Hizbul Mole In BSNL Arrested

Hizbul Mole In BSNL Arrested

Jayesh Limaye, Dec 25, 2011 1200 hrs IST

Was providing SIM cards and phones for use by the terrorist outfit.

The J&K police has arrested a BSNL employee who was found to be a militant planted by the terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. His role was to collect SIM cards and WLL phones for use by the outfit's communication network in the north Kashmiri town of Sopore in the Baramulla district.

Sajad Ahmad Dar, who is allegedly an IT expert, had been working with BSNL Sopore on a contract basis for a year. He is suspected of providing 10 SIM cards and one WLL connection to Hizbul militants. His modus operandi involved securing SIM cards and WLL connections on fake names and addresses, and then supplying them to militants. It is suspected that he was helped by another individual in the telecom company who is yet to be identified.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that such an incident has come to light in the troubled state. Various mobile operators deactivated thousands of SIM cards this summer after it was reported that they were being used to communicate by militants. Even earlier in 2007, Airtel had disabled over 10,000 SIM cards for similar reasons, while Reliance deactivated a whopping 36,000 in 2009. The situation became worse when the government even contemplated a ban on pre-paid mobile phones in the valley. However, things seem to be in control at present due to the vigilance being observed resulting in arrests such as these.