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| Inter-Services Intelligence activities in India | |
|---|---|
| Location | India |
| Planned by | Inter-Services Intelligence |
| Target | India |
| Date | 1948—present |
TheInter-Services Intelligence (ISI), intelligence agency ofPakistan has been involved in runningmilitary intelligence programs in India, with one of the subsections of its Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB) department devoted to perform various operations in India.[1] The Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB) department has also been involved in providing communications support to Pakistani agents operating inIndian-administered Kashmir.[1] The Joint Intelligence North section of the Joint Counter-Intelligence Bureau (JCIB) wing deals particularly with India.[2] In the 1950s the ISI's Covert Action Division was alleged for supplied arms toinsurgents in Northeast India.[1][3]
India has also accused the ISI of reinvigorating separatism and insurgencies in the country via support topro-Khalistan militant groups such as theInternational Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), in order to destabilize India.[4][5] A report by India'sIntelligence Bureau (IB) indicated that ISI was "desperately trying to revive Sikh" militant activity in India.[6] The ISI is also allegedly active in printing and supplyingcounterfeitIndian rupee notes.[7]
The ISI was created after theIndo-Pakistani War of 1947, due to theMilitary Intelligence of Pakistan's (MI) weak performance.[8] WhenZia-ul-Haqseized power in July 1977, he started his K2 (Kashmir and Khalistan) strategy, initiatingOperation Tupac.[9] He gave ISI the duty to make Jammu and Kashmir a part of Pakistan, and to send insurgents to Punjab.[9] The intelligence agency's aims are to confoundIndian Muslims usingKashmiri Muslims, extend the ISI network in India, cultivate insurgents and insurgent groups, cause attacks similar to the1993 Bombay bombings in other cities, and create a state of insurgency in Muslim-dominated regions.[10] The ISI has allegedly set up bases inNepal andBangladesh, which are used for operations in North-East India.[10]
About 24 millionruppes are paid out per month by the ISI, in order to fund its activities inJammu and Kashmir.[1]Pro-Pakistani groups were reportedly favored over other militant groups.[1] Creation of six militant groups in Kashmir, which includedLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was aided by the ISI.[11][12] According to American Intelligence officials, ISI is still providing protection and help to LeT.[12] ThePakistan Army and ISI also LeT volunteers surreptitiously penetrate fromPakistan Administrated Kashmir to Jammu and Kashmir.[13] As of 2010, the degree of control that ISI retains over LeT's operations is not known.[14] The LeT was also reported to have been directed by the ISI to widen its network in the Jammu region where a considerable section of the populace comprised Punjabis.[15]
The1993 Mumbai bombings were a series of 13 bomb explosions that took place in Bombay (nowMumbai), Maharashtra, India on Friday, 12 March 1993. The coordinated attacks were the most destructive bomb explosions in Indian history. The single-day attacks resulted in over 250 fatalities and 1,200 injuries.[16]
The attacks were coordinated byDawood Ibrahim,[17] don of the Mumbai-based internationalorganised crime syndicate namedD-Company.[18][19]
Ibrahim is believed to have ordered and helped organise the bombings in Mumbai, through one of his subordinates,Tiger Memon. The bombings are also believed to have been financially assisted by the expatriate Indian smugglers, Hajji Ahmed, Hajji Umar and Taufiq Jaliawala, as well as the Pakistani smugglers, Aslam Bhatti and Dawood Jatt. The Indian authorities have also alleged the involvement of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, in the blasts.[19] On 16 June 2017 giving its verdict in the 1993 Mumbai bomb-blast case, a Special Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act court pronounced gangster Mustafa Dossa and Firoz Khan guilty of conspiracy. The charges can draw the punishment of the death penalty. Accused Abu Salem also got convicted under charges of conspiracy and terror activities.
ISI was accused of planning the2006 Mumbai train bombings and the Indian government said that the ISI, LeT andSIMI plan the attacks.[20]
Zabiuddin Ansari, a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant accused for his involvement in the2008 Mumbai attacks, said that ISI andPakistani army officials were involved in planning the attacks and had attended the meetings.[21] An Indian report, summarising intelligence gained from India's interrogation ofDavid Headley,[22] alleged that ISI had provided support for the attacks by providing funding for reconnaissance missions in Mumbai.[23] The report included Headley's claim that Lashkar-e-Taiba's chief military commander,Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, had close ties to the ISI.[22] He alleged that "every big action of LeT is done in close coordination with [the] ISI."[23]
In 2012 Pakistani civilian security agencies told Pakistan courts that "suspects in the Mumbai attacks case got training at various centres of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant organisation, including navigational training in Karachi" & "suspects, who allegedly participated in the attacks, were trained at the LeT training centres at Yousaf Goth in Karachi, Buttle in Mansehra, Mirpur Sakro in Thatta and Muzaffarabad"[24]
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The ISI has been printing counterfeitIndian rupee notes, which are believed to be printed inMuzaffarabad.[25] In January 2000, the Nepal police raided Wasim Saboor's house, who was an official of thePakistani embassy ofKathmandu.[26] They found fifty thousand Indian rupee notes, each of ₹50 denomination.[26]
On 29 January 2014, a special court of theNational Investigation Agency (NIA) convicted six individuals in a case related to the printing and distribution of fake Indian currency notes, marking the first court ruling to officially attribute involvement to Pakistan.[27]
According to Indian intelligence sources in 2025, ISI was allegedly complicit in facilitating the financial operations ofJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) by enabling the group’s shift from traditional banking channels to digital wallet platforms such as EasyPaisa and SadaPay. While Pakistan presented measures to curb JeM’s funding to theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF), including the freezing of bank accounts and restrictions on cash donations, reports suggested that ISI allowed JeM to continue fundraising through a parallel system of mobile wallets that remained outside formal financial oversight.[28][29]
