Indian police chief accused of spying for Pakistan before terror attack

Yahoo

6 days ago

An Indian police inspector has been arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan before a deadly terror attack.
Moti Ram Jat of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was detained for 'espionage activities' and allegedly 'sharing classified information relating to national security' with Pakistani intelligence officers.
Mr Jat worked at Pahalgam in Kashmir, where gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, on April 22.
The attack sparked a brief military confrontation between India and Pakistan, the neighbouring nuclear-armed states that contest Kashmir.
A security official speaking anonymously told The Telegraph that Mr Jat was based at Pahalgam until six days before the incident.
The official said: 'The site of the terror attack falls under his battalion's area of responsibility. An ASI [assistant sub inspector] rank official plays a significant role in operations and internal security.'
Mr Jat was charged with a slew of terror and conspiracy offences and dismissed from CRPF after his arrest.
India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed that he had been spying for, and receiving funds from, Pakistan since 2023.
A Pakistani official was reported to have approached Mr Jat via social media posing as a woman and later extracted information, including on the movements of Indian security forces and the locations of key military bases.
During internal monitoring, Mr Jat was found to have been receiving 3,000 rupees monthly into his bank account from abroad, which raised suspicions, an NIA spokesman said.
Mr Jat was found to have 'acted in violation of established norms and protocols' in regard to his social media activity, a CRPF spokesperson said.
The CRPF is an armed police force that uses military-style tactics and training, and often supports the Indian army during counter-insurgency and internal security operations.
Indian security agencies have recently intensified anti-espionage operations and arrested 13 people from across the country for allegedly working with Pakistan's spy agencies.
Among these was Jyoti Malhotra, a popular video blogger who posted multiple videos on her social media accounts about a trip to Pakistan and meetings with Pakistani diplomats.
Pakistan has denied having any role in the April 22 attack, which was the worst terror incident in Kashmir in decades.
The massacre led to India launching aerial strikes on Pakistan, and Islamabad retaliating in kind, before the two sides were pulled back from the brink by a US-brokered ceasefire on May 10.
Between May 7 and the ceasefire, both sides fired missiles and drones into each other's territories, killing dozens of civilians.
Pakistan claimed it shot down six Indian warplanes including three French-made Rafale jets, which India has not yet confirmed.
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