NIA registers case over Shahzad Bhatti's online radicalisation of Indian youths

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case to investigate the alleged online radicalisation of Indian youths by Pakistan-based gangster Shahzad Bhatti and other suspected Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operatives, with the aim of carrying out terror attacks in India, officials told PTI on Thursday (12 November). The allegations are those of investigators and have not been tested in court.

The NIA's First Information Report (FIR) names eight accused. Besides Bhatti, whom investigators describe as an ISI agent based in Pakistan, they include Md Hamad Barkati, Abid Jatt, Major Hamid, Major Iqbal and Major Anwar, all alleged ISI operatives. Two Indians arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in April are also named: Tushar Chauhan alias Hijbullah Ali Khan, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, and Sameer, from Delhi.

The case stems from an FIR registered by the UP ATS in April, when it was investigating Pakistani sleeper cells allegedly being created through social media. According to PTI, the ATS said the two arrested men were allegedly in direct contact with Pakistani operatives and were “planning a major disruptive act”.

Investigators allege that Bhatti, Abid Jatt and radical Pakistani YouTubers, acting on ISI instructions, tried to radicalise Indian youths online and lure them with money, to disturb internal peace and communal harmony, as UP's Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Amitabh Yash had said earlier. The NIA will now examine how social media and messaging platforms were used to approach young Indians, Hindustan Times reported.

The Centre declared the Shahzad Bhatti Network a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in September, saying it was involved in terrorism and had taken part in acts of terrorism in India. Hindustan Times reported that the NIA's separate probe into the 10 January blast outside the Baldev Nagar police station in Ambala has also pointed to online recruitment: officials allege that Bhatti contacted a 25-year-old Ghaziabad resident through Instagram, WhatsApp and Signal and asked him to move a car carrying explosives. According to the officials, he was later told to back out, and the blast happened without him.