The Aryavarth Express
Pathankot (Punjab):
Punjab Police on Monday arrested a 15-year-old boy in Pathankot for allegedly sharing information related to national security with Pakistani terror agencies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistan military officers, officials said.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pathankot, Daljinder Singh Dhillon, stated that the minor had been in contact with Pakistani agencies for nearly a year. Acting on specific intelligence inputs, police took the teenager into custody for allegedly passing on sensitive information.
“The accused was supplying information related to national security to front organisations of terror agencies, including the ISI and Pakistan military officers,” SSP Dhillon told the media.
According to police, the boy was allegedly lured through social media and was emotionally vulnerable due to a belief that his father had been murdered. However, investigators found no evidence to support this claim. Officials said this emotional distress was exploited by handlers to influence and recruit him.
The teenager is accused of sharing videos of sensitive locations and remaining in touch with gangsters based in Pakistan who were operating a terror module. “He had been in contact with Pakistan-based terror organisations for almost a year,” the SSP said, adding that further investigation is underway to determine the full extent of the network.
The arrest comes amid heightened security efforts in the border state. Earlier, on December 2, Punjab Police, with assistance from central and state agencies, dismantled an ISI-backed international terror module linked to a grenade attack in Gurdaspur.
DIG Border Range Sandeep Goyal said the module was planning multiple attacks aimed at inciting communal tension. He identified terrorist Shahzad Bhatti as the main handler, along with associates Zeeshan Akhtar and Amandeep Singh alias Aman Pannu. The group had already carried out a grenade attack on a police station in Gurdaspur, while another planned strike was foiled with the arrest of two operatives and the recovery of weapons.
