Islamabad - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed the secretary interior to probe the issue of the alleged links of some Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials with terrorists backed by hostile intelligence agencies.
The directives came on a petition of IB Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Shahzad, who had alleged that some IB officials were involved in protecting terrorists having links with the hostile intelligence agencies.
IHC judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui conducted the hearing of the petition in his chamber. During the hearing of the petition seeking court’s directives to entrust investigation of the matter to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the secretary interior and the IB director submitted reports in sealed envelopes. After hearing arguments of both sides, the IHC bench directed the interior secretary to probe the sensitive matter and submit a report before the court.
Justice Siddiqui before disposing of the matter also directed to take immediate measures for the protection of country’s interests.
Earlier, the IHC bench had issued notices to the secretary interior and IB Director General directing them to submit their replies.
The petitioner has made some startling revelations about the alleged nexus of several IB officers and subordinate staff with the anti-state intelligence agencies. Mukhtar had stated in his petition that in 2007 when he joined his duty he started gathering sensitive information concerning national security. In this connection, the petitioner reported against various terrorist groups having roots in Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and India, but to the petitioner’s dismay, the IB took no action against such groups despite proofs provided by him.
He said that upon thorough intelligence gathering, it transpired that certain high officials of the IB were directly in contact with terrorist organizations having links with the hostile intelligence agencies.
“The sensitive information regarding the compromise of national security was also conveyed to the prime minister through a registered post. However, the prime minister preferred to indulge himself in other trivial affairs rather than matters of grave national importance,” the petition had said. According to the petitioner, it was revealed that some Pakistani IB officials have travel record on different passports proving their travel to Israel and were found to be directly linked with the Afghanistan intelligence agency.
The petitioner had contended that these terrorists used to disguise themselves as Kinno (citrus) dealers in Kot-Momin and Bhalwal, Sargodha. The business was a mere camouflage. The petitioner was quite vigilant in probing that one Arslan Ahmad Shah Bokhari, the son of IB Joint Director Punjab Khursheed Alam Shah Bukhari, was involved in dealing with the said terrorist groups, which were apparently running Shah Taj Kinnow Factory in Sargodha. According to the petitioner, some Afghan intelligence agency and Iranian intelligence officers and agents also used to hide and seek refuge as Kinno dealers in Kot-Momin and Bhalwal, Sargodha.
Mukhtar said that he consistently reported on sectarian issues in the line of duty, which was going on with the support of sectarian organizations and Iran.
The petitioner contended that the petitioner flagged the names and complete addresses of militants including their handler, facilitators who were planning to go to Iran for military training and of these trained militants a few participated in Syria war and got rewarded from Iran in the shape of cash amounting to Rs1400,000, and Rs 330,000 to Rs. 500,000 through ATM of Bank Al-Ansar, Iran for first one month during training and about Rs120,000 to the family of the deceased and the returned militants respectively.