Lucknow, Dec 28 (IANS) Two Pakistani nationals were arrested here Thursday for alleged involvement in an espionage racket.

The two, identified as Mohammad Adil Anjum and Abdul Shakoor, were picked up by Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force (STF) from Qaiserbagh area in downtown Lucknow.

According to their confession, the duo were working for the Pakistani Army and were engaged in gathering vital information from the Lucknow-based Central Command headquarters of the Indian Army.

While Adil holds a degree in journalism and mass communication from Multan, Abdul began his career as a petty criminal in the same town, an STF spokesman told reporters.

Narrating his story before the media, Adil said Pakistani Army intelligence officials were taking undue advantage of the growing unemployment in the country and luring unemployed people into espionage.

"Even after obtaining a mass communications degree I remained unemployed, so when a Pakistani official offered to pay me Rs.10,000 a month, I readily agreed to do anything," he said.

"I was sent to India via Dhaka and Kathmandu in February 2005 and provided with an Indian passport as well as a PAN (permanent account number, for income tax) card and a driving licence," Adil said.

While STF found these documents to be fake, he had used them to procure a cell phone connection as well as to open a bank account. He had picked up small-time jobs here to cover his activities.

Abdul was recruited by the Pakistan Army intelligence in 2004 but sent to India in early 2006 with the brief to extract specific secrets from the Central Command headquarters here. He too received a monthly pay of Rs.10,000 plus expenses.

Police said STF had detained nearly a dozen agents of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) in the past one year.