UP ATS has already started scanning the suspicious accounts and the credentials of people on their friends’ lists, says IG Asim Arun

13 Pakistani Facebook accounts, which are suspected to be operated by the the country's intelligence agency ISI, along with other 1,100 users have been under the scanner of the security sleuths as part of a probe into social media trap by the Pakistan’s ISI.

The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) found these accounts while scanning Facebook profiles after the arrest of BrahMos aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal and BSF's Achuytanand Mishra. The duo were allegedly ‘honey-trapped’ by ISI over Facebook, said Asim Arun, IG, UP ATS.

“The ATS has also zeroed in on around 1,100 users that are on the friends’ lists of the suspicious accounts. The process of cross-checking the credentials of people on the friends’ lists is already on,” Asim Arun was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

The ATS has divided 1,100 Facebook account users into three categories namely those working in defence, those posted in sensitive installations, and general users.

The investigating sleuths would approach each user in the first category to check if they have shared any sensitive data knowingly or unknowingly, the IG further said, adding, the process of quizzing the second category users was also continuing simultaneously. The third category users, Arun said, were being examined and would be questioned later.

The sleuths are also alerting the Facebook users about the ISI traps for extraction of information during their questioning, Arun further said.

On October 11, UP and Maharashtra ATS teams in coordination with military intelligence had arrested mechanical engineer Nishant Agarwal, 28, associated with BrahMos Aerospace Private Ltd, for possessing classified information about the missile on his personal laptop in breach of the Officials Secret Act.

Similarly, on September 19, BSF Jawan Achyutanand Mishra was arrested for chatting on WhatsApp with a woman who was using a mobile number registered in Pakistan. Mishra was accused of sharing sensitive data about forces to a Facebook friend.