Javed Naviwala used to give money to Aftab in return for spying.

MUMBAI/LUCKNOW: A day after the Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorism squads ( ATS ) arrested Altaf Qureshi, a city-based hawala operator who allegedly provided funds to ISI, another hawala operator, also suspected to be an ISI agent , was arrested from Agripada .

Maharashtra ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni said, in a joint operation with the UP ATS, arrested Javed Naviwala (26) on Thursday for aiding and abetting terror-related activities. Qureshi’s interrogations led the ATS to his boss, Naviwala.

Both Naviwala and Qureshi, who are from Dorarji in Rajkot, circulated money to ISI operatives in the country, said ATS.

Police said Naviwala, a commerce graduate from a reputed south Mumbai college, sent Rs 15,000 to his relative Aftab Ali, who was arrested from Faizabad in UP on Wednesday for his alleged links with an ISI agent. “During interrogation, Naviwala claimed he was innocent. He said he had transferred the money into his relative’s bank account assuming it was for a medical charity,” said ATS officer.

Aftab, who allegedly spied on Indian army bases in UP and Punjab, had received training in Pakistan from the ISI and was also in touch with officials in the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi, said ATS officials .

They claimed that Aftab had been in touch with Meherban Ali directly through an online messenger before and after the surgical strikes by India. Now settled in Karachi, Meherban was among the six-member group that was pulled out of the Pakistan High Commission in November 2016 for being part of an espionage ring. Through Aftab, the group extracted information about movement of troops under Central Command (particularly from Lucknow and Faizabad cantonment) after the surgical strikes.

According to the ATS, some people posted in the high commission continue to extract information, and the name of the mole who pressed Aftab to keep sharing information about military installations in UP and Punjab will be forwarded to Union government for action.

Inspector general of UP ATS Asim Arun said Aftab had crossed over to Pakistan via Wagah border on a valid visa in May 2014 on the pretext of visiting his ailing maternal grandmother. “His visa application was rejected thrice and Meherban lured him into the spying ring by promising to get visa through his connections in the Pakistan High Commission,” said Arun. In return, Aftab was asked to attend a training session at Karachi which was organized by ISI.

Apart from chatting with Meherban, Aftab also came in contact with an ISI handler in Pakistan and continued to receive instructions from a person posted in Pakistan High Commission. Sources in the ATS said Aftab was constantly sending classified information to his Pakistani handlers when India conducted surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Based in Faizabad, Aftab was keeping a close watch on movement of forces in Lucknow and eastern Uttar Pradesh when tension had escalated along the border in Jammu and Kashmir after the surgical strikes.

“In early October 2016, some army units were moved to Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab fr-om Central Command. While examining Aftab’s phone, we found that he had passed on information about the number of army personnel and trains they had boarded,” said the source. Though he managed to hoodwink intelligence and security agencies all this while, his number was deemed suspicious in January, when ATS arrested some people for running an illegal international call centre in Lucknow, Hardoi and Sitapur. Investigators found that Aftab had made and received several calls from Pakistan.

