Bombay blasts case: Nepal's link with anti-India espionage activities

Asad Bajwa at the Karnali Hotel reception, an ISI base for over two yearsIncreasingly, Bajwa is a name that Indian officialdom looks at with suspicion. It has an uncanny knack of being associated with anti-India espionage activities.Last month, Mohammed Afzal Bajwa, a member of staff at the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi, was expelled from India for spying. From Lahore, Brigadier Anis Bajwa, chief of staff of Corps Headquarters, was in constant touch with Asad Bajwa in Kathmandu, who worked in a hotel. Top Nepali government sources say Asad, who has visited India at least once, is a relative of the brigadier and that the Karnali Hotel was, for over two years, the centre of ISI activities against India from Nepal. In March 1992, Pakistani film producer Shaukat Ali persuaded the Nepalese owner, Meena Raj Bhandari, to lease the 29-room hotel for Rs 1.8 lakh a month to Raja Irfanullah and Zahida Awan, posing as a Pakistani couple. They recruited Asad Bajwa as a chef, but he acted more like a boss. In less than a year, Bhandari began to have doubts for it had become known that the hotel was being used by the ISI. Regulars at the hotel included Gul Rehman, political secretary at the Pakistan Embassy, and Third Secretary Imtiaz, apart from known ISI operatives, forcing the Nepalese authorities to crack down on the hotel and detain Irfanullah. He was let off on a guarantee from Imtiaz. The Government then revoked their licence to run the hotel, and Bhandari regained its possession in May. It is now back in business. Subsequently, the Nepalese authorities withdrew their permission to Pakistani groups to run hotels and resorts in the country. A frequent vistor to Nepal, Shaukat Ali's friends included, besides top Nepali businessmen, Mirza Dilshad Beg, a member of Nepal's dissolved House of Representatives who allegedly has close links with Dawood Ibrahim and was instrumental in procuring a Nepali passport for his aide, Babloo Srivastava. As a chartered accountant, Yakub Memon was well equipped to explore business prospects in Nepal. "We have definite clues that he discussed his entry into the hotel and tourism business during his visit here," a top government official said. But he underestimated the security apparatus at the Tribhuvan International Airport. Something he will rue for the rest of his life.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 30, 1999--- ENDS ---

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Bombay blasts case: Nepal's link with anti-India espionage activities

Mohammed Afzal Bajwa, a member of staff at the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi, was expelled from India for spying. From Lahore, Brigadier Anis Bajwa, chief of staff of Corps Headquarters, was in constant touch with Asad Bajwa in Kathmandu, who worked in a hotel.

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