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Suspected Pakistani spy escapes

Pakistani citizen Zafariya, believed to be a member of the Inter Services Intelligence and main accused in the Jaisalmer spying scandal, escaped from police custody yesterday while being escorted back to jail after a court hearing.

According to sources in the police headquarters in Jaipur, Jaisalmer Superintendent of Police Anil Paliwal has suspended all seven policemen who were bringing Zafariya back to the district jail.

Suspecting that Zafariya will attempt to cross over to Pakistan, all police stations on the Indo-Pakistan border have been put on maximum alert and the border sealed.

The Border Security Force has launched a search for the fugitive.

According to Paliwal, Zafariya was lodged in Jaipur central jail and had been brought to Jaisalmer for the hearing in the spying scandal.

The Jaisalmer district police took him from Jaisalmer district jail to Pokhran as the district magistrate there is conducting the proceedings.

Zafariya escaped at dusk when the policemen escorting him back in a taxi were getting the main gate of the district jail unlocked.

A resident of Rahimyarkhan district in Pakistan, Zafariya was arrested by the Jaisalmer police on March 15, 1997, for alleged espionage activities in the border district.

The police caught him while he was receiving vital documents on the movements of the Indian defence forces.

He was also alleged to be involved in the smuggling of arms to India. Some army personnel and local smugglers involved in supplying information to the suspected ISI agent were also arrested.

UNI

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