Pakistan has been worried about India's secret nuclear submarine project codenamed `Project Varsha' since work began in 2009.
Embarrassed by ISI link to a spy in Tamil Nadu getting exposed, Pakistan has recalled counselor Amir Zubair Siddiqui from its mission in Colombo. The Tamil Nadu police had accused Siddiqui of recruiting a vegetable exporter from Thanjavur to procure information on military establishments in south India, including a highly sensitive nuclear submarine project near Visakhapatnam.
Pakistan has been worried ever since work began in 2009 on the `60,000 crore secret nuclear submarine project codenamed ‘Project Varsha’.
Based at the Pakistan high commission in Colombo under the deceptive title as counselor (visa), Siddiqui was reportedly assigned the task of ISI’s infiltration into south India, sources said.
One of his operations was to recruit the Thanjavur vegetable exporter, Thameem Ansari, through two Colombo-based agents Haji and Shaji, for procuring information about military establishments in south India.
His scheme went awry when the Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch police, acting alongside Central IB, caught Ansari just before he boarded the plane to Colombo on September 17 with videos and documents relating to some military establishments and also pictures of smaller ports like Nagapattinam and Karaikal for possible use for landing extremists from the Sri Lankan side, similar to the Mumbai terror attack.
“Pulling Siddiqui out of Colombo is a victory for us, a setback for the ISI designs targeting south India. We must stay alert,” a highly placed intelligence officer told DC.
“We got very useful information following questioning of Ansari, even though the court allowed us only one day custody. We intend to move the court for some more time with him since national security interests are involved”.
According to another top police source, Siddiqui and his ISI agents were ‘testing’ Ansari by giving him ‘preliminary’ tasks such as getting the videos of military establishments.