CRPF man chargesheeted for spying

Srinagar, October 13

The State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Thursday filed a chargesheet against a CRPF jawan for “spying” for Pakistan. Zulfikar Ali Khatana, a resident of Kachawa-Kokernag in Anantnag district, has been accused of sharing the location of vital defence installations and documents with the ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency.

Khatana, a constable of CRPF’s 171 Battalion, has been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act and Enemy Agents Ordinance for being a handler of Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Toiba and ISI agents.

The chargesheet has been filed before the court of special judge, designated under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, (TADA/POTA) in Srinagar.

Khatana was arrested in May. According to the SIA, militant handlers—Yousuf Baloch, alias Zarar, and agents of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)—have used the cyberspace for instigating, enticing and motivating Kashmiri youth to join militant ranks and raise funds besides providing logistic support for running militant modules. “These handlers had motivated the accused to act as their sub-agent and provide confidential information…,” the State Investigation Agency stated.

Scribe faces action

• A chargesheet has also been filed against Peerzaada Fahad Shah, editor of a digital magazine, and PhD scholar Aala Fazili in a “narrative terror” case.
• Fazili wrote a “seditious” article in the magazine. Both were arrested early this year.