ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have uncovered and dismantled another network of Indian spies allegedly supporting terrorist activities in Balochistan.
Balochistan’s former caretaker information minister Jan Achakzai has claimed that Pakistani security forces have arrested Indian agent Ashok Chaturvedi near the Pak-Iran border.
Achakzai claimed the network was involved in sponsoring terrorism through cryptocurrency channels, pointing to a sophisticated funding mechanism allegedly orchestrated by Indian intelligence services.
“This arrest once again exposes India’s covert operations aimed at destabilising Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan,” he said.
The development comes after the March 11, 2025, terrorist attack on the Jaffar Express in Balochistan’s Bolan district, which left 21 passengers and four security personnel dead.
The attack carried out by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), involved hostage-taking and a prolonged armed standoff that ended with a military operation in which 33 terrorists were killed and the hostages were rescued.
The pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has also accused India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), of orchestrating the train attack.
In a statement issued on 13 March, SFJ leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun alleged that India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had become a “terrorist state,” actively sponsoring violence in the region.
He urged international organisations to hold Indian officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, accountable.
“India under Modi is not just a regional threat but a full-fledged terrorist state,” Pannun claimed. “The world can no longer ignore India’s role in sponsoring terrorism.”
Security officials in Pakistan said terrorists involved in the Jaffar Express attack maintained active contact with handlers in Afghanistan, further fuelling concerns of foreign involvement in terrorism within Pakistan.
Pakistan has long accused India of supporting separatist groups in Balochistan. These latest revelations have added to growing international scrutiny over India’s intelligence activities, especially after recent allegations that Indian operatives have been involved in targeted assassinations of Sikh activists abroad.
Last month, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti also recalled the arrest of Indian RAW officer Kulbhushan Yadav from Balochistan in 2016, saying the capture had unmasked India’s long-term campaign of subversion in the province.
“The red-handed arrest of Kulbhushan Yadav nine years ago exposed Indian terrorism on Pakistani soil,” Bugti said in a post on social media platform X on 3 March.
Kulbhushan Yadav, a serving commander in the Indian Navy, was captured during a counter-intelligence operation and later confessed to working with RAW to conduct sabotage operations in Pakistan.
His case was presented by Pakistan at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
During the proceedings, Pakistan’s counsel Khawar Qureshi stated that even Ajit Doval had admitted in an interview that Yadav played a key role in instigating terrorist activities in Balochistan.
Pakistan’s Attorney General at the time, Anwar Mansoor Khan, had told the court that Yadav’s actions were part of a broader Indian strategy to destabilise Balochistan through terrorism.
Reinforcing these accusations, Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan last month reiterated Pakistan’s stance that India is actively involved in fanning terrorism in the country.
“India’s involvement in destabilising Balochistan is very clear. They have been running a global assassination campaign and trying to destabilise the entire region,” Khan told reporters during a weekly briefing.
