New Delhi:
Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police has suspended a senior officer for dereliction of duty after he allegedly passed on information about the deployment of security forces to a Pakistani intelligence officer posing as an Army officer.
The suspended police officer was identified as Inspector Tanveer Ahmad and was in charge of the Armed Police Control Room at Batamaloo in Srinagar.
On August 20, amid protests in the Valley, a Pakistani intelligence officer posing as ‘Major Sanjeev’ called the Armed Police telephone number and inquired from the inspector on duty about deployments and other engagements of security forces in various parts of Kashmir, officials said.
The Pakistani officer then reportedly sought deployment details in Handwara and Bandipore. Ahmad allegedly gave details about Handwara, and said he needed to check the information about Bandipore and passed the phone to his subordinate.
Another officer then allegedly told the Pakistani officer that 42 companies were deployed in Kashmir range, and gave the range-wise details of deployment.
The phone call to the Armed PCR was traced by the home ministry, which took up the matter with the J&K DGP. An investigation was ordered and Ahmad suspended, officials said.
A senior officer said the preliminary investigation showed that the involvement of Ahmad was “unintentional”.
All control rooms and police officials in the state have been instructed not to provide sensitive information to anyone whose identity is not known to them.
