Maldivians under intelligence scanner for ISI links

Thiruvananthapuram : Central intelligence agencies have warned the Kerala Police on the antecedents of certain Maldivian nationals reaching the State via Thiruvananthapuram airport.

The intelligence agencies have reportedly asked the State Government to take extreme caution on these Maldivian nationals after they received inputs from global security and intelligence agencies on the possibility of presence of ISI operatives among the Maldivian people reaching Thiruvananthapuram.

The recent twin bomb blasts at Hyderabad have heightened security threat leading to placing of all south Indian States under extreme security cover.

The intelligence agencies have warned the State police that some Maldivian nationals who had camped in the State capital towards the end of July and in early August were doing the planning for Maldivian referendum from Thiruvananthapuram.

Interestingly, the Maldivian intelligence officials and certain Western agencies had informed the Indian intelligence agencies that there was a definite link between Pakistan’s Inter-Services intelligence and the groups that were opposed to reigning President Mohammed Abdul Gayoom.

Strategically, Maldives is a very important geo-political area for India and the presence of a large number of Maldivian nationals with some of them having ISI links is reason for serious concern for India, particularly for Kerala.

Intelligence sources told The Pioneer that there were reports of a shift in the base of a large number of these Maldivian nationals into neighbouring Bangalore

Bangalore is the software hub of the country with several strategic global projects being formulated here and the presence of any terror module has to be cracked and destroyed with immediate effect.

Indian external Intelligence agency -Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is -reportedly ill-equipped in Kerala with the presence of officers who are far above their primes. The Pioneer had earlier reported that two of these officers, who had retired from the Kerala Police, are now in deputation to RAW, thanks to the presence of a Keralite officer as the head of the agency.

Ironically, both these officers were not considered to be good police officers. Nor have they exhibited any specific qualities to be posted in the counter-Intelligence agency.

There are also reports with the Central Intelligence Bureau on the influence of certain external factors in the official duties of one of these officers. The IB has also reports that a woman television artist and a woman lawyer are calling the shots with one of these officers.

A former RAW official, who had put in illustrious service in the organisation, told The Pioneer, “RAW is the Indian agency which gathers all the reports from abroad and of late there is a quality-erosion in the organisation. It has to change with immediate effect. The reports of the presence of an inefficient officer in this premier agency in Kerala, considered as a hub of hawala operations and presence of volumes of counterfeit currency have to be taken seriously.”

He added, “There has to be a detailed investigation as to how these officers got postings in their home State during their deputation period and that too after they served the State police for several years, having developed contacts with people with whom we should never have had any contact.”

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