Punjab: Teenager apprehended for sharing information with Pakistani handlers

A 15-year-old boy in Pathankot, Punjab, was arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive security information with Pakistani handlers after being radicalized online. Police said the tech-savvy minor’s mobile was cloned, and he had recorded key locations, posing potential national security risks

Chandigarh: A 15-year-old boy has been apprehended in Punjab’s Pathankot for allegedly sharing information about sensitive locations with Pakistani handlers, police said on Tuesday According to police, the boy was radicalised on a social media platform.

Police had received information that the boy was in contact with and was providing information concerning the country’s security to Pakistan military officers, ISI and frontal organisations running terror modules in that country, Pathankot Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Daljinder Singh Dhillon said.

---

On the basis of this information, the boy was apprehended on Monday and questioned, the SSP told reporters in Pathankot.

The SSP said the boy had lost his father, who resided in J-K, over an year back and suspected that he was murdered.

Police investigations did not find that the boy’s father was murdered but the boy suspected so and it affected his psyche, the SSP said.

The boy visited many social media platforms and during this he fell in the trap of the Pakistani agencies and was in touch with them for the past one year, he said.

The Pakistani agents had created a clone of the boy’s mobile phone, Dhillon said.

Describing the boy as tech-savvy, the SSP said Pakistani agencies and handlers had started taking information from his mobile phone through cloning.

He had done videography of some important locations and taken information. Possibly if his phone was hacked that information could have even gone live, SSP said.

He was also in touch with gangsters running terror module, he said. “Had we not apprehended him, in future he could have carried out any kind of activity,” he said.