Pakistan-based gangsters like Shahzad Bhatti have allegedly received support from the ISI to fuel terror activities in Indian Punjab. According to Indian agencies, Bhatti has been involved in a range of activities including masterminding a grenade attack on a police station inGurdaspur, directing weapons and explosive consignments, recruiting vulnerable youth through online offers of money and promises of being settled in the United States, and coordinating operations with associates abroad, with multiple arrests in Delhi and Punjab in 2025 linking his network to additional planned strikes.[30]
In 2023, Labhshankar Duryodhan Maheshwari, a 53-year-old man of Pakistani origin who had been residing in India as a citizen for 17 years, was arrested on charges of espionage. He was accused of assisting Pakistani agents in obtaining an Indian SIM card, which was allegedly used to hack the mobile phones of children of Indian defense personnel studying in army schools, according to local media reports.[31][32]
On 4 February 2024, Satendra Siwal, an employee at the Indian embassy in Moscow, was arrested in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, on charges of espionage for allegedly providing classified information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). According to the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad, Siwal had been sharing confidential military information in exchange for financial incentives and was booked under the Official Secrets Act.[31]
On 13 May 2025, India declared Mohammad Ehsan Ur Rahim, a staff member at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, persona non grata for allegedly engaging in activities inconsistent with his diplomatic status, specifically espionage-related conduct.[33][34] Additional details regarding the expulsion emerged after 17 May, following the arrest of an Indian YouTuber, identified as Jyoti Malhotra, who was allegedly involved in the case.[35] Rahim had reportedly established contact with Malhotra in 2023 and maintained communication during the brief2025 India-Pakistan conflict. Over time, Rahim is alleged to have cultivated Malhotra as an asset by introducing her to individuals linked to Pakistani intelligence and facilitating her visit to Pakistan, where she reportedly met intelligence officials.[36][37][38]
In June 2025, the Amritsar Rural Police, in a major intelligence-based operation, apprehended two individuals—Gurpreet Singh alias Gopy Foji and Sahil Masih alias Shali—on suspicion of involvement in espionage activities linked to ISI. According toPunjab Police, preliminary investigations revealed that Gurpreet Singh had been in direct contact with ISI operatives and was suspected of transmitting sensitive and confidential information using pen drives. The key ISI handler in the case was identified as Rana Javed. Authorities seized two mobile phones reportedly used to communicate with ISI contacts. The arrests were part of a broader effort to dismantle an espionage and terror network with cross-border links.[39]
In December 2025,Itanagar police arrested two men from Jammu and Kashmir’sKupwara district, Nazir Ahmad Malik and Sabir Ahmed Mir, after discovering that they had repeatedly traveled throughArunachal Pradesh posing as clothes sellers while allegedly collecting and transmitting information on Army movements and military installations to Pakistani handlers via a Telegram channel named "Al-Aqsa."[40][41]
In January 2026, authorities arrested a contractor from Ambala in Haryana for allegedly attempting to pass on defence-related information to Pakistani handlers. He was allegedly honey-trapped and kept contact with the Pakistan-based module for nearly seven months.[42][43]
Officials suggest that ISI has a deliberate strategy to target young and impressionable individuals, especially minors who'd be a soft target for digital grooming before turning them into a state asset. The narco-terror groups targeted vulnerable individuals along the border via social media chat rooms. For example, in January 2026, Punjab Police arrested a minor from Pathankot for allegedly leaking defence-related and national security information to Pakistan. The juvenile was contacted through social media by handlers linked to Pakistan’s ISI and associated groups and was emotionally manipulated into sharing details about sensitive security installations.[44][45][46] Around this time, about 37 minors were under scanner over this kind of exploitation. According to officials, "unconventional apps" are used for brainwashing and target devices are cloned via malicious links for extracting information.[47]
One of the key methods involve employment of fakeFacebook accounts for "honey-trapping" and VoIP calls that help concealing the country code. Countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia have been used as intermediaries for such calls. The Anti-Terror Squad ofUttar Pradesh Police once caught 125 fake profiles of women incorporated for such an endeavor.[48]
Meta, in its May 2023 adversarial threat report, indicated a Pakistan-linked hacking group, active since 2015 and associated with GravityRAT spyware, targeted military personnel in India through extensive social engineering, using fake personas such as women, recruiters, journalists and military staff to trick victims into clicking malicious links or installing seemingly benign apps; Meta noted that this approach enabled the group to use low-sophistication malware effectively.[49]
Hacking groups are also central to such operations.APT 36, also known as Transparent Tribe and "SideCopy," a Pakistan-linked APT group, is alleged to have conducted cyber espionage in India and Afghanistan.[50] An advanced spyware called DeskRAT was utilized for attempts made on Indian government and military networks.[51]
After the2025 India-Pakistan conflict, it was reported by Maharashtra Cyber that 7 APT groups from Pakistan attempted 1.5 million cyberattacks on Indian critical infrastructure but only about 150 succeeded roughly translating to a failure rate above 99%. APT 36 among other groups such as "Pakistan Cyber Force", Team Insane PK, Mysterious Bangladesh, Indo Hacks Sec, Cyber Group HOAX 1337, and National Cyber Crew were held collectively responsible for these attempts.[52]
In November 2025, Pakistan-based intelligence operatives reportedly attempted to lure CAPF officers by impersonating senior officials, technical staff, or acquaintances onWhatsApp, engaging them in conversation for several days before sharing a fraudulent group-joining link presented as an official or personal channel; once an officer joined, the link enabled the installation of Trojan-type malware that provided remote access to the device and its WhatsApp groups, allowing the infiltrators to covertly add unknown numbers to multiple communication channels and harvest sensitive information.[53]
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