Trial of India 'spy for Pakistan'

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

The Indian army is concerned at "low-rank" spying

The Indian army says it will try one of its soldiers for allegedly passing to Pakistan secrets of its troop deployments on the border with China.

The soldier, Javed Khan, a non-commissioned officer, was arrested on 11 July in Assam after being under surveillance for a year.

Military officials said his father, a retired Indian air force sergeant, was among seven others arrested.

They are accused of being part of an espionage ring.

Key postings

Javed Khan, who has the Indian army rank of Lance Naik, was allegedly caught in possession of details of troop formations on the eastern borders and minutes of several top-level meetings of commanders.

Intelligence Bureau officials say they interrogated him and that led to the arrest of his father, Hanif, and six others from Delhi.

They were believed to be passing information to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.

Military intelligence officials said the trial of the eight defendants would start soon.

They say they are concerned at the growing number of incidents of relatively low-rank soldiers spying for money.

The intelligence officials said most of those caught had access to sensitive military information because they were posted in key directorates like army headquarters and had permission to handle computers there.