Berlin,apr 10: An Indian married couple accused of spying on Germany’s Sikh community and Kashmir movement have been charged with espionage, German prosecutors announced on Tuesday. They named the suspects only as 50-year-old Manmohan S and his wife Kanwal Jit K, 51, in keeping with German privacy rules for defendants.”Manmohan S agreed by January 2015 at the latest to provide information about Germany’s Sikh community and Kashmir movement and their relatives to an employee of the Indian foreign intelligence service Research & Analysis Wing,” they said in a statement.His wife joined him in monthly meetings with the Indian intelligence officer between July and December 2017, and in total the couple were paid 7,200 euros (USD 8,100) for their work. The charges, which can carry up to 10 years’ jail in serious cases, were laid on March 28 but only publicised Tuesday by the federal prosecution service in the city of Karlsruhe.

Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that Pakistan had opted for a “measured response” to India’s February 26 air strikes by bombing an empty area just across the Indian border.

During an informal chat with a group of foreign journalists, Khan said that he was awakened by a phone call at 3.30 a.m. on February 26 when a Pakistani military official informed him that Indian warplanes had just crossed the border and conducted strikes on Pakistani soil.

Pakistan opted for a “measured response” and bombed an empty area just across the Indian border, he said.

“They hit our trees, so we thought we would hit their stones,” The New York Times quoted Prime Minister Khan as saying. He was talking to the journalists upon completion of his first eight months in office.

As a “peace gesture”, he had announced the release of Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in Pakistan Parliament on February 28.

The Wing Commander was held captive by Pakistani authorities on February 27 after his MiG 21 Bison went down during a beyond visual range combat with Pakistani jets.

Before his plane was hit, Varthaman shot down an F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force. He was released by Pakistan on March 1.

According to the newspaper, Prime Minister Khan seemed quite cognisant that the last thing Pakistan wanted was a war.

The Indian Air Force had hit a terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan on February 26 in retaliation to February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF soldiers lost their lives. The responsibility for the Pulwama attack was claimed by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

On the threat from Paris-based Financial Action Task Force to blacklist and sanction Pakistan, Prime Minister Khan said, “We can’t afford to be blacklisted.”

The Task Force, a global agency, takes measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.