In a major joint operation on Monday, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch police nabbed a 45-year-old man hailing from Adhirampattinam in Thanjavur district just before he was to take a flight to Colombo to hand over sensitive military information to an ISI contact in the Pakistan high commission there.
This is the first time in south India that an ISI module is being busted. A possible terror strike in the south may also have been averted by this timely action. “We have been watching him for quite sometime. We got him red-handed now, with documents and CDs showing important military areas and also landing points in the southern coastline. He was carrying a DVD of training paratroopers landing in some desert and also a Signal Corps parade”, a top official told DC.
The official added that the man, Ansari alias Thameem Ansari, a resident of Azhagammal Nagar in Thanjavur, was intercepted near the TVS Tollgate in Tiruchy while proceeding to the airport to board the flight to Colombo.
“He was carrying CDs of extensive footage that he had shot of the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington and other military places. There were visuals of even the Indian Army insignia that our army officers wear on their shirts, which makes us suspicious that it was meant to smuggle in terrorists into Wellington and other sensitive places dressed like Indian army officers”, said the official requesting anonymity.
Furthermore, Ansari’s baggage also included videos of landing points down the southern coastline, including the Nagapattinam, Mallipattinam, Karaikal and Thoothukudi. “This could mean that our friends were planning to attempt to land terrorists by sea, perhaps like the Mumbai operation”, he said.
Another officer said that questioning of Ansari revealed that he had been supplying his documents and CDs to one Shaji, a junior-level officer reporting to the counselor named Ameer Zubair Siddiqi in the Pakistan high commission in Colombo.