A young Muslim man in India has been arrested on allegations of spying against the Indian military.
The arrest was made based on the tracking of a mobile phone number, which led authorities to apprehend Labha Shankar Maheshwari, a 53-year-old resident of Tarapur city in Gujarat. He has been accused of providing information to Pakistani intelligence operatives.
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Maheshwari in October 2023 for his alleged involvement in espionage activities on behalf of Pakistan.
The mobile phone number provided by Maheshwari was being used to gather and transmit confidential information related to the covert operations of the Indian occupying forces in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan.
Indian officials revealed that Maheshwari was a Pakistani citizen who had acquired Indian citizenship.
He allegedly used the social media platform WhatsApp to communicate with his handlers in Pakistan, sharing information about the movements and activities of the Indian military.
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The arrest of Labha Shankar Maheshwari in October 2023 led him to go underground.
The Pakistani intelligence agency’s activities came to the attention of Indian military intelligence in July of the previous year.
Labha Shankar’s provided phone number was instrumental in his role of hacking into the mobile phones of army personnel, with a particular focus on officers affiliated with army public schools across the country.
Under the ‘Har Ghar Tringa’ (Every Home a Flag) campaign, he instructed military officers and soldiers to install spyware.
This incident occurred a few days before the Independence Day celebrations last year.
Through WhatsApp, the officers were instructed to install the sent application and upload their unit’s image along with the tricolor flag, a requirement for the competition.
