An unusual pattern of online chatter intercepted by the Indian Army has led to the detention of a Chinese national who travelled through Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir without mandatory permissions, officials said on Sunday.
The individual, identified as Hu Congtai, 29, arrived in New Delhi on November 19 on a tourist visa allowing visits only to Buddhist religious sites in Varanasi, Agra, New Delhi, Jaipur, Sarnath, Gaya, and Kushinagar. However, the officials said Hu violated visa conditions almost immediately.
On November 20, leveraging his resemblance to local residents, he boarded a flight to Leh without registering at the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) desk at the airport. During his stay, he explored the Zanskar region for three days and visited several significant locations before flying to Srinagar on December 1.
Authorities became suspicious after a review of his phone history revealed searches related to CRPF deployments in the Kashmir Valley. He had also acquired an Indian SIM card from the open market. Multiple security agencies are currently questioning him.
In Srinagar, Hu stayed at an unregistered guest house and visited a Buddhist site in Harwan—an area where a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant was killed in an encounter last year. Data extracted from his devices also confirmed his visit to the Awantipur ruins in South Kashmir, located near the Victor Force headquarters of the Indian Army.
During his time in the region, Hu travelled to several prominent locations in Srinagar, including Shankaracharya Hill, Hazratbal, and the Mughal Gardens surrounding Dal Lake. His phone activity also included searches related to Article 370, which was revoked in August 2019 to remove Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status.
Hu, who holds a physics degree from Boston University, claimed he is an avid traveller. His passport shows extensive travel history including visits to the United States, New Zealand, Brazil, Fiji, and Hong Kong.
Officials said that while no direct evidence of espionage has been established so far, Hu clearly violated visa regulations. The most likely course of action, they added, would be to deport him to China after the questioning is complete.
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