Daily Times

Sometimes, love becomes a crime. Love becomes a sin. The world starts treating a lover like an unpardonable sinner and unforgivable criminal.

Mohammad Rashid, a resident of Banaras, India, had to face the same consequences. It was somewhere in 2017 that he had come to Karachi to attend a family marriage function. There, he fell in love with one of his cousins and decided to make her his life-partner. Alas! this decision was too early. His relatives in Pakistan advised him not to be emotional and think a little more before taking any step. Moreover, his visa was also about to expire and he was supposed to report back within the permitted time limit. So, he said good-bye to his beloved with a promise to come back soon. In 2018, he once again succeeded in coming to Pakistan. This was the point where his whole life started changing.

Now, Rashid is in the custody of the security agencies and is passing through an agonisingly painful process of investigation. The Indian security agencies call him an ISI agent; sending sensitive information to the ISI about the movement and deployment of the military troops. Moreover, on the instructions of his alleged handlers, he is involved in instigating the general public to add violence in protest against the CAA and NRC. Astonishingly, his lifestyle, social and educational status and mental level do not match the charge.

Dragging Pakistan into the internal matters of India is not a new practice

Mohammad Rashid is a 23-years-old man with school education only up to class 8. His parents got divorced and had even remarried in his early childhood. In the beginning, Rashid had started working at a local tailor shop and then, at a medical store as a helper. When he had gone to Karachi, he was working as a panaflex and a sign-board fixer in Varanasi. Details released to the Indian media by the Indian intelligence agencies said that when he had gone to Karachi for the second time, one of his cousins had arranged his meeting with two ISI agents. These agents had supposedly convinced him to work for the ISI and pass on sensitive information regarding the movements of military troops and the plans of the Indian army. He was allegedly promised that he would be paid for all his services and his marriage would also be made possible. In short, the Indian intelligence agencies started keeping an eye on Mohammad Rashid when he came back to India. After long and tedious surveillance, he was arrested. How astonishing is the fact that a young man with education just up to class 8, working as a helper at a tailor shop and a medical store and then as a panaflex fixer was given the assignment of gathering information about military movement and future planning? If a young man with such an ordinary social, educational and financial status could have an approach to such sensitive information and secret matters, Indian military high-ups must review their security standards.

Dragging Pakistan into the internal matters of India and blaming ISI for all that goes wrong there is not a new practice. It is a decades-old story; repeated time and again. In the world of defence-related affairs, such activity is commonly known as “False Flag Operations.” From Mumbai Blasts to the Pathankot Incident and Pulwama Attacks, such False Flag Operations have been a routine matter. The intensity of such activities increases whenever Pakistan is in some FATF-like turmoil. Indian conspirators simply start concocting new stories of Pakistan’s alleged support to terrorist activities, particularly in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. But most of the times, these stories are illogical and irrational. In their hostility against Pakistan, Indian intelligence agencies don’t spare their people and sacrifice them ruthlessly at the altar of their foolish desire of defaming Pakistan. The recent arrest of DSP Davinder Singh of J&K Police is also one such callous and brainless activities. Throughout his career as a police officer, DSP Singh has earned the reputation of a very honest and devoted officer.

According to a report published in the India Today on January 13, 2020, the intelligence agencies have blamed that the DSP had very close links with the terrorists working for the liberation of the Indian Occupied Kashmir and he had been co-operating with them for a long time. It is an astonishing fact that a few months earlier, the same DSP was awarded the National Police Medal for his gallantry by the Occupied State of J&K and promised an out-of-turn promotion to the rank of SP as a reward. Now, the same “national-hero” is behind the bars and facing investigations like a criminal. In other words, Mohammad Rashid (a Muslim) and DSP Davinder Singh (a Sikh), both are sailing in the same boat. Rashid’s linkage with the ISI has been “established.”

Now, it is time to prove that a National Police Medal-holding officer of the Indian Police Department was also an agent of the ISI. This situation is horrible as well as ridiculous.

It is expected that shortly when Mr Modi won’t be the prime minister, someday, someone from the Indian Intelligence Agencies would reveal that Mr Modi had also been working for the ISI.

The writer is an Associate Professor of English at Govt College of Science, Multan