West Bengal STF arrests three more suspected Pakistani spies in Cooch Behar

West Bengal Police’s STF arrested three more suspected Pakistani spies or ISI agents in Cooch Behar’s Sahebganj. Police allege they supplied Indian SIM cards to Bangladesh for onward transfer to Pakistan and were involved in counterfeit currency operations. Their links to earlier arrests are being investigated

Kolkata: The Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police arrested three more suspected Pakistani spies or ISI agents from Sahebganj in Cooch Behar district of north Bengal, the police said on Saturday. The police said they were arrested late on Friday night from Sahebganj area of Cooch Behar. The names of the arrested are Rashidul Haque, Nur Nasiruddin Ali and Shafiqul Islam. The investigators are trying to get more information by interrogating the arrested men. Preliminary investigation has revealed that the arrested people were working as spies.

According to STF sources, the arrested people would first pick up Indian mobile SIM cards from here and send them to Bangladesh. It is alleged that those SIM cards would then go to Pakistan from that country.

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The arrested people are also allegedly involved in the counterfeit currency business. The police have launched a thorough investigation and are trying to find out whether they were associated with other Pakistani spies who were arrested earlier this month.

The latest arrests came days after the STF arrested two persons, including a Pakistani national, from separate locations in the state for their alleged links and activities.

Rana Rauf alias Wahab Alam, a resident of Faisalabad in Pakistan, was arrested on August 12 from Habra in North 24 Parganas district near the India-Bangladesh border following specific Intelligence inputs.

Following the arrest, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) started collecting information about Pakistani national Wahab Alam. The move came after the preliminary investigation by the STF revealed Alam’s alleged links with Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The NIA has contacted the Bengal STF to obtain details of the investigation and the information gathered so far.

Meanwhile, the STF secured the names of five Nepal-based associates of Wahab Alam by cracking the netbook data that the investigating officers recovered from Alam’s possession.

Subsequently, during the marathon interrogation by the STF sleuths, Alam broke down and confessed the details of how he used these five Nepal-based operators to maintain his links with his ISI handlers in Pakistan, a source aware of the development said.

Now with the latest arrest, the investigators are trying to find out whether they had any contact with Wahab Alam or his Nepal-based operators. Last month, the Bengal Police arrested Jaish Mohammed (JeM) associate Hamim Mondal from his rented accommodation in Burdwan town of East Burdwan district.