Chandigarh, May 6
Pakistan is set to wage a proxy war of a different kind that has its roots in history. The neighbours, it is learnt, is training a group of 935 women to use them as bait to gather strategic information from Indian politicians and officials.

According to intelligence sources, the women — camped in Faridkot district of Pakistan Punjab — are being trained by the ISI on the model of Mata Hari spies. The aim is not just to entice Indians for extracting information, but also to keep them as potential terrorists; to be used whenever the need arose. The recruits are also reportedly being trained in the use of computers, with an aim to lay “honeytraps” for Indian youth. Once the training is over, these women would be pushed into India through West Bengal and Bihar, sources said.

This input has the state police and Central security agencies worried. Agencies are wary of any women coming to India from Pakistan on private visits or as tourists.

Recently, eyebrows were raised when a Pakistani woman was found accompanying a top Punjab politician to Jaipur without proper visa. Also, intelligence agencies are convinced that ISI was attempting to revive militancy in Punjab.

Faridkot (Pakistan), where the terror camps are being run, also happens to be home district of LeT terrorist Ajmal Kasab. The ISI, it is learnt, is trying to project Kasab as a “hero” who had “gone all out for Islamic jihad”.

The Punjab Police, too, has been closely following developments across the border. It has intensified surveillance after neutralising an ISI-sponsored espionage ring and arrested four residents of villages in Faridkot. The cops had recovered sensitive documents relating to important military installations during these arrests.

Also, the interrogation of Asiya Malik, the wife of a Pakistani soldier arrested in Sunderbani area of Jammu and Kashmir in November last, had revealed that another group of over 100 Pakistani girls was being trained in two camps in Bhimber and Kotli areas of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.