A regular Ranch medicine whole seller, Faizal Rahman was arrested by Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorist squad for links with Pakistan’s ISI, while at a cyber café near Kanpur central railway station, on Monday.
A very stunning issue was he maintained a very clean image, say police sources. But his recent over stay at Pakistan this year, from where his wife hailed, made the authorities to keep him under observation. Faizal met Shaima in 1992 in Pakistan. It was a cross-border love story with criminal fallout. Faizal became an ISI agent in 1998 after the wedding in 1997. He was trained in Karachi, too.
For a meager pay out of Rs.10,000/- per month, Faizal had to operate in five Indian cities, including Jhansi and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Sagar and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and Ranchi in Jharkhand. His work was trying to woo army officers in cantonment areas.
Uttar Pradesh special director-general of police Brij Lal said on Tuesday that after yesterday’s arrest, Jharkhand police raided his home in Ranchi’s HEC Township today, seizing incriminating papers to suggest he was a full-time ISI operator in India with a specific job description. A scrutiny of his passport and visa seized from his house revealed his mobile number, the number, and name of his handlers, his bank accounts, all in Pakistan. On grilling, Faizal confessed his direct handler was one Sikander Ali of ISI, based in Pakistan, and he was regularly paid for his work from them.
It seemed to be a regular educated middle class family, with one exception. Neighbours said the Rahmans celebrated Pakistan’s cricket wins over India with firecrackers. “But they never had the guts to own it up. They blamed the nearby tribals,” said a neighbour.
It may be noted that his wife and children are in Pakistan. Is it because he wanted to assure their safety in the event of anything happening to him here or is it that the foreign authorities have taken his family into control to make him operate as per their tunes – a question only Faizal alias Guddu, alias Faizrul Rahman, can tell us. Will he have scope to reveal or not let’s wait and watch.
