ISI & TERRORS CONDUCTED BY PAKISTAN
JIHADIS & RECENT ARRESTS IN INDIA
SARASIJ MAJUMDER
Mohammad Hamim Mondal (also reported as Hamid Mandal) is an alleged operative of the Pakistan-based, banned terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). He was arrested on July 30, 2026, by a six-member team of the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) from a rented luxury apartment in Renaissance Township, Bardhaman. The STF states that Mondal was a key asset in an ISI-backed cross-border network tasked with conducting high-profile espionage, recruiting new sleeper cells, and plotting major terror operations across India.
Key Allegations and Terror Plots–Targeting Chief Minister Shuvendu Adhikari: Following his arrest, investigators recovered surveillance data, security schedules, and route maps detailing the movements of West Bengal Chief Minister Shuvendu Adhikari from Mondal’s phone. Cops suspect Mondal was conducting a recce to map out vulnerabilities for a potential targeted attack or assassination attempt.
The Jantar Mantar Infiltration Plot: According to STF Inspector General Gaurav Sharma, Mondal’s Pakistani handlers had instructed him to procure police uniforms. His objective was to infiltrate the ongoing student demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi disguised as a police officer to provoke large-scale violence, vandalism, and unrest. May be BOMB BLAST even.
The Pulwama Attack Connection: Intelligence agencies have identified Mondal as a close associate of Sajjad Bhat, who was a key conspirator and the logistical mastermind behind the vehicle used in the devastating 2019 Pulwama convoy bombing.
Covert Local Operation: To blend in locally and establish a front for his illegal operations, Mondal ran a tailoring/stitching shop at Pil Khana in Howrah. Investigators revealed this shop was a secret hideout used to safely coordinate with his cross-border handlers and local network recruits without drawing suspicion.
The Espionage and Honey-Trap Ring: Mondal allegedly masterminded an espionage sub-module by leveraging his four-year romantic relationship with 22-year-old Jharkhand-based social media influencer Arpita Sarkar.
VIP Targeting: Under Mondal’s grooming and direct orders from cross-border handlers, Sarkar used her lifestyle and digital profile to execute honey-trap operations targeting prominent individuals.
Abduction Plot: The network specifically targeted the son of a West Bengal Minister of State (identified in reports as Umesh Rai’s son) in a combined honey-trap and kidnapping conspiracy meant to extort information or compromise state security.
Information Gathering: Sarkar was used to extract compromising or sensitive personal details about political figures and BJP leaders, which she passed directly to Mondal to forward to Pakistan.
Technical Profile and Secure Operations: Mondal was heavily radicalized online via social media platforms. To keep his activities hidden from Indian intelligence, he utilized high-end communication tactics:
Shifting Applications: He initiated contacts using mainstream applications like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram, but quickly moved to heavily encrypted virtual private software to transmit critical operation mappings.
International Assets: The STF seized multiple global communication tools from his possession, including international SIM cards traceably registered in Great Britain and Mexico to mask IP locations.
Current Investigation Status: Following his capture, a West Bengal court remanded Mondal to 14 days of strict STF custody. The digital forensics teams are actively scanning his seized laptops, financial transactions, and multiple diaries. His interrogation has expanded the case significantly, leading to the subsequent arrests of his girlfriend Arpita Sarkar and at least two other network associates (including an individual named Peer Mohammad arrested in Kalimpong).
Arpita Sarkar is an aspiring 22-year-old social media influencer who was arrested by the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) in August 2026 for her alleged involvement in a Pakistan-linked terror module. Prior to her arrest, her digital presence primarily consisted of motorcycle riding videos, lifestyle content, and travel reels on Instagram, where she went by the nickname “Tina”.
Background and Educational Origins: She hails from the Gwar Khol village in the Barharwa area of the Sahibganj district in Jharkhand.
Education: She holds an English Honours undergraduate degree from BSK College in Barharwa.
Kolkata Ties: During her college years, she frequently traveled and stayed for extended periods at her maternal grandparents’ house in Kolkata. Investigators are heavily reviewing this travel pattern.
Alleged Terror Link & Arrest–The Relationship: Investigators state that she was in a four-year romantic relationship with Mohammad Hamim Mondal, an alleged operative of the banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). The Recruitment: Cops allege that Mondal introduced her to the network a few months prior to their capture. She subsequently began taking direct instructions via encrypted chat applications from Pakistani handlers.
