Lucknow: Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) has widened its net in Uttar Pradesh (UP) during the last year and is active in almost half of the districts in the state, according to senior police officials of the state.

There are reports of the agency being active in 34 out of 70 districts of the state as against only 22 districts just a year back, Director General of Police (DGP) Radhey Shyam Shukla said.

The DGP refused to identify these districts for 'security reasons', but 'all the UP districts bordering Nepal have been declared sensitive', a senior police official disclosed.

Few districts in Central UP including Kanpur, Bareilly and Moradabad have been added in this list, police sources said.

ISI has changed its operational style after the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu and was now using Bangladesh border for infiltration, unlike earlier when it used to operate through the porous Indo-Nepal border and had recruited agents, the sources added.

Intelligence agencies came to know the new route following arrest of two ISI agents in Kanpur who revealed that their Pak-based contacts were operating through Guwahati.

PTI