ISLAMABAD, April 18: This is the second incident in the last two months in which a local official of an embassy was caught gathering information from the families of the missing persons.

Previously, local staff of Canadian and Australian high commissions was arrested for the same reason.

A police officer said intelligence agency operatives on Wednesday spotted a stranger moving around the camp of the missing persons families at the National Press Club and was seen interacting with them. They mounted surveillance which revealed that the stranger was gathering information about the missing persons.

They called the police which took the man into their custody and shifted him to Kohsar police station. During interrogation he introduced himself as Rafaqat Hussain, a security guard at the Swedish embassy in Islamabad.

He told the police that he was collecting information for the embassy on the direction of his supervisor. The investigators are verifying the status and the statement of the guard, a police officer said.

He said when the embassy was approached an official said the security guard was asked to gather information about the protests in the city to avoid movements of embassy officials in troubled areas.

The police said he was likely to be booked under PPC 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 124-A (sedition).