Behind Pakistan's Teen Spy Network, A Design To Brainwash Minors

A spy network of teenagers has emerged as a major security challenge in India after white-collar terrorism, with Pakistan's intelligence agency now found to be trapping and brainwashing minors to work for them. Over 37 minors are now under the security scanner, a senior official told NDTV. Of them, 12 are from Punjab and Haryana and 25 from Jammu and Kashmir. Aged between 14 and 17, they have been found to be trapped by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency.

The ISI is known to be a key figure in Pakistan's deep state that harbours terror groups on its soil to cause instability in India.

The detention of a 15-year-old boy in J&K's Samba district blew the cover off the teen spy network this week. Intelligence input suggested that he was in touch with Pakistan-based agencies and handlers.

When the cops scanned his phone, they were left shocked. The boy was found to be in contact with frontal organisations of terror groups and ISI-based agencies and their handlers, said Daljinder Singh Dhillon, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Pathankot. "He was trapped by Pakistan-based agencies. Based on their instructions, he filmed sensitive locations of Indian forces," the official said.

The boy's phone was cloned, which allowed his handlers to monitor his activities in real time. This allowed them to easily extract the content that he had saved on his phone. "The arrested boy's phone was cloned after he clicked a malicious link, highlighting the sophistication of ISI's tactics," the SSP said.

A deeper investigation exposed the teenager spy network, with the police finding that many minors had been manipulated by the ISI online. Using unconventional apps, these minors were brainwashed and made to work for Pakistan's inputs.

They are made to photograph Indian security installations, inform their handlers about the movement of security convoys, and help in logistical work for terror outfits, the police said.

SSP Dhillon warned that this network represents a new front in espionage, targeting vulnerable minors. The police are now working to identify and reach out to such youngsters and prevent them from getting further exploited.

Warning that if the boy wasn't detained, he could have been drawn into far more serious activities, SSP Dhillon emphasised the need for vigilance and awareness to counter such sinister attempts. He also urged parents to monitor their children's online activities, citing the case of the arrested teenager, who had stopped attending school without his mother's knowledge. 

The teen spy network follows the exposure of a white-collar terror network, in which doctors were recruited by the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group to carry out multiple blasts in India.