Pakistan printing fake Indian currency at Queta

NEW DELHI: A Pakistani government printing press in the city of Quetta is reportedly churning out large quantities of counterfeit Indian currency.         

The rupee notes are then smuggled into India as "part of Pakistan's agenda of destabilising the Indian economy through fake currency," an Indian daily said.    

The notes are "supplied by the Pakistan government press free of cost to Dubai-based counterfeiters who, in turn, smuggle it into India using various means," the report said quoting a CBI note to Indian security agencies and the finance ministry.     

Pakistan's intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) allegedly plays an active role in the scam.   

The notes "are pushed into India by ISI through all possible channels using smugglers, underworld gangs, terrorists and general air/rail passengers".         

The Indian intelligence agency picked up the trail of the counterfeiters from interrogations of a Gulf-based bookmaker who was deported from Dubai to India.        

The Reserve Bank of India has estimated the amount of fake currency in circulation at almost 1.7 trillion rupees (37.5 billion dollars), the report said.              

Quetta is the capital of Pakistan's volatile southwestern Baluchistan province, where tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was recently killed in a government raid.         

The story came on the heels of a meeting in Cuba between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.          

The two leaders agreed to resume ministerial-level peace talks stalled in the wake of the deadly Mumbai bombings in July and to cooperate on fighting terrorism.