Pakistan based terror groups have made ‘honey trapping’ their most preferred method to lure youths in Jammu and Kashmir to join terrorism and to use them as human carriers for delivering arms from one place to another or acting as guides to infiltrating terrorists.
‘Honey Trapping’ is a commonly used technique practised for very long by spy agencies to extract sensitive information.
An intelligence-based operation had led to the arrest of a woman named Syed Shazia, in her early thirties, from Bandipore, a fortnight ago. During interrogation, it was revealed that Shazia had many accounts on various social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram, which many youths in the valley followed. The intelligence agencies officials had confirmed that Shazia’s internet protocol (IP) address was being tapped for several months before she could be nabbed.
Shazia had been in touch with some police department officials as well, but the officials dismissed it by calling it a usual “double cross” tactics, as she used to report the movement of troops and “not so sensitive” information to her administrators across the border.
During the interrogation, she further admitted about the presence of other women in militants ranks who had been tasked with luring youths into militancy.
A week before her arrest on November 17, the Jammu and Kashmir Police had arrested Aysia Jan (28) for carrying 20 grenades in Lawaypora on the city outskirts, after receiving inputs about militants trying to smuggle arms and ammunition into the city.
Besides grenades, the police had also seized ammunition from her possession, they said.
A probe into a September 2017 Amarnath killing case, in which the police killed Abu Ismail, the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and Chotta Qassim, who was involved in the gunning down of Amarnath pilgrims in which eight people were killed, led to the monitoring of Shazia.
Some documents and materials which were seized from the encounter site in the outskirts of Srinagar city indicated that unidentified woman from North Kashmir was involved in supplying arms to the two slain terrorists.
In April this year, the police finally identified the woman as Syed Shazia. By continuously following her social media accounts it was revealed that Shazia was getting instructions for ‘honey trapping’ youths into terrorism from across the border.
Before her arrest, a special police officer from Handwara was picked up by police for passing informing to Shazia that her phone was being tapped by the police.
It was found that the special police officer identified as Irfan had been passing information to Shaiza, officials confirmed.
She was arrested under various sections of Ranbir Penal Code and Arms Act.
Recently with the sensational arrest of the BrahMos engineer, Nishant Agarwal, who was arrested for spying for Pakistan, the Intelligence Bureau had issued a high alert against the hostile neighbour’s ‘honeytrap’ strategy, which is prevalent in India.
The alert states that Pakistan’s ISI has been utilizing good looking Chinese and Pakistani girls to lure and set the trap on high ranking officials and those involved in dealing with sensitive information.
In February this year an Indian Air Force officer, Captain Arun Marwaha, was arrested by the counter-intelligence wing of the force for alleged involvement in espionage and leaking classified documents and had been arrested by the police under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
In April it was reported that a 23-year-old man named Gaurav Kumar, who was honey-trapped by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was arrested from Rohtak for allegedly passing information to the Pakistani spy agency about Indian Army camps he had visited for recruitment tests.
Earlier this year, an Indian diplomat Madhuri Gupta was sentenced to jail for allegedly leaking sensitive information to ISI officials who had honey trapped her during her stint at the Indian high commission in Islamabad.
