Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence has voiced its opposition to the laying of the optical fibre link between India and Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency — the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has voiced its opposition to the ongoing laying of the optical fibre link between India and Pakistan, saying Indian experts were capable of grabbing Pakistan’s vital and sensitive information through the link.
According to a senior official of the communication ministry in Islamabad, in a recent letter to Secretary Information Technology, the ISI has opposed the Indo-Pak fibre cable link project, arguing that this can inflict huge injury on Pakistan’s vital national interests. The letters says there should be no compromise on national security while allowing private telecom companies to establish direct links between India and Pakistan by laying optical fibre cables.
In the absence of signal intelligence, says the letter, the Indian intelligence networks will be able to deliver faster terror executions with more devastation. The letter says that the Intelligence Bureau also supports the contention of the ISI that the laying of the fibre link between the two nuclear armed neighbours could prove counter productive.
Secretary Information Technology Farrukh Qayyum said that the International Long Distance (ILD) service providers in Pakistan can pass the commercial traffic on the terrestrial optical fibre system only after obtaining clearance from the security agencies. However, he claimed that the government would go ahead with the Indo-Pak optic fibre project, but not without alleviating the concerns of the intelligence agencies.
The Secretary IT said the laying of the optical fibre link was primarily meant to upgrade the existing communication link between India and Pakistan. Both the countries have the copper wire link for telephonic contacts, which is being updated now, the official said, and added that on the part of Pakistan, the laying of work has almost been completed. He conceded that there is some delay on the part of India which is most likely to complete the work within two to three months.
An official of the Communication Ministry said the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited had inked an MoU with the Indian telecom giants Reliance Infocomm, VSNL and Bharti Tele Ventures for establishing a telecommunication link deploying Terrestrial Optical Fibre Cable System between the two countries.
He said Pakistan had shown interest in developing optical fibre link with India ever since the internet services were disrupted across the country last year due to snapping of an international undersea cable.
“It will be a very cost effective operation for providing quality voice communication between the two countries and the project is being taken up keeping in mind the future traffic requirements,” the official said.
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