Rajasthan Man who 'Spied' For Pak Had Links With Ex-Minister: Sources

A 49-year-old Rajasthan state government employee, who was detained in Jaisalmer on suspicion of espionage for Pakistan, had a connection with a former minister in the ex-Ashok Gehlot-led government, sources said.

According to sources, the 'spy' Shakur Khan was working as a personal assistant to former minister Shale Mohammad under the Congress regime in Rajasthan. Khan and Mohammad's villages are barely eight kilometers away from one another, they said. Mohammad has been a two-time MLA, a minister, and has fought four elections under the Ashok Gehlot government. He is presently the representative of India of the 'Pir Pagara' (a title given to the leader of the Muslim Sufi order of Hurs in Pakistan's Sindh) of Pakistan.

During the previous government, Khan used to frequently visit Mohammad's father, Ghazi Fakir - a claim confirmed by local sources. While pictures on social media showed Khan, Mohammad and Ghazi Fakir (who died in 2021) together, NDTV could not independently verify the authenticity of it.

However, officials said that it would be premature to link Mohammad with the espionage case.

Khan was detained on Wednesday night by an intelligence department team who were acting on security-related inputs. Sources said that the 'spy' had visited Pakistan at least seven times. He also has two bank accounts - one of which was recently closed. Officials said that Khan's phone, which was sent for investigation, had some deleted data that could be of interest to them.

According to Superintendent of Police, Sudhir Chaudhary, since Operation Sindoor, there is a heightened vigilance on the India-Pakistan border and especially in a border district like Jaisalmer. "In the past month, six people have been taken in for questioning for suspicious activities on the border. Shakur is the seventh person picked up for interrogation," he said.

The central agencies are interrogating Khan again today, officials said.