West Bengal's Trinamool Congress in trouble over arrest of three ISI agents

West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress, earlier accused of harbouring terrorists, is now in a tizzy over the busting of an ISI spy module.

Five Urdu-speaking Muslims have been arrested in Kolkata so far since Friday, after police in Uttar Pradesh arrested a top Pakistani ISI agent Mohammed Ejaz alias Kalam from Meerut.

One of the five arrested in Kolkata is Muhammed Ashfaq Ansari, a student leader of the Trinamool Congress.

Ashfaq is accused of handing over secret documents, like naval designs smuggled out of the Garden Reach Shipbuilding docks in Kolkata port by his father Muhammed Irshad Ansari who worked as a 'contract labour' in the shipbuilding yard.

Ashfaq was the general secretary of the Trinamool Congress unit at Harimohan Ghosh College in the port area until about two months ago.

"We removed him from that position after we received allegations of his mastani (roughneck activities) in the area," said West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee.

Two years ago, Ashfaq was involved in clashes during a student union election at Harimohan Ghosh College, during which a police officer Taposh Choudhury was shot dead.

Trinamool Congress has earlier faced considerable flak over sending Ahmed Hassan Imran to Rajya Sabha (Upper House) on a party ticket, despite intelligence records suggesting he had been a vice-president of the now banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

Imran is linked to the Saradha money laundering scam and stands accused for sending Saradha funds to the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh.

JMB militants had set up a bomb-making factory at Khagragarh in Burdwan town next to the Trinamool party office, when an accidental bomb explosion there in Oct 2 last year blew the lid on their presence.

Irshad's confessions

"Irshad has confessed in preliminary interrogation on Sunday night that he stole designs of corvettes and patrol crafts designed and manufactured at the Garden Reach yards. He says the designs were handed over to their Pakistani handlers by Ashfaq," said a top official of the Intelligence Bureau.

He said they have found records of Ashfaq's several trips to Bangladesh and Pakistan.

"Irshad was recruited by the ISI about ten years ago when he visited his relatives in Karachi. He got his brother-in-law Jehangir and son Ashfaq into the racket," the official said but wished to remain anonymous.

Jehangir provided false Indian passports, IDs and mobile SIMs for Pakistani spy Muhammed Ejaz.

Ejaz had sneaked into Kolkata from Bangladesh by a boat with the help of one Bangladesh national he described as 'Probin' in 2013.

"They reached him to Irshad and Jehangir and they sheltered him and gave him an Indian identity and also got him married to a girl from Bihar by saying Ejaz was an orphan. Finally, Ejaz settled down in UP and started a career as a videographer that provided a cover for his spying activities," said UP police Special task Force chief Sujit Pandey.

Mohammad Irshad, his son Mohammad Ashfaque and Ashfaque's uncle Mohammad Jahangir.

Irshad's family used to stay in a rented accommodation at the port area's Ramnagar Lane. The flat was owned by a niece of Trinamool's top leader in port area, Shamsuzzaman Ansari.

Besides Irshad, Jehangir and Ashfaq, the Kolkata police special task force was also arrested Akhtar Khan and Zafar Khan from Kolutala area on charges of spying for the ISI.

A BSF intelligence head constable Abdul Rasheed and his associate were arrested by Delhi police crime branch late on Saturday on charges of spying for ISI.

Delhi police officials say they were passing on details of troop movements to ISI handlers through coded Internet messages.

Though none of the five Urdu-speaking Muslims arrested in Kolkata had any relatives in Bangladesh, they would frequently visit the country.

IB officials say they would possibly meet their ISI handlers operating under diplomatic cover in Bangladesh, because going to Pakistan too often was seen as hazardous.

Opposition attacks Trinamool

Opposition CPI (M) and Congress leaders attacked the Trinamool Congress on Monday for sheltering "anti-nationals' in the party.

CPI (M) leader of opposition in state assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra said the party was recruiting 'anybody and everybody' who could help stay in power by foul means.

"The Trinamool is harbouring anti-nationals. Their links to these elements and ISI must be thoroughly investigated," Mishra said.

Congress leader Manas Bhuiyan said: "We are shocked to learn that Irshad was a Trinamool workers’ union leader and his son a student union leader."

BJP legislator Shamik Bhattacharya called for a 'detailed investigation to unravel the anti-national links' of Trinamool Congress.

"Their ministers go to jail for Saradha scam, their MPs sent Saradha money to Jamaat in Bangladesh, now their activists sell our naval designs to Pakistan. This is an anti-national party."