Six 'Afghan spies' arrested from Balochistan: Sarfaraz Bugti

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti has announced the arrest of six "Afghan spies" from the province's Pishin area.

Bugti claimed that the arrested spies were involved in subversive activities in the province, including targeted killings.

He also lashed out at Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security(NDS) for deceiving Pakistan.

"What is the Afghan intelligence doing with Pakistan?," Dawn quoted him as saying.

According to Bugti, the spies were paid Rupees 80,000 per bombing, and received a much higher sum of Rupees 2,50,000 for carrying out a targeted attack on an individual.

He asserted that NDS's handlers were responsible for running the spies, naming three NDS generals.

"General Naeem Baloch, General Momin and General Malik are the handlers of the network, and General Malik has retired now," he said.

He said that the generals were providing financial and logistical support to the spies with the aim of spreading chaos in Balochistan, and Pakistan as a whole.

The home minister said that it was the responsibility of the Foreign Office now to raise the issue with Afghan government.

Stating that Pakistan wants to foster brotherly relations with Afghanistan, he pointed that if the NDS continues with its subversive activities, then it would be very hard to do so.

He also cautioned the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the occasion to control his intelligence service, saying that relations between the two nations could deteriorate if such activities continue.

Bugti also stressed Pakistan had housed refugees from across the border with "utmost respect" but it was time that to head back to their country.

He also said that Indian and Afghan intelligence were involved in destabilizing the country.

"In our opinion, law and order is suffering because of them (Afghan refugees), and the NDS and RAW are using them to destabilise Pakistan, by destabilising Balochistan," he said .

"NDS is a satellite organisation of RAW, and a very close nexus exists between the two," he added.