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Time of India
18-05-2025
- Time of India
Silent front: Spy whispers refuse to subside in Hisar after arrest of vlogger Jyoti Malhotra
HISAR: A local YouTuber's recent arrest on charges of espionage has reignited national security concerns in this key military centre that has remained a target of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for more than 25 years. The city in Haryana, home to a military cantonment, the prestigious Army horse breeding farm, and a Border Security Force (BSF) campus, has a long history of espionage cases involving Pakistani nationals and suspected agents operating on Indian soil. Just 90 km away, Sirsa houses a major Air Force base, further amplifying the region's strategic value. While recent attention centres on the arrest of the YouTuber - who is said to be travel vlogger Jyoti Malhotra - earlier cases show a troubling pattern. In 2001, Pakistani national Asgar Ali was found to have infiltrated Hisar's cantonment area using forged Indian documents, including a ration card and driver's licence. He was arrested in Bikaner, Rajasthan, while attempting to flee the country. In 2003, Mohammad Haider, a resident of Valmiki Basti in Hisar, was detained in Ambala for allegedly transmitting sensitive information to Pakistan. Two years later, in 2005, Akhtar Ullah Munir 'Sameer' spent over a year living in Krishna Nagar, Hisar. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 15 Most Beautiful Women Ever Paperela Undo He was accused of passing military intelligence from Punjab and Haryana to Pakistan. Further arrests in 2006 - of suspects Jyotiprasad and Babulal in Jalandhar - uncovered links back to Hisar. In the same month, Ludhiana police nabbed Vijay, a resident of Hisar's Sabzi Mandi area, who had posed as a whitewasher while allegedly spying. Intelligence agencies also confirmed that at least five other spies arrested across India were carrying forged documents originating from Hisar, highlighting its continued misuse as a hub for identity fabrication. Near the Jindal Bridge in April 2020, Hisar police detained a youth suspected of being a Pakistani national. Even though the Indian intelligence agencies were alerted, official details of the incident were never released. Security experts warn that the persistence of such cases points to Hisar's enduring appeal for foreign intelligence agencies aiming to penetrate India's defence infrastructure.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
An ingredient in Coca-Cola may be funding Sudan's war
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Westerners' consumption of a little-known tree gum – used in everything from Coca-Cola and Nestlé pet food to L'Oréal lipsticks and M&M sweets – could be funding both sides in Sudan's bitter civil war. Gum arabic, derived from the sap of acacia trees, is widely used as a stabiliser, thickener and binding agent. For global billion-dollar consumer companies, "uninterrupted access to this key ingredient is non-negotiable", said financial news site Finshots. About 80% of the world's gum arabic is harvested in Sudan, where the acacia trees stretch from border to border. But the sap is "increasingly being trafficked from rebel-held areas" of the war-torn nation, industry sources told Reuters. This is "complicating Western companies' efforts" to disengage their supply chains from the devastating conflict. Humans have been making use of gum arabic for millennia, wrote biotechnology professor Asgar Ali in The Conversation. The earliest recorded use dates back to 2000BC, when ancient Egyptians "employed it in foodstuffs, hieroglyphic paints and mummification ointments". The gum's "distinct qualities and water solubility" mean it's used today across a range of sectors, including medicines, cosmetics, textiles, and food and drink. And Sudan, with its "vast acacia forests" and "liberalised" market, is a "significant producer" and "key player in the processing and export". But, for decades, Sudan's gum arabic industry has "faced political instability, civil conflicts and economic challenges". Since the start of the current war, exports have been "severely affected". If the fighting continues, stockpiles could run out. When the US sanctioned Sudan in the 1990s for its then leader Omar al-Bashir's alleged support for terrorism, president Bill Clinton created a special exemption, known as E414, for trade in gum arabic. A decade later, when Sudan increasingly "faced Western pressure and sanctions over the bloody conflict in Darfur", gum arabic was used as "leverage", said Al Jazeera. Sudan's ambassador to the US "famously held up a Coca-Cola bottle at a news conference and declared: 'I can stop that gum arabic, and all of us will have lost this'". After 2009, "international pressures to liberalise the trade" from government control increased, said Finshots, and private entities "entered the picture". Then civil war broke out in April 2023 between the government's Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary rebel group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). And, last year, the RSF – who have been accused of ethnic cleansing and genocide – "gained extensive control of the trade" and the gum-harvesting regions. Now, the sap has become "a key source of funding for both sides", said The Wall Street Journal. "AK-47 toting" RSF fighters control the major agricultural routes, and collect money from traders, while the Sudanese military, which runs the de-facto government, "levies taxes and other tariffs". Proceeds from exports are "directly financing this fighting", said Sudanese academic Rabie Abdelaty. But few Western companies are taking active steps to avoid Sudanese gum arabic, said the paper. Some have argued that doing so would "hurt hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who depend on the sap for their livelihoods", against the backdrop of growing famine. But it is also logistically difficult. The raw product is "making its way to Sudan's neighbours without proper certification", sources told Reuters. Recently, traders in countries with lower production, such as Chad and Senegal, or which "barely exported it before the war" – Egypt and South Sudan – have begun to "aggressively" offer it at cheap prices, "without proof it is conflict-free". "Today, the gum in Sudan, I would say all of it is smuggled," said Herve Canevet, global marketing specialist at food-ingredients supplier Eco-Agri, "because there's no real authority in the country." Both Nestlé and Coca-Cola declined to comment to Reuters, while L'Oréal and M&Ms maker Mars "did not return requests for comment".
