In another incident amid a growing crackdown on alleged espionage, Indian authorities on Monday said they arrested a paramilitary police officer on charges of “spying for Pakistan” following a recent military confrontation between the two neighbouring countries.
The developments follow a military confrontation between India and Pakistan over New Delhi’s allegations against Islamabad, without evidence, about a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam. On the night of May 6-7, New Delhi launched a series of air strikes in Pakistan, resulting in civilian casualties. Islamabad responded by downing five Indian jets. After intercepting drones sent by India and tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally drop their guns as a ceasefire was reached.
Last week, Indian police arrested 10 people in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi —including a travel vlogger and a university professor — over their alleged connections to Pakistan or comments related to the recent escalation.
On Monday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) alleged a Central Reserve Police Force officer was arrested in Delhi “for sharing sensitive information with Pakistani agents”.
“The accused, Moti Ram Jat, was actively involved in espionage activity and had been sharing classified information related to national security with Pakistan Intelligence Officers (PIOs) since 2023,” the NIA alleged.
Jat has been remanded to custody until June 6 by a special court, the agency said, as investigators question him.
The spate of arrests comes after the worst flare-up in violence between the nuclear-armed rivals since their last open conflict in 1999.
Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor at Haryana’s Ashoka University, was picked up from his home in Delhi last week for his comments about the Indian army’s press briefings on its actions targeting Pakistan, termed “Operation Sindoor”.
The complaint against Mahmudabad was filed by Yogesh Jatheri, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, in Haryana’s Sonepat district, the academic’s lawyer confirmed to Scroll.
Mahmudabad was arrested under offences pertaining to acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, making assertions likely to cause disharmony, inciting secession, armed rebellion or subversive activities and insulting religious beliefs.
In a social media post on May 8, Mahmudabad, the head of the university’s political science department, had highlighted the apparent irony of right-wing Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofia Qureshi, who had addressed the media briefings.
Meanwhile, the Association for Protection of Civil Rights reported that between April 27 and May 8, there were 184 anti-Muslim attacks of various sorts all over India.
They comprise 19 acts of vandalism, 39 assaults, 42 incidents of harassment and 84 incidents of hate speech. It’s believed that 106 were “triggered” by Pahalgam. The majority happened in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra.
