Has Pakistan’s army been using popular actors as honey traps to entice politicians? That’s the latest controversy raging in the neighbouring country after a retired military officer claimed that the force was using women as ‘seductive spies’ to blackmail politicians.
The issue garnered even more attention after actors Sajal Ali, Kubra Khan and Mehwish Hayat shot down the allegations. The 28-year-old Ali, who starred with Sridevi in the 2017 movie Mom, said: “It is very sad that our country is becoming morally debased and ugly.”
What’s this latest controversy all about? Here’s what we know so far.
The honey trap row
On Monday, Adil Raja, a former spokesperson for Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society and retired Army major, alleged that the country’s powerful establishment, including top army officers, use popular Pakistani actors and models as honey traps.
Now retired and based in London, Major Raja claimed in a video post that retired Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and General Faiz Hameed used top actors as bait to record scandalous videos of politicians and some other people.
While he refused to share the names of the actresses and the models, the retired major said the women’s initials are MH, MK and SA. He further alleged the women used to stay in Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI) safe houses.
Reactions pour in from all over
Major Raja’s (retired) allegations haven’t gone down well. Sajal Ali, who is believed to be one of the actors who is being used by the establishment, hit back at the claims and posted on Twitter that the claims were nothing short of character assassination.
Kubra Khan, who has also been dragged into the controversy, has responded by saying that she will take action against him. In an Instagram story she wrote, “I stayed quiet initially because obviously a fake video isn’t going to take over my existence But ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
“Apko lagta hai ke koi random log mujhe pe behte bithaye ungli uthayenge aur main chup behtoongi toh apki soch hai. So Mr Adil Raja before you start to heap allegations upon people have some proof first.”
She asked Adil Raja to come up with proof within three days or apologise publicly.
She added, “Don’t worry, lucky for you I’m not just from here I am from UK, so I’ll come there if I have too! Cause main sach pe hoon, main haq pe hoon aur main kisi ke baap se nai darti.“
Mehwish Hayat, who is believed to be the MH mentioned in the video, also slammed the allegations and said that this had to stop. “Shame on you for spreading baseless allegations and insinuations about someone you know nothing about and even bigger shame on people who blindly believe this bullshit,” Hayat wrote on Instagram.
Kubra Khan is one of the Pakistan actors who has been dragged into the latest row. Image Courtesy: thekubism/Instagram
Pakistan’s use of honey traps
Pakistan has long been using women as honey traps, especially against India and its officials within the establishment.
In November last year, a driver working with the Ministry of External Affairs was arrested in Delhi on espionage charges. It was later revealed that he had been honey-trapped and had passed on confidential information to a person in Pakistan. In a similar case, 24-year-old Indian Army jawan Shantimay Rana was arrested in July for allegedly leaking military information to Pakistan. He was allegedly honey-trapped by a Pakistani woman for leaking information related to the Indian Army.
Rana later divulged that he was in touch with the female Pakistani agent through WhatsApp chat, video and audio messages for a long time. The woman had described herself as a resident of Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and told him that she worked there in the Military Engineering Services. She then had asked for confidential documents, photographs, videos of manoeuvres from Rana.
In June 2019 there was also the infamous case of ‘Sejal Kapoor’ who had hacked into the computers of more than 98 personnel of various defence forces, including the Indian Army. She had used the oldest trick of showing the personnel videos and pictures and inserted malware into their systems and was able to extract information on the BrahMos missile programme.
Additional Director General of police (security), S Sengathir, was quoted as telling Hindustan Times that there have been several cases of Pakistan Intelligence operatives, especially women, getting in touch with defence personnel and civilians.
The Indian Army has described honey trapping as a weapon of hybrid warfare and issued strict rules on the use of technology and also ordered soldiers to remove Facebook, Instagram and other dating apps such as Tinder and such from their phones.
The most famous example of a honey trap is the Mata Hari case from World War I. AFP
History of honey traps
Honey trapping — the use of romantic or sexual relationships to get information out of a target — has long been used in the world of espionage. Spies across the world have used sex or the promise of it to entrap people and gain valuable information from them.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term first entered the English language through Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the 1974 spy novel by John le Carr?. “You see, long ago when I was a little boy I made a mistake and walked into a honeytrap,” confesses one of the more decrepit characters in the novel.
Though the term entered the dictionary in 1974, the practice dates back to the 15th Century. History shows that Antonio Di Lando, a low-level official in Venice, had shared confidential information with his lover, Laura Troyolo, during a passionate night in bed. Little did he know that Troyolo had hidden another paramour, Hironimo Amai, under the bed in order to catch Di Lando sharing his secrets.
Also read: From Mata Hari to Markus Wolf: A look at how honey traps are used in espionage
Since then, honey trapping has been regularly used and perhaps the most famous example of a honey trap is the Mata Hari case from World War I. Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan, who became popular as Mata Hari, her stage name. She was convicted of being a German spy based on intercepted telegrams which showed that she was receiving money from a German attache in Spain, and eventually executed by a firing squad in France in 1917.
The Soviet Union too used honey trapping extensively. British journalist and historian Donald McCormick in his book, Spyclopedia: The Comprehensive Handbook of Espionage, wrote that during the Cold War, female agents called “Mozhno girls” or simply “Mozhnos” were assigned to spy on foreign officials by seducing them.
India’s most famous case of honey trapping came in the 1987 when K V Unnikrishnan, a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer, was arrested for leaking information. Investigations had shown that the officer, then working as the head of the Chennai division of RAW and dealing with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was honey trapped by a woman suspected of being a Central Intelligence Agency operative. She was working as an air hostess with the now-defunct Pan Am Airlines.
With inputs from agencies
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