MadDog
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NEW DELHI: India said on Tuesday it has arrested a woman working as a diplomat in its Islamabad embassy on charges of spying for Pakistan.
Madhuri Gupta, 53, is a second secretary in the high commission in the press and information section. She was arrested on a work trip to Delhi.
The timing of the revelation is curious as it came a day before Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is due to travel to Thimphu where he is widely expected to meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the margins of a South Asian summit.
One of the agreements the two prime ministers signed to the chagrin of their officials in July last year in Egypt pertained to real time intelligence sharing with a view to thwarting future terror attacks. They had evidently not provisioned for the fact that their resolve could be undermined in unexpected ways by their own officials.
Indian officials said Ms Gupta was suspected of handing over classified documents to Pakistans ISI intelligence service. Relations have been strained since the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, which India blamed on militants from Pakistan.
We have reasons to believe an official in the Indian high commission in Pakistan has been passing information to Pakistani intelligence officials, said Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for Indias ministry of external affairs. He said Ms Gupta was cooperating with the probe.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said Ms Gupta had been arrested four days ago after being summoned to Delhi. She was produced in court on Monday and will remain in police custody for another five days, PTI said.
Ms Gupta has worked in Islamabad for three years, reports say. The head of Indias intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) in Islamabad is also being investigated, PTI reports.
There have been instances of rogue agents or Indian officials working for foreign governments, but this is believed to be the first such instance involving Pakistan.
Ms Gupta specialised in Urdu and was entrusted with translating Pakistani periodicals and newspapers in Urdu into English. The junior diplomat worked with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a foreign policy think tank, before she was posted at the Indian high commission in Islamabad.
Indian news reports said it was unlikely that she was a lone spy operating on her own. But they said there was so far no confirmation of any others interrogated. According to unnamed sources quoted by Indian reports, the station head of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in Islamabad had also come under the scanner.
Indian foreign ministry sources were quoted as saying an official statement would be given out the complete facts in the case. Ms Gupta, who is an Urdu interpreter and a staffer for 30 years who has served in Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Islamabad, has reportedly confessed to the crime.
She is in the information wing, which is isolated from the political wing and not in the most vital departments and could not have been privy to the most sensitive of documents. However it is a penetration. We earlier had a penetration by East Europeans, but this is a first from Pakistan, a former Indian diplomat said reacting to the news.
Ms Gupta was apparently being tracked for nearly a year by the Indian government both in Islamabad and in New Delhi at her residence, before being brought over to India on the excuse of Saarc related work. She was detained in New Delhi four days ago, and interrogated by a special group comprising members of different agencies like the Intelligence Bureau, RAW and Delhi police, before being arrested. A court remanded her to further police custody of another five days on Monday.
I am not trying to discriminate on the basis of class, but a person who has not been properly trained and brought up in the values of the services can perhaps be more susceptible to foreign inducements easily. Nevertheless, given the fact that all those working in Islamabad know that they are under watch and being targeted by Pakistani intelligence which is on the lookout for chinks that they were able to penetrate the embassy is shocking, Indias cabinet minister Kapil Sibal was quoted as saying.
He said it was imperative to ascertain what information had been leaked
DAWN.COM | World | India nabs diplomat on charge of spying for Pakistan
Madhuri Gupta, 53, is a second secretary in the high commission in the press and information section. She was arrested on a work trip to Delhi.
The timing of the revelation is curious as it came a day before Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is due to travel to Thimphu where he is widely expected to meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the margins of a South Asian summit.
One of the agreements the two prime ministers signed to the chagrin of their officials in July last year in Egypt pertained to real time intelligence sharing with a view to thwarting future terror attacks. They had evidently not provisioned for the fact that their resolve could be undermined in unexpected ways by their own officials.
Indian officials said Ms Gupta was suspected of handing over classified documents to Pakistans ISI intelligence service. Relations have been strained since the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, which India blamed on militants from Pakistan.
We have reasons to believe an official in the Indian high commission in Pakistan has been passing information to Pakistani intelligence officials, said Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for Indias ministry of external affairs. He said Ms Gupta was cooperating with the probe.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said Ms Gupta had been arrested four days ago after being summoned to Delhi. She was produced in court on Monday and will remain in police custody for another five days, PTI said.
Ms Gupta has worked in Islamabad for three years, reports say. The head of Indias intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) in Islamabad is also being investigated, PTI reports.
There have been instances of rogue agents or Indian officials working for foreign governments, but this is believed to be the first such instance involving Pakistan.
Ms Gupta specialised in Urdu and was entrusted with translating Pakistani periodicals and newspapers in Urdu into English. The junior diplomat worked with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a foreign policy think tank, before she was posted at the Indian high commission in Islamabad.
Indian news reports said it was unlikely that she was a lone spy operating on her own. But they said there was so far no confirmation of any others interrogated. According to unnamed sources quoted by Indian reports, the station head of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in Islamabad had also come under the scanner.
Indian foreign ministry sources were quoted as saying an official statement would be given out the complete facts in the case. Ms Gupta, who is an Urdu interpreter and a staffer for 30 years who has served in Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Islamabad, has reportedly confessed to the crime.
She is in the information wing, which is isolated from the political wing and not in the most vital departments and could not have been privy to the most sensitive of documents. However it is a penetration. We earlier had a penetration by East Europeans, but this is a first from Pakistan, a former Indian diplomat said reacting to the news.
Ms Gupta was apparently being tracked for nearly a year by the Indian government both in Islamabad and in New Delhi at her residence, before being brought over to India on the excuse of Saarc related work. She was detained in New Delhi four days ago, and interrogated by a special group comprising members of different agencies like the Intelligence Bureau, RAW and Delhi police, before being arrested. A court remanded her to further police custody of another five days on Monday.
I am not trying to discriminate on the basis of class, but a person who has not been properly trained and brought up in the values of the services can perhaps be more susceptible to foreign inducements easily. Nevertheless, given the fact that all those working in Islamabad know that they are under watch and being targeted by Pakistani intelligence which is on the lookout for chinks that they were able to penetrate the embassy is shocking, Indias cabinet minister Kapil Sibal was quoted as saying.
He said it was imperative to ascertain what information had been leaked
DAWN.COM | World | India nabs diplomat on charge of spying for Pakistan