Honey-Trap Operations: The West Bengal STF claims that she was “thoroughly involved” in a plot to honey-trap prominent individuals, including the son of a West Bengal state minister, to build operational contacts.
Current Status: Following Mondal’s arrest in Burdwan, she was tracked down and apprehended in Barharwa, Jharkhand. She has since been remanded to 13-day STF custody while digital forensics continue on her seized phones and communication records.
Peer Mohammad (also referred to as Pir Mohammed or alias Samir Da) is a suspected espionage operative linked to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Following a tip-off and intense electronic surveillance of encrypted chat apps, an STF team apprehended him at Murgihatta in Kalimpong. He was tracked down and arrested by the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) in Kalimpong, a hill resort city in North Bengal.
He has been identified as a third critical associate in the wider cross-border terror network involving Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) suspect Mohammad Hamim Mondal and influencer Arpita Sarkar.
Main Role and Mission–Monitoring the Chicken’s Neck: The STF claims Peer Mohammad’s core assignment from Pakistani military handlers was to monitor and supply information on Indian Army movements within the Siliguri Corridor (famously known as the “Chicken’s Neck”). This highly sensitive area is the narrow strip of land connecting India’s northeastern states to the rest of the country. North Bengal Base: Investigators state he intentionally embedded himself in the North Bengal hills because of the heavy presence of strategic Indian Army bases in the region.
Clandestine Surveillance: Two mobile phones and a laptop seized from his possession contained numerous photographs and video clips recording military vehicle movements and base infrastructure.
Cover Story and Local Network–The Loan Agent Front: To blend into the local community in Kalimpong without arousing suspicion, Peer Mohammad posed as a middleman or broker who helped local residents secure easy-installment financial loans.
Exploiting the Vibe: This occupation allowed him to freely strike up conversations, ask questions, move through the area unnoticed, and slowly expand a local informant network.
Fake Personas: Central intelligence agencies alerted the STF that he had been evading authorities across the state for a long duration by operating under multiple fake identity proofs.
Captured Material recovered: Strategic Maps: Outlining different logistical pockets and vulnerabilities across West Bengal.
Communication Assets: Multiple mobile devices, international or burner SIM cards, and a laptop.
Operational Diaries: Handwritten logs detailing his contacts, financial logs, and information parameters. Forensics are currently scanning these items to decode critical directives received directly from handles in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Part 1: Forensic Data Retrieved from Encrypted Chat Apps;
Following the arrests of Mohammad Hamim Mondal and Peer Mohammad, the STF and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) began a deep dive into the suspects’ digital footprints:
The Shift to “Session”: Investigators revealed that following the Indian government’s block on 14 encrypted messaging apps (like Element X), Mondal and Peer Mohammad switched to Session, a highly decentralized, metadata-minimizing privacy app.
Coded Operational Phrases: The retrieved logs show that the network heavily relied on specific code phrases to communicate with Pakistani handlers. For example, “LMN 10” was used to log the movement of illicit hawala funds via Nepal, while “How’s the Josh” was utilized to signify the successful movement or radicalization of new sleeper cell recruits.
Hawala & International Links: Forensic scans of Peer Mohammad’s two mobile phones and a laptop revealed a list of directly linked Pakistani phone numbers belonging to ISI and Pakistan Army handlers. The chats mapped out a financial trail showing he was funded directly through hawala networks operating across the porous Nepal border, which he had recently visited.
Geo-Tagged Military Visuals: Recovered metadata from the seized devices contained exact coordinate data and high-resolution photographs of various Indian Army camps and logistical convoy movement patterns across North Bengal.
Part 2: Siliguri Corridor Security Changes Following the Case: Because Peer Mohammad was actively collecting military intelligence on the 22km-wide “Chicken’s Neck”, India’s central and state authorities have rapidly pivoted from a defensive posture to a fortified gateway strategy:
High-Level Security Review: Union Home Minister Amit Shah personally chaired an urgent security and border management meeting in the region. Top officials—including the BSF Director General, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Director General, the Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and state police chiefs—convened to orchestrate a unified response.
Land Transfers to Central Agencies: In a major administrative shift, the newly formed West Bengal state administration under Chief Minister Shuvendu Adhikari cleared an expedited 45-day fast-track land transfer directly to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Border Security Force (BSF). This land will be used to construct new border outposts and plug remaining gaps in the India-Bangladesh border fence.
