Pakistan spied on German officers in Afghanistan: Paper

Report says Pakistan had spied on 180 German police officers deployed in Afghanistan to train locals.

BERLIN: Pakistan’s secret service spied on German security forces in Afghanistan, raising fears that sensitive information could end up in the hands of the Taliban, a German paper reported on Sunday.  

Without citing its sources, mass-selling weekly Bild am Sonntag reported that Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency warned its interior ministry that Pakistan had spied on 180 German police officers deployed in Afghanistan to train locals.

The interior ministry told Reuters that the BND suspected a German email had been intercepted but could not give confirmation. The ministry added it was not aware of any comprehensive interception of German police data.

Pakistan’s interior and foreign ministries and military were unavailable for comment.

Bild am Sonntag said private telephone calls, messages to the ministry, military mission orders and lists of police officer names had been intercepted.

The BND declined to comment on the report.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st,  2011.