Security agencies conned into issuing fake May 6 terror alert?

May 14, 2012

alert

New Delhi, May 14: Were Indian security agencies conned into issuing the May 6 terror alert when photographs of four traders and a security guard from Pakistan were splashed as those of Lashkar terrorists who had sneaked into India to carry out attacks in Mumbai?

As the government probes the embarrassment which on Sunday sparked protests from traders in Lahore, they are closely looking at the possibility of an Indian intelligence operative having been hoaxed by Pakistani tricksters who have been seeking to exploit India's anxiety to prevent terror attacks from across the border.

Sources in the government said that post-26/11, conmen have been approaching Indian agencies and journalists; in one case even a politician, offering "credible information" for money.

The usual modus operandi is to offer "information"; for instance a photograph of what is claimed to be an ISI facility or a terrorist training camp at an undisclosed location deep inside Pakistan. Although the veracity of "inputs" cannot be ascertained, Indian agencies with their dire need for intelligence on terror plots are compelled not to disregard them. Confidence gained, the tricksters are in business, regularly peddling information for amounts which have increased considerably after the attack on Mumbai.

Only in this instance, the swindlers artfully raised their game by passing off photographs of the "terrorists" who had sneaked in Mumbai via the sea route and the details of their plan to target Mumbai. The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) deemed the intelligence so sensitive and credible that it was instantly shared with the Intelligence Bureau, leading the Multiple Agency Centre to alert police in Maharashtra and Gujarat against what appeared to be an attempt to repeat 26/11. Sources don't rule out the possibility of "sources" having been even handsomely rewarded for the information.

In the event, three of the terrorists turned out to be mobile phone traders operating from Lahore's popular electronic market Hafeez Centre. Another member of the group is an employee with one of the shops, while the remaining one is a security guard working there.

All of them approached Lahore Police for protection after they got to know about reports in Indian media about the alert against their presence in Mumbai for a major terrorist attack.

The bungle, which has many in Pakistan gloating, has led to calls for setting up a national data base of intelligence sources who could regularly be audited for credibility. It has also underlined India's continuing inability to access reliable real-time information on Pakistan-based terror groups who represent a major security challenge.

With no credible network of their own in Pakistan, Indian agencies are forced to depend on paid contacts, many of them smugglers and petty criminals, who move across the border and return with sensational claims for a payment. It is feared that the shadowy set could well be working for agencies in Pakistan too. In fact, many in the Indian security establishment suspect that one such double agent could be behind the May 6 fraud perpetrated on RAW.

Yet, intelligence agencies are compelled to remain engaged with the cross-border operatives who, besides being paid, are also allowed to carry on with their criminal activities. "These cross-border contacts seem to know the helplessness of our agencies, and are adept at exploiting it," an official said.

So there is no let up in the flow of "information" from "Pakistani contacts". Just before Republic Day this year, RAW came up with a sensational claim that over 100 Pakistan-trained terrorists had gathered at various launch pads across the international border and Line of Control, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into India. These terrorists were to target Mumbai and Delhi. Of them, some 20 were trained for underwater operations, the alert claimed. After several rounds of meetings in the security establishment, serious questions emerged about the credibility of the information, leading RAW to quietly withdaw the alert.

A similar "intelligence" industry exists, although on a much smaller scale, along the Bangladesh border too. Last year, the West Bengal police "sourced" photographs of two alleged terrorists who were planning to attack Mumbai. A detailed scrutiny revealed that the photographs were fake.

In fact, Assam police for years kept issuing alarming terror alerts based on their cross-border contacts. They have stopped doing so after an overwhelming majority of warnings turned out to be spurious.

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News Network
June 26,2020

Jun 26: The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the Centre and the CBSE to cancel the remaining board examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic and gave the go-ahead for the scheme to award marks to students for the cancelled papers scheduled to be held in July.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna permitted the CBSE to issue a notification for the cancellation of the examinations.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the CBSE, said that the assessment scheme would consider marks scored by students in the last three papers of the board exams.

Both CBSE and ICSE told the top court that the results of the class X and XII board exams can be declared by the middle of July.

The top court was hearing pleas seeking relief, including scrapping of remaining exams of Class 12 scheduled from July 1 to 15, in view of increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Similar relief was sought by the ICSE Board also.