Strategic Highway Takeover: To ensure absolute military mobility, the state government handed over seven critical national highway stretches from the state PWD to central authorities (NHAI and NHIDCL). This includes NH-10 (the vital Sevak–Kalimpong alignment where Peer Mohammad operated) and NH-110 (the Siliguri–Darjeeling hill corridor), allowing the military to fortify and expand transit routes without state-level red tape.
AI-Powered Fencing: The BSF has begun deploying advanced, AI-powered smart border fencing and electronic surveillance grids along the adjacent riverine borders to automatically flag unusual movements and halt cross-border infiltration attempts permanently.
Aditya Singh (also operating under the aliases Raj or Raju) was arrested on August 3, 2026, by the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) from his family residence on Belilious Road in Howrah. His capture followed specific logistical leads squeezed out during the high-pressure interrogation of mastermind Mohammad Hamim Mondal and influencer Arpita Sarkar.
Unlike older operatives, Aditya Singh is a young, second-year undergraduate B.Com student at Umesh Chandra College. He lived a seemingly ordinary student lifestyle with his family in Howrah.
Gaming Platform Recruitment: STF cyber investigators have revealed that Singh initially established contact with Hamim Mondal through an online gaming platform. Mondal gradually radicalized him through private in-game chats before pulling him into the active espionage network.
Core Assignment: Surveillance of a State Minister: Singh served as a critical ground-level spotter and local asset for the module within the Howrah region. He was given a highly specific surveillance target:
Targeting Umesh Rai: He was tasked with actively monitoring the home and movements of West Bengal’s Minister of State for Urban Development, Umesh Rai (who represents the local Howrah Uttar constituency).
The Kidnapping & Honey-Trap Preparation: Singh used his mobile phone to photograph Minister Umesh Rai’s residence, personal vehicles, and daily routes. He was explicitly tracking the whereabouts of the Minister’s son.
Data Transmission: Singh compiled these operational photos and schedules and beamed them over to Mondal and Arpita Sarkar via a secret, encrypted social media application. This data was actively used by the network to finalize their high-profile honey-trap and abduction plot.
Direct Handlers Contact: Crucially, STF sources note that through Mondal’s routing, Singh had also been put into direct touch with Pakistani ISI handlers on multiple occasions to verify the surveillance imagery he provided.
Current Investigation Status: Following an overnight detention and formal arrest, Aditya Singh was presented before the Burdwan Court.
Because of the massive cross-border implications, a three-member team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has officially joined the West Bengal STF to cross-examine Singh, Mondal, and Sarkar simultaneously. They are focused on tracing cryptocurrency financial trails and tracking down other local college-aged sub-recruits whom Singh might have attempted to bring into the module.
Cryptocurrency transactions served as the financial backbone of this espionage ring, allowing cross-border handlers to seamlessly fund operations while bypassing traditional Indian banking oversight. The joint investigation by the West Bengal STF and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has mapped out specific technical channels used to move these illicit funds:
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Crypto Funneling Anonymized Layering: Pakistani ISI handlers used overseas digital wallets to purchase mainstream cryptocurrencies (predominantly Tether/USDT and Bitcoin) on international exchanges.
The P2P Exploitation: These digital assets were transferred to local Indian over-the-counter (OTC) crypto brokers via P2P (Peer-to-Peer) networks. The local brokers then converted the crypto into Indian Rupees (INR) and deposited the cash directly into local accounts or distributed it via hawala networks.
Funding Domestic Logistics: This money directly financed Hamim Mondal’s high-end rented apartment in Burdwan, Peer Mohammad’s travels through the Siliguri Corridor, and the operational electronics used by Arpita Sarkar and Aditya Singh.
- The “LMN 10” Crypto-Hawala Code–Digital Escrow Trailing: Forensic data pulled from the app Session revealed that the module utilized the specific coded phrase “LMN 10”.
Cross-Border Liquidation: This phrase was the confirmation trigger used between Mondal and handlers when a crypto transfer was successfully liquidated into physical cash across the Nepal-India border.
Peer Mohammad frequently traveled to these border pockets to physically collect the laundered money.
- Incentivizing Young Recruits–Micro-Transactions: To avoid triggering anti-money laundering alerts, handlers sent frequent, small-volume crypto transfers.
Gaming Wallet Routing: For younger, college-aged recruits like Aditya Singh, investigators are actively tracking if any financial tokens or crypto assets were transferred through online gaming wallets or specialized virtual marketplaces, masking terror-funding as casual in-game purchases.
