‘Colonel impersonator was Indian agent’

Suspect arrested at shrine claims to be surveying sensitive sites for RAW.

LAHORE: A man arrested for impersonating a Pakistan Army colonel at the Bibian Pakdaman shrine a couple of weeks ago has told police interrogators that he was an Indian agent surveying sensitive sites in Lahore, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Police officials said that the man and his ‘driver’ were arrested when he tried to get past the final security cordon around the shrine.

When a constable asked him what unit he was with, the man claimed to be with the artillery regiment, but he was unable to say where the regiment was based. “He said that he left such ‘petty details’ to his driver and that he was working with a brigadier in GHQ,” the constable, Ishtiaq, told The Express Tribune. He said that the suspect shouted “Ya Ali” several times while at the shrine to make people believe that he was a Shia.

Ishtiaq said that his suspicions had been aroused because the presumed colonel was wearing the wrong shoes and no badges. He said the man was arrested and taken to the Qila Gujjar Singh police post, where he was frisked.

On him they found badges of various army ranks and several military identity cards with his picture on them. He also carried a card belonging to a female officer who he claimed was his wife.

Constable Ishtiaq said that the suspect confessed to interrogators that he was with India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and had been tasked with reconnaissance of sensitive sites in Lahore. He also told the police that he had been in Pakistan for almost four months, and he was supposed to visit Data Darbar after Bibian Pakdaman.

Ishtiaq said that the man the suspect referred to as his driver, Hasan Ali, appeared to have been deceived by the impersonator. He said Ali was from Abbottabad and worked as a naib qasid in the federal government in Islamabad. Ali told the police that he had thought the ‘colonel’ a religious man and had been travelling to shrines with him as a companion.

“He thought the man must be a devout Shia since he wanted to go to all these different mausoleums. He had no clue that he was an Indian agent,” said Ishtiaq.

Police sources said that the suspect and Hasan Ali had been taken into custody by intelligence personnel and shifted to an undisclosed location.

The Qila Gujjar Singh deputy superintendent of police said he had no knowledge of the matter as he had just taken charge of the office.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2010.