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News Network
February 14,2020

London, Feb 14: Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya once again asked the Indian banks to take back 100 per cent of the principal amount owed to them at the end of his three-day British High Court appeal on Thursday against an extradition order to India.

The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines boss, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crores in unpaid bank loans, said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are fighting over the same assets and not treating him reasonably in the process.

“I request the banks with folded hands, take 100 per cent of your principal back, immediately,” he said outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

“The Enforcement Directorate attached the assets on the complaint by the banks that I was not paying them. I have not committed any offenses under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) that the Enforcement Directorate should suo moto attach my assets," he said.

"I am saying, please banks take your money. The ED is saying no, we have a claim over these assets. So, the ED on the one side and the banks on the other are fighting over the same assets,” he added.

Asked about heading back to India, he noted: “I should be where my family is, where my interests are.

"If the CBI and the ED are going to be reasonable, it’s a different story. What all they are doing to me for the last four years is totally unreasonable.”

Lord Justice Stephen Irwin and Justice Elisabeth Laing, the two-member bench presiding over the appeal, concluded hearing the arguments in the case and said they will be handing down their verdict at a later date after considering the oral as well as written submissions in the “very dense” case over the next few weeks.

On a day of heated arguments between Mallya’s barrister, Clare Montgomery, and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) counsel Mark Summers, arguing on behalf of the Indian government, both sides clashed over the prima facie case of fraud and deception against Mallya.

“We submit that he lied to get the loans, then did something with the money he wasn’t supposed to and then refused to give back the money. All this could be perceived by a jury as patently dishonest conduct,” said Summers.

“What they [Kingfisher Airlines] were saying [to the banks] about profitability going forward was knowingly wrong,” he said, as he took the High Court through evidence to counter Mallya’s lawyers’ claims that Westminster Magistrates Court Judge Emma Arbuthnot had fallen into error when she found a case to answer in the Indian courts against Mallya.

Mallya, who remains on bail on an extradition warrant, is not required to attend the hearings but has been in court to observe the proceedings since the three-day appeal opened on Tuesday. A key defence to disprove a prima facie case of fraud and misrepresentation on his part has revolved around the fact that Kingfisher Airlines was the victim of economic misfortune alongside other Indian airlines.

However, the CPS has argued that “there is enough in the 32,000 pages of overall evidence to fulfil the [extradition] treaty obligations that there is a case to answer”. “There is not just a prima facie case but overwhelming evidence of dishonesty… and given the volume and depth of evidence the District Judge [Arbuthnot] had before her, the judgment is comprehensive and detailed with the odd error but nothing that impacts the prima facie case,” said Summers.

At the start of the appeal, Mallya’s counsel claimed Arbuthnot did not look at all of the evidence because if she had, she would not have fallen into the multiple errors that permeate her judgment. The High Court must establish if the magistrates’ court had in fact fallen short on a point of law in its verdict in favour of extradition.

Representatives from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as well as the Indian High Commission in London, have been present in court to take notes during the course of the appeal hearing.

Mallya had received permission to appeal against his extradition order signed off by former UK home secretary Sajid Javid last February only on one ground, which challenges the Indian government's prima facie case against him of fraudulent intentions in acquiring bank loans.

At the end of a year-long extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London in December 2018, Judge Arbuthnot had found “clear evidence of dispersal and misapplication of the loan funds” and accepted a prima facie case of fraud and a conspiracy to launder money against Mallya, as presented by the CPS on behalf of the Indian government.

Mallya remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April 2017 involving a bond worth 650,000 pounds and other restrictions on his travel while he contests that ruling.

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News Network
July 10,2020

New Delhi, Jul 10: Nepal has banned all Indian news channels, except DD News, for alleged propaganda against the country.

Reports say that Nepal cable operators have stopped getting signals of Indian news channels.

Nepal government spokesperson Yuvaraj Khatiwada said: "We request all not to disseminate news that infringes sovereignty and self-respect of Nepalis. This includes the media of neighbouring countries. We might seek both political and legal remedies."

Earlier, Nepal has amended its map which show some Indian territory as part of it.

Nepal's parliament on June 13 adopted unanimously the Constitution Amendment Bill, paving the way for accommodating the updated political-administrative map, which includes Indian areas of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, in its symbol.

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