National Security / Arrested Pakistani National’s Escape Plan Foiled in Bengal

Kolkata, Aug 13: Pakistani national Wahab Alam, arrested from Habra in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, had devised plans to escape into neighbouring Bangladesh before returning with a new identity and fresh assignments.

During interrogation by the Special Task Force (STF), Alam admitted he was instructed by his handlers in Pakistan to cross into Bangladesh temporarily. “I was supposed to escape to Bangladesh and stay there for some time as advised by my handlers in Pakistan,” he confessed.

Investigators revealed that Alam, reportedly sent by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to gather information on the Indian Army, Navy, and Railways in the eastern sector, was to meet a Bangladesh-based ISI agent named Pavel.

Operating from Jessore, Pavel was tasked with arranging a safehouse, briefing Alam on new assignments, and sending him back to West Bengal after a cooling period.

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Alam further admitted that his mentors became cautious after his name was deleted from the voters’ list during the Special Intensive Revision exercise ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls. “My mentors in Pakistan advised me to move away from Topsia, where I was an enrolled voter earlier, and take shelter in any one of the India-Bangladesh bordering districts in West Bengal for some time before escaping to Bangladesh at the first opportunity,” he said.

This led him to Habra, where STF sleuths eventually arrested him. Based on his interrogation, his local associate Mohammad Izaz from Topsia was also detained. Alam had stayed at Izaz’s residence as a tenant, while Izaz helped arrange fake Indian identity documents including Aadhaar, PAN, and EPIC cards.

Alam originally entered India through the India-Nepal border in 2012 and had been shifting bases across West Bengal ever since. His arrest has exposed a wider ISI network operating in the region, with investigators now focusing on Pavel and other possible associates.

(IANS)