Embarrassed by ISI link to a spy in Tamil Nadu having been exposed, Pakistan has recalled counsellor Amir Zubair Siddiqui from its mission in Colombo. The Tamil Nadu police had accused Mr Siddiqui of recruiting a vegetable exporter from Thanjavur to procure information on military establishments in south India, including a highly-sensitive nuclear submarine project near Visakhapatnam. Pakistan has been worried ever since work began in 2009 on the `60,000 crore secret nuclear submarine project codenamed “Project Varsha”.
Based at the Pakistan high commission in Colombo under the deceptive title as counsellor (visa), Siddiqui was reportedly assigned the task of ISI’s infiltration into south India, sources said. One of his operations was to recruit the Thanjavur vegetable exporter, Thameem Ansari, through two Colombo-based agents Haji and Shaji, for procuring information about military establishments in south India. His scheme went awry when the Tamil Nadu “Q” branch police, acting alongside Central IB, caught Mr Ansari just before he boarded the plane to Colombo on September 17 with videos and documents relating to some military establishments.
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Mother keeps son captive for 17 years
Davanagere (Karnataka), Oct. 14: In a shocking incident, a youth was kept locked in a solitary room for 17 years by his mother and was not allowed to answer nature’s call at a village in the district.
Keshvamurthy, around 30, walked out to freedom on Sunday after the neighbours, on coming to know about his confinement, broke the wall of the room and rescued him, the police said.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Keshvamurthy was held in solitary confinement in a room in his house since 1995 by his mother Chowdamma at Lokkapura village for objecting her becoming “Devadasi” (a religious tradition in which girls are “married” to God) after getting separated from her husband.
The mother did not allow Keshavamurthy to go out even to answer nature’s call and served food through a window of his room all these years, the police said.
The man, who sported long hair and beard, was given a shave by a barber and hairs were trimmed and was taken to National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences at Bengaluru for check up. — PTI