At least four Indian nationals working in various parts of Afghanistan, and abducted by the Haqqani network, were successfully rescued by Indian agencies in November-December last year before they could be handed over to Pakistan’s ISI.
The four men, all from southern India, were abducted in separate incidents from Kabul, Kandahar and the Iran-Afghanistan border.
The motive of executing these four abductions by the Haqqani network was to sell them off to the ISI, on the lines of what had happened during the time of Kulbhushan Jadhav.
Once these men came in the custody of ISI, the plan was to present them as members of module of India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and thereby tell the world how India was trying to spread disturbance in Pakistan through its intelligence agencies.
The Sunday Guardian is not revealing the identities of the four men who were rescued by the Indian agencies and sent back to India.
Sources said that following the Kulbhushan Jadhav episode, the Indian nationals working in Afghanistan have become a target of multiple terror groups, led by the Haqqani network which works as a hidden arm of the Pakistan deep state. Officials said that ISI is using groups like the Haqqani network and Jaish al Adl to abduct common Indians and then procure them from these groups.
“The whole narration of Pakistan regarding Jadhav was that he was the ring-leader of R&AW operations in that area. Pakistan wants to use Jadhav to paint India as a ‘terrorist state’. ISI believes that if it is able to present a couple of more Indian nationals as Indian intelligence operatives to the world audience, its narration will get a shot in the arm,” a source familiar with the development said while explaining the modus operandi of ISI.
Private companies working in Afghanistan, who have employed Indian nationals, have been asked to make sure that the complete identity documents of the workers are maintained properly and shared with the pertinent Afghanistan government departments so that in case any Jadhav type incident is executed by the ISI, India will not have any difficulty in proving that the man is a normal worker and not a “spy”.