From underworld routes to Instagram recruits: A terror network unravelled
Indian security agencies say they have uncovered a hideous plot hatched by Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), aimed at a calculated revival of the 1993 Mumbai blasts model. This is a lethal fusion of Mumbai underworld logistics and modern digital radicalisation, orchestrated through two key proxies, Munna Jhingada, a fugitive Dawood Ibrahim aide, and Shahzad Bhatti, a Pakistan-based gangster-turned-social media influencer. Together, they are accused of building sleeper cells, smuggling arms, and plotting targeted violence to sow chaos across Indian cities.
Recent arrests by the Delhi Police Special Cell, the UP ATS, and the NIA have exposed the network, with nine operatives arrested in a May 2026 multi-state operation.
Munna Jhingada, born Sayyad Muzzakkir Muddasar Hussain in Mumbai’s Jogeshwari, began, agencies say, as Chhota Shakeel’s shooter in the 1990s, leaving a trail of murders and mayhem. He fled to Pakistan via Nepal in 1999, settling in Karachi under Dawood’s wing. After a failed attempt to hit rival Chhota Rajan in Bangkok and 17 years in a Thai jail, he resurfaced as a logistics figure. Today, agencies say Jhingada funnels money through hawala, coordinates arms drops, and links up with Mumbai remnants via proxies like Nepali national Ang Kami Lama, nabbed in the latest raids.
Shahzad Bhatti, the Pakistan Punjab gangster who, they say, reinvented himself as a social media star under handles like ‘333’. With a rap sheet back home for theft, robbery, and other crimes, Bhatti fled to Dubai around 2015, linked up with Balochistan syndicates, and built an online following with hostile rants against India. Indian security agencies identify him as an ISI asset, backed by handlers like Abid Jatt, Ajmal Gujjar, and Yawar Khan.
His target, they say, is to radicalise vulnerable Indian youth, poor, jobless, and gullible, via Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube.
Bhatti offers cash, visas and investigators say, draws them into reconnaissance, grenade attacks, and assassinations. After strikes, recruits are ordered to scrawl “TTH” (his fake “Tehreek-e-Taliban Hindustan” front) and ‘S’ for Shahzad on walls to claim the attacks. Bhatti has also boasted online, they say, about incidents like hurling a grenade at Jallandhar-based influencer Roger Sandhu’s house and the Punjab cop killings.
Sources in Indian security agencies say the Jhingada-Bhatti axis is a highly dangerous synergy. Jhingada supplies the guns, cash, and street muscle, while Bhatti delivers the recruits and propaganda. Together, they are described as ISI’s cheaper, deniable upgrade on old terror outfits like LeT and JeM, blending 1990s underworld logistics with 2020s influencer warfare. According to investigators, ISI had planned to target Delhi temples, Hisar army camps, Delhi-Sonipat dhabas, police stations, and crowded markets. Their goal was mass bloodshed and communal riots aimed at eroding faith in security forces.
Delhi Police’s 17-day operation in May 2026 put the brakes on this network. Across three states, eight suspects were arrested, including UP’s Vijay ‘Shooter, Jharkhand’s Nitish Paswan, and Punjab youths. Investigators say Nepali Lama, the ninth, exposed Jhingada’s direct pipeline. Seizures included four Pakistan-made hand grenades, two Glocks with 24 rounds, stolen vehicles, and videos that allegedly scouted hospitals, political offices, and paramilitary bases. Intense crackdowns in UP, Punjab, and Haryana led to the tracking of over 500 suspicious social media handles and numbers.
Security agencies describe it as Pakistan’s full-spectrum hybrid assault, exploiting every Indian fault line while hiding behind deniability. ISI, officials say, pumps narcotics and arms to fund the slaughter, radicalises the line, and reactivates D-Company ghosts to keep India bleeding without triggering all-out retaliation.
Bhatti moves freely from Pakistan, spewing threats at Indian leaders and celebs while his network floods the country with death. India is hitting back hard. Coordinated raids, digital hunts, and de-radicalisation are dismantling modules nationwide. But the Jhingada-Bhatti hydra proves one ugly truth: as long as Pakistan shelters these terrorists, new heads will keep sprouting.
