Gangster Shahzad Bhatti picked operatives through social media
Pakistani gangster Shahzad Bhatti is being investigated for orchestrating terror-related activities in India by recruiting operatives via social media. Security agencies have arrested over 200 individuals linked to his network, which allegedly operates under the influence of Pakistan's ISI.
Why it matters
This highlights the evolving threat of digital radicalization and the use of social media platforms by organized crime syndicates to facilitate cross-border terrorism.
Shahzad Bhatti, the Pakistani gangster at the centre of the recent nationwide counter-terror operation, is also a social media influencer.
During the operation ahead of Independence Day, security agencies had arrested over 200 operatives linked to the Shahzad Bhatti Network, which is backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Bhatti, who speaks Punjabi and regularly posts videos on Instagram and Facebook, currently operates from the UAE. Over the past one year, he has graduated from “organised crime” to “terror-related activities”, at the behest of the ISI, government sources told The Hindu . Several of his Instagram accounts ending in “333” have been taken down in India.
His earliest association with criminal activities in India started from Punjab and soon spread across 14 States – Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Kerala.
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