NEW DELHI: Intelligence agencies in their report to the government has warned that Pakistan’s external spy agency ISI continued with the efforts to expand its espionage network in India and suggested that the country’s forces should be cautioned to be on alert in view of this.
In the report, sources said, the agencies noted that even though many such spying attempts were foiled in the recent past, operatives backed by Pakistan’s ISI "are still active in the country to expand their network and more to this, the agents of the ISI are also indulging in running a massive disinformation campaign against India".
According to the sources, the ISI has further been planning to rope in people as well as some organisations to carry out protests in the country while questioning the policies of the government. "This, the enemy country has planned as part of its larger game plan to create disturbances in India and bleed it with terror incidents as home grown as possible, so that Pakistan would have the deniability factor," an intelligence source said.
Running a false narrative, instigating protests and creating deeper espionage networks are part of a larger plan, and this also includes setting up homegrown terror modules, like the one that was busted in Faridabad, the sources said.
According to the intelligence input, the sources said, Pakistan has no immediate plan to push terrorists from across the borders, as post 'Operation Sindoor', most of their terror facilities are down for the moment, and they are finding it difficult to further execute infiltration.
In addition to its India plans, the ISI is also giving a lot of emphasis to Bangladesh, where it wants to set up launch pads to hit the northeastern states, another source said, adding that among all the plans that the ISI has in mind, the two most dangerous are the setting up of an espionage network and running a disinformation campaign.
Pakistan is also looking at engineering something on the lines of Bangladesh and Nepal, where protests erupt across the country, where a regime change would be demanded, and they have launched a campaign to defame the Indian armed forces, so that the trust factor goes down.
"They want the armed forces to look weak in the eyes of the Indian people. The ISI would also look to infiltrate every protest that is taking place, so that it spreads far and wide while also turning violent," said another source, adding that in the past too, the ISI had done so, but now it is looking at doing something on a much larger scale.
While honey-trapping would be the main tactic to build the espionage network, the ISI is also looking for people who have ideological leanings, those who face financial hardships and ones with personal issues, the sources said, adding that to do all these, the ISI is trying to pump in a lot of money.
