Six Afghan agents arrested in Balochistan

Confess to terrorism in Pakistan; Balochistan interior minister says Afghan refugees must leave Pakistan with grace otherwise they will be pushed out

QUETTA: Six Afghan agents were arrested from Balochistan on Thursday by security forces during a search operation.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfraz Khan Bugti said that Pakistani security agencies had arrested six militants belonging to Afghanistan’s intelligence agency who were involved in terrorist activities on Pakistani soil. He said the Afghan spies had been arrested from the Pishin area of Balochistan. Bugti stated the arrested spies were paid Rs80,000 for a bomb blast and Rs250,000 for carrying out a targeted attack on an individual.

Addressing a press conference, Sarfraz Bugti claimed that the arrested spies were involved in subversive activities in the province, including targeted killings. The provincial minister lashed out at the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), for terrorism in Pakistan. “What is the Afghan intelligence doing in Pakistan,” Bugti asked. It has been reported that the arrested Afghan agents had confessed to their crimes.

Sarfraz Bugti warned Afghan refugees to leave Pakistan with grace otherwise they would be pushed out forcibly.

Shedding light on the NDS’ handlers responsible for running the spies, Bugti named three NDS generals, one of whom is now retired. “General Naeem Baloch, General Momin and General Malik are the handlers of the network and General Malik has retired now,” he said.

He elaborated that the generals were providing financial and logistic support to the spies with the aim of spreading chaos in Balochistan and Pakistan as a whole.

Replying to a question, the home minister stated that it was the responsibility of the Foreign Office now to raise the issue with the Afghan government.

Bugti said Pakistan had housed refugees from across the border with utmost respect but added that it was time that they must go back to their homeland.

The minister, who was accompanied by officials of the Frontier Corps (FC), then presented video confessions of the alleged Afghan spies. The accused were involved in attacking the FC personnel and citizens, Sarfraz Bugti told the news conference. He said that the Afghan refugees were disrupting peace in the province. “Enough is enough, we can no longer host the Afghan refugees. They would have to return to their country,” he said. Bugti also displayed the confessional video of the suspects.

The Balochistan home minister said the arrested militants confessed to the killing of more than 40 people. These people came to Balochistan to carry out target killings and bomb attacks, said Bugti.

Bugti alleged that these militants were Afghan refugees who had lived in various areas of Pakistan. He also said that Afghan migrants carried out terrorist activities in Pakistan adding that they needed to go back.

Bugti said that these militants were sent by the Afghan NDS and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to Pakistan. “I want to give the Afghan president a message that if Afghanistan is involved in killing of Pakistani people, things will deteriorate to a level where relations between both the countries would suffer,” stated Bugti.

The provincial minister also said that Afghan Army’s Lieutenant Roz Khan possessed a Pakistani identity card.

During Bugti’s press conference, in a video confession an alleged under-custody Afghan militant said that he had paid Rs30,000 for a fake NIC in Pakistan.

“I am an Afghan from Helmand,” confessed the detained militant from Afghanistan.

The militant also said that he went to Afghanistan in 1996 and returned to Pakistan in 2005.

“During Hamid Karzai’s rule in Afghanistan, we came to Pakistan and started living in the Muslim Bagh refugee camp,” said the Afghan agent.

One of the Afghan agents said during the video confession that he had met a person named Qazi Noor Muhammad who works for the NDS in Afghanistan. “Noor Muhammad made me meet NDS members who said that we would spread unrest in Balochistan,” said the Afghan agent.

An accused identified as Abdul Wahab confessed that he had spread unrest in Quetta.