He only traded cloth: Family of UP man held for ISI links claims innocence

Rampur (UP): The family of Shahzad, a Rampur resident arrested by Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force (STF) on suspicion of spying for Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence, maintains he is innocent and was engaged only in the cross-border cloth trade.

"He is blameless; they are calling him guilty without reason. I want him released, our child and I have no support," said Shahzad's wife Raziya.

She claimed that her husband had "gone to Pakistan only once or twice" to buy garments that he later sold in local markets.

Raziya added that she had "no idea" of any link between him and the ISI.

She said that STF personnel had taken Shahzad from their home in the Tanda area here at about 8 pm on Saturday.

According to her account, Shahzad had earlier told the family he was going to Lucknow and would return the same evening.

"When I called, he first said he was in Moradabad and would be back in a couple of hours; later he said he was on his way to Lucknow, and after that the line went dead," she said.

Shahzad's mother Noor Jahan also disputed the espionage allegation, stating that her son's work involved buying clothes at the Attari border and reselling them.

"He might have been to Lahore three or four times, always on a legitimate visa," she said. "With trade through Attari now closed, he had begun selling blankets and sometimes drove a hired vehicle for income." The suspect's grandmother, also named Noor Jahan, echoed the family's position: "If you asked me under oath, I would still say the boy's only business was transporting passengers to Attari at night, bringing back cloth in the morning and selling it here.

He never did anything wrong." The UP STF on Sunday said that Shahzad was detained by its Moradabad unit after "credible inputs" indicated he had been passing sensitive information to Pakistan and smuggling goods such as cosmetics, clothes and spices.

He travelled to Pakistan several times over the years and was allegedly smuggling cosmetics, clothes, spices, and other items across the border, the agency alleged.