30 Pakistanis 'smuggled' into India

India has smuggled out 30 Pakistani prisoners from northern Afghanistan to use them as tools in propaganda against Pakistan, intelligence officials here said yesterday.

The Pakistanis were taken aboard two helicopters to a Russian base in Tajikistan from where they were flown to India last week, they said.

Indian agents secured custody of the prisoners from Afghan captors in return for heavy payment, according to the officials who did not identify the place where and the group with which the deal was made. "The Indians will use the men in Kashmir where they will be killed in fake encounters from time to time and shown as infiltrators from Pakistan or projected as fighters arrested by Indian security forces," an intelligence official said.

The sources said a report on the matter had been submitted to the government and it was expected to draw the attention of the government in Kabul to the Indian plot.

Some 3,000 Pakistanis captured in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban government in November had been released and repatriated in the past few months. Hundreds of others are still in jails in Afghanistan, mostly in northern region where many are believed to be in the captivity of local commanders.