corps troops along the border with China, background notes for a scheduled Army commanders conference and doctrinal documents on warfare in a nuclear backdrop.

The Guwahati Police made a breakthrough with the arrest on July 11 of the Lance Naik’s father, Hanif Khan, in Tezpur. An IAF Sergeant, he had retired in 1994. Hanif Khan had arrived from New Delhi and was staying at a hotel in Guwahati when the police and IB took him into custody.

The IAF has been roped in for the investigation since his interrogation revealed that Hanif Khan had previously passed on sensitive information about the IAF as well to the ISI.

	Three naval officers under house arrest

	• NEW DELHI: The Navy has put under house arrest three of its officers allegedly involved in the security breach at the naval operations room in South Block two weeks ago. The movement of the Director of Naval Operations had also been curtailed for the duration of the investigation by a board of inquiry headed by a Rear Admiral. The board is expected to make its findings known to the Navy Headquarters in the next 10 days. Naval officials have admitted that ‘‘procedural lapses in handling of the information stored in computers in the war room had come to light.’’ — ENS

What has alarmed the Army is how Javed Khan could access such sensitive documents, especially since some of the documents had no direct connection with 4 Corps. It is learnt that Khan, a ‘‘bright young jawan’’ with the 18th Grenadiers battalion, had a keen interest in computers and was familiar with the intricacies of the system.

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Guwahati Additional SP Bibekananda Das told The Indian Express that Hanif Khan was picked up on ‘‘specific information received from other sources.’’ The police said his interrogation revealed that Hanif Khan, a resident of Jewar in Gautam Buddh Nagar in Western UP, was a regular visitor to Guwahati and Tezpur, where he would allegedly collect copies of vital Army documents stolen by his son from the 4 Corps headquarters and pass them on to the ISI through agents in the Capital.

The Guwahati Police also tracked down four alleged agents in Gautam Buddh Nagar on July 16 and brought them to Guwahati. They have been identified as Mohammed Yamin Khan (38), Mohammed Latif Khan (31), Kiran Chandra (46), and Rami (50).

Police sources said over a hundred pages of documents were recovered from Hanif Khan when he was arrested on July 11, all computer printouts. These papers also included information related to procurement of low-power jammers for the 4 Corps and feedback notes on recent exercises of the two mountain divisions of the 4 Corps deployed close to the China border.

The Guwahati Police has registered a case of treason, conspiracy and espionage against Hanif Khan. Hanif Khan is learnt to have operated through a Pakistan High Commission official, Rafiq Malik, who was expelled from the country following the attack on Parliament in 2001. Khan allegedly told the police that he now operated through one Rafiq Chaddha.

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While Lance Naik Javed Khan was earlier posted at Ferozepur, the 18 Grenadiers moved to Assam in July 2004 and was placed at the disposal of the 21 Mountain Division with headquarters at Rangiya, about 40 km from Guwahati.