Current Financial Crackdown: The NIA’s specialized financial intelligence unit has taken over the blockchain tracing aspect of the case. They are working directly with crypto exchanges to freeze the recipient wallets and identify the unique blockchain hashes linked to the Shahzad Bhatti network in Pakistan.
The Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN)—led by Pakistan-based influencer and gangster Shahzad Bhatti (known online as “333”)—has emerged as a dangerous “hybrid criminal-terror structure” backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).Operating primarily out of safe havens like the UAE, Bhatti utilizes a proxy platform called Tehreek-e-Taliban Hindustan (TTH) to merge gangland violence, drug trafficking, and active terrorism inside India. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and specialized state units have launched a massive, multi-state financial crackdown to dismantle how this network funds its operations.
- The Funding Mechanism: “Narco-Terrorism” and Crypto: According to central intelligence and state security agencies, the primary lifeline of Bhatti’s network relies on a seamless loop of illegal trades.
- The Drug and Arms Funnel: The network smuggles cross-border narcotics and weapons into India using drone drops and porous border routes.
- Liquidating into Terror Funds: The proceeds generated from selling these drugs in Indian markets are immediately diverted to finance active terror cells, pay local recruits, and buy logistics.
- Digital Escrows and QR Scans: To keep the money trail invisible to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the syndicate uses scanner-based anonymous digital payments, cryptocurrency wallets (USDT/Bitcoin), and traditional border hawala channels.
- Social Media Monetization & “Gig” Radicalization: A unique aspect of the Shahzad Bhatti network funding is how it treats sabotage like a freelancing economy: Targeting Impressionable Youth: Handlers track likes, comments, and interactions on glorifying criminal posts on Instagram and Telegram to find vulnerable youth.
- Micro-Payments for Tasks: Recruits are lured with small, quick financial payouts. For instance, operatives have confessed to receiving direct transfers of ₹5,000 via encrypted apps simply for taking reconnaissance videos of strategic sites.
- Large Bounties: For high-risk operations, like painting TTH propaganda graffiti on walls, executing grenade attacks, or killing police personnel, the network promises heavy financial rewards ranging up to ₹3 Lakhs per assignment.
- Recent NIA and Police Crackdowns (Summer 2026)Because the network spans across multiple states, central agencies have launched aggressive operational raids:
- The Punjab & Haryana Raids: The NIA conducted coordinated searches across 18 locations in nine districts of Punjab and Haryana, seizing financial records, digital transaction receipts, and communication logs tying local gangsters to Bhatti.
- The Delhi-NCR and UP Blocks: The Delhi Police Special Cell arrested multiple operatives who were actively receiving funding from Bhatti’s inner circle (including associates Abid Jutt and Ajmal Gujjar) to attack a historic temple in Delhi, a highway Dhaba, and local police stations.
- The Assam STF Operation: The Assam Police dismantled a localized SBN module across Dhubri, Chirang, and Barpeta, seizing bank passbooks, debit cards, and illegal financial assets.
- The West Bengal Honey-Trap Case: In the case involving Hamim Mondal and Arpita Sarkar, investigators verified that the funding used to lease luxury apartments and track state ministers was routed entirely via the Shahzad Bhatti network.
- International Rivalries–The SBN’s cross-border footprints have also triggered intense global gang wars. Following high-profile falling outs with other prominent Indian syndicates (such as the jailed Lawrence Bishnoi gang), Bhatti has survived multiple assassination attempts in international locations, including Brazil and Portugal, which agencies note were heavily tied to retaliatory actions over laundered funding channels. The NIA is currently coordinating with international agencies to choke off Bhatti’s overseas bank accounts and crypto exchanges based in the UAE.
- The Shahzad Bhatti Network: 18 Jun 2026 — One such investigation involved the arrest of Sohail, who painted TTH graffiti at Bhatti’s direction.
BUT—IT IS A VERY DIFFRICULT BATTLE—ALL INDIANS HAVE TO BE ALERT, & SHALL CO-OPERATE WITH GOI IN THIS ASSYMETRICAL WAR WITH PAKISTAN.
SOURCES: ALL ARE REPORTED IN MULTIPLE NEWS MEDIA, & AVAILABLE IN PUBLIC DOMAINS. THE BLOGGER HAS COMPILED & CO-RELATED.
