According to official reports, Indian authorities arrested a junior Indian diplomat posted in Islamabad on a charge of spying for Pakistan while she was on an official trip to New Delhi.

The Hindu newspaper has reported that the diplomat, identified as Madhuri Gupta, a Second Secretary in the information wing of the Indian embassy in Islamabad, was brought before a court Monday and ordered held in police custody for five days.

It was reported that Gupta, an expert in Urdu, which is widely spoken in Pakistan, had been working at the Indian embassy as a translator for two years and had been under surveillance by Indian authorities for some time.

An Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman, adding the arrested diplomat was cooperating with authorities, said, "We have reason to believe that an official at the Indian (embassy) in Islamabad had been passing on information to Pakistan intelligence agencies. The matter is currently under investigation."

It was reported by the Press Trust of India that Gupta was alleged to have passed on to Pakistani spy agencies information taken from one of her senior diplomats. Pakistan's Dawn newspaper quoted Indian officials as saying Gupta, 53, was suspected of handing over classified documents to Pakistan's ISI intelligence service. (With Inputs from Agencies)