he Uttar Pradesh ATS has emerged as a highly successful and professional arm of the UP police. It has diehard professionals who are markedly different from their colleagues in UP, generally perceived to be sluggish, non-performers and politically inclined.-Shantanu Mukharji

Shantanu Mukharji @Shantanu2818 Against the backdrop of heightened political heat generated by the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has busted a spy syndicate in the last week of January. With this, the ATS has preempted several frightening consequences of monstrous proportions. Tech-savvy and well-trained in intelligence tradecraft, the kingpin, Gulshan, was arrested in Delhi. He has been remanded in police custody for interrogation. Prima facie, Gulshan appears to be thoroughly familiar with information technology and has also spent five years in Afghanistan, where he worked for a US company engaged in supplying materials to consumers through contractors. That was the cover under which Gulshan was carrying out undesirable activities in Afghanistan. spy-body_020117073557.jpg This is not the first time that a spy gang looking for military information has been busted. (Photo for representational purpose) In Delhi's, he was running a network of spies behind the facade of a fake FITJEE coaching centre at Mehrauli. His network comprised spies drawn from various parts of the country and abroad . Their modus operandi was to run fake telephone exchanges and help callers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and several gulf countries seeking information on Indian military formations, their operations and deployment. Using fake SIM cards and impersonating as Indian military officers, the group members would pose questions to cantonments in J&K seeking information on troop deployment etc. Significantly, the SIM cards used were all Indian. It was, however, difficult to trace the origin of the calls, but appeared to have come from abroad. Another disturbing factor was that the intelligence pertained to military. It proved the presence of a well-organised spy ring dedicated to gather intelligence on military-related matters. This is not the first time that a spy gang looking for military information has been busted. Lucknow being the headquarters of the Central Command has always been on the radar of the ISI and its agent provocateurs engaged in active espionage. As recently as 2016, a couple of more spy syndicates targeting military intelligence were busted. However, the spies in those cases were using human intelligence by recruiting Indian agents and assigning them specific tasks such as taking photographs of military installations, watching troop movements, observing the exercises and operations of military setups. Bareilly and Meerut cantonments were also on the spy radar for their immense potential as intelligence fodder to be fed to hostile quarters. The Uttar Pradesh ATS this time around used its technological prowess to bust the gang. The TERM cell of the ATS is delving deep into the matter to ascertain the points of origin of money laundering, technicalities of the mechanism employed by the spies and collaboration, if any, of Indian telephone exchanges lending support to the entire spy network. That also includes some functioning from Hardoi, Sitapur and adjoining areas. The ATS achieved the major breakthrough in collaboration with its counterparts in Delhi, J&K and other states. Uttar Pradesh, with a population of over 200 million, is a "country" unto itself with a lot of complexities. The fact that the state has important military formations and a history of communal tensions as well political developments impacting national issues make UP a fertile ground for the spies to gather intelligence and feed it to their handlers in Pakistan. In other words, the state remains highly vulnerable. In not so distant past, a secretary of the ruling party was arrested by security agencies on suspicion of being on ISI payrolls and passing on sensitive political information to his handlers. For the ISI, political intelligence is equally valuable as it helps them assess the scenario that may emerge. Targeting the military is a bonus. The Uttar Pradesh ATS has emerged as a highly successful and professional arm of the UP police. It has diehard professionals who are markedly different from their colleagues in UP, generally perceived to be sluggish, non-performers and politically inclined. The ATS is apolitical and their working is hitherto not interfered by the establishment. So they can discharge their professional responsibilities independently. They must be further allowed to work independently without any frills attached. With elections just round the corner, such spy networks will not give up their nefarious designs to target UP either with the intent to foment communal riots or cause serious law and order problems. Central agencies overseeing the country's security must work in close cooperation with the ATS to preempt any other plans that may come to the fore following the interrogation of Gulshan and his gang members. The fact that Gulshan was in Afghanistan, which is a hub of terror activities with the ISI playing an overactive role, for five long years calls for stricter interrogation. Normally, the anti-terrorism squads of states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka are perceived to be more efficient than their UP counterpart, but the Uttar Pradesh ATS has busted this myth as well with its latest success story. It's time this entity is truly recognised as a well-oiled professional outfit deserving more teeth to safeguard our national interests