BNP seeks explanation on RAW operation

BNP has demanded an explanation from the government on the alleged detention of a Pakistani ISI agent by the India's external intelligence agency -- Research and Analysis Wing (Raw) -- from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka yesterday.

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demand at a meeting at the Jatiya Press Club organised by Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal demanding release of its president Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel.

Referring to a news report published in Bangla daily Prothom-Alo in its Wednesday issue, Fakhrul said Raw captured an ISI agent at the airport and took him to India.

"We want to know from the government whether the news is true or not. If it's true, we want explanation from the government to this end," Fakhrul demanded.

He further asked how a foreign secret service could capture and take a person to another country from Bangladeshi soil. He further demanded an explanation towards how a foreign secret service agent could enter the country.

According to Indian newspaper Times of India, Indian Mujahideen's (IM) Pakistani operative Zia-ur Rehman alias Waqas, was hiding in Bangladesh and was due to leave for Pakistan via Nepal when he was apprehended by RAW.

Waqas is allegedly an ISI agent who had been loaned to IM. India’s sustained interest in him, made his handlers in Pakistan's spy agency worried that their asset had been exposed and needed to be brought home, the ToI report added.

It further said the ISI got a passport made for Waqas, but when he reached the Dhaka airport, local immigration officials discovered that there was no entry stamp on his passport.

As they set out to detain him, the commotion attracted the attention of a RAW staffer who swiftly used his smart phone to photograph one of India's biggest tormentors and relayed it to his superiors.

"RAW officers were thrilled when they saw that the six-feet man being held at Dhaka airport was their elusive quarry. What followed was an intense spy game in which Indian agents managed to spirit him away to India without leaving footprints," reads the ToI report.

The report quotes Indian security officials saying that they knew of the possibility of Waqas being in Bangladesh, though they were clueless about his exact location.

The details about how the ISI agent was taken out of the airport and then taken to India remain unclear, according to the ToI report.