Suspected Pakistani spies held

Afghan was detained by Coast Guard authorities while he was moving around suspiciously at Okha port. “During interrogation, we found he was a highly motivated jehadi and was spying for the ISI,” Coast Guard sources said.

Afghan is not the only spy that the Coast Guard has detained. A few days ago, Asik, who claims to be a Bangladeshi immigrant, has also been arrested while found moving around near vital installations in Okha. He did not have proper identification papers and claimed to be a Bangladeshi. “But he had Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Indian currency with him. He could not explain why he was carrying Nepalese currency if he was just an illegal immigrant,” sources said.

Initially, both the accused maintained that they were Indians and unemployed. However, during interrogation they broke down and confessed to spying on activities of the Coast Guard, Navy and other defence establishments, besides movement of troops on the ground. Both Shere Afghan and Asik have told the Intelligence Bureau that they had come from Bihar to Saurashtra.

Coast Guard officials also said they had evidence that Afghan had been spying on vital military installations on the Saurashtra coast and passed the information to an unidentified ISI contact. There is, however, still no clinching evidence regarding the activities of Asik.

“Afghan frequently talks of receiving messages from God to do a particular job work and he sometimes behaves as if he is a lunatic. But he is a hardcore Jehadi-man,” Coast Guard sources said.

While the intelligence agencies and the Coast Guard are worried about the penetration and activities of such anti-national elements on the coast, their task is made more ardous by the fact that these people are mingling freely with the locals and are thus difficult to identify.

“They can easily mix with the local population and not easily identified. We cannot check each and every person for identification papers and when we do so we are accused of harassing certain communities,” officials said.

While these two have been picked up from the Saurashtra coast, at the Joint Interrogation Centre, Kutch there are more such elements who have been detained for not having proper identification papers. “Most of them are believed to have been deputed for spying and espionage,” sources said.