New Delhi: With Pakistan claiming the arrest of yet another Indian spook in Balochistan, it’s clearly raining Indian ‘spies’ in the restive border state.
Pakistani authorities have named the spy as ‘Snober’, and accused him of running the Research & Analysis Wing network in Hub and Gadani districts along the Balochistan coast, liaising with a banned outfit involved in separatist insurgency, and visiting India in 2014 under the assumed name, Rakesh.
Snober’s arrest follows Pakistani authorities releasing a video in which alleged RAW agent Kulbhushan Yadav — arrested in a raid in Balochistan on March 3 when he was trying to cross into Pakistan from Iran — confesses that he was involved in ‘subversive activities’ in Pakistan.
The Pakistan army’s desperation to raise the Balochistan bogey to scupper India-Iran ties over building Chabahar port, and throw a spoke into the rapidly warming relationship between the leaders of India and Pakistan became clear when the visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani denied there was any discussion on R&AW or its activities in Iran and Balochistan as publicly claimed by Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif.
The holes in Pakistan’s claims of “a serving Indian navy officer sponsoring terrorism in Balochistan and Karachi” begin with the fact that in reality, the Mumbai based Yadav, has worked out of the Iranian port of Chabahar for the last 13 years. He runs a shipping business, and is reportedly one of many retired Indian naval personnel who work in and out of the ports on both sides of the Persian Gulf. While some are ‘legit,’ many are involved in smuggling people, guns and drugs along the route. Until very recently, with sanctions in place, Iranian oil was prime cargo on Nicaraguan flagged ships that ploughed the sea-lanes.
Pulling an Indian navy man out of the Pakistan Army’s Balochistan hat, under these circumstances, isn’t difficult at all. Proving he’s a spy is a whole different matter.
