Social media profiles of state youths in touch with ISI’s foreign handlers under scrutiny

Diving deep into the investigation of the terror plot of the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), which was busted by the Ludhiana Police Commissionerate with the arrest of 10 suspects from across the state and Rajasthan, including six from the different jails, the police had reportedly identified several social media profiles of youths from state through which they were suspected to be in touch with Ajay Malaysia, the kingpin-cum-ISI’s foreign handler working from Malaysia to disturb peace in the state. The police have already started a scrutiny of the profiles to identify the persons. The police have deployed a special team, including the policemen from the Cyber Cell, to zero-in on these suspected profiles.

The police probe has found that most profiles have been generated from the state while some are also functional from other states and a few might be from different jails.

Recently, the Ludhiana police had successfully foiled a major terror bid aimed at creating unrest in the state. The timely and coordinated action of the police averted a grenade attack, thereby saving countless innocent lives in the last week of the previous month.

Talking to The Tribune here on Friday, Commissioner of Police (CP) Swapan Sharma said since the nabbed suspects were in touch with ISI agents Ajay Malaysia, Jass Behbal and Pawandeep, who are also operating from Malaysia through different communication mediums such as social media profiles and other apps, the police had already recovered social media profiles of nabbed suspects and further scrutiny of the recovered mobiles gave vital clues of their medium of communication with Ajay Malaysia.

“Besides the nabbed suspects, several social media profiles of youths, which are being operated from the state, have been traced by the police through which profile owners are suspected to be in touch with Ajay Malaysia. During scrutiny of the profiles the police have found their communication with Ajay through fake names and identities. Our special team is on the job and profile owners are being zeroed-in and in coming days, the police will bust other layers of the network,” Sharma said.

The CP said there was a dire possibility that besides the 10 nabbed suspects, some other miscreants might had already been enrolled in the terror module by Ajay by giving lure of money or drugs and the police probe would uncover the truth.

He said the terror plot was reportedly orchestrated as part of a barter arrangement — narcotics were to be exchanged for carrying out the terrorist attack. The operation spanned a complex network, utilising pre-established drug-smuggling routes for the transfer of the grenade. The network involved several distinct groups smugglers operating from Malaysia, inmates currently incarcerated in multiple facilities, specifically the Muktsar (Punjab), Ganganagar (Rajasthan), and Faridkot jails and various local peddlers on the ground.