One more ISI agent held along Tripura border

AGARTALA - Another agent of Pakistan’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the India-Bangladesh border in southern Tripura, police said here Saturday.

BSF troopers detained ISI agent Sheikh Mohammad Abu Bakkar Siddique, 27, from southern Tripura’s Sabroom border, 140 km from here, Thursday night when he was crossing the border, a police spokesman told reporters. He was handed over to the Tripura Police.

Siddique is the third ISI agent to be arrested in Tripura since July. According to police, the ISI agents entered India from Bangladesh and visited other northeastern states as well.

“He told the police and intelligence interrogators that he was sent by an opposition party leader in Bangladesh to further strengthen the ISI network in northeast India,” the police official said.

The Tripura Police, central security force, Army and central intelligence officials have been interrogating Siddique.

Police also arrested two Indian youths for their links with Siddique, who told the intelligence officials that he was scheduled to visit Kolkata “to execute some plans”.

Earlier, ISI spy Manir Khan alias Omar Ashraf, 30, and his six Indian associates were arrested July 3 by Tripura Police in Agartala. Also, BSF troopers detained ISI emissary Nayeem Ahmed Mamoon, 22, when he was crossing the border towards Bangladesh through Lankamura border on the outskirts of Agartala.