New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) The Special Cell of the Delhi Police, which arrested nine persons in connection with a Dawood Ibrahim–ISI connected network, has found a Shehzad Bhatti link.

Bhatti has been active for several months and has been tasked by this network to work extensively on India-related operations. Officials said that Bhatti had instructed the accused to conduct reconnaissance of major areas in both Delhi and Mumbai.

In Mumbai, the targets were bridges that people use to commute daily. The idea was not just to create fear and panic, but also to disrupt city infrastructure, an official added.

Investigators learnt that it was an extensive network. The Bhatti-led operations had several persons on its payroll, including individuals from Delhi, Pune, and Punjab.

The Special Cell also took into custody a person from Nepal who was roped in to arrange funds for this massive operation.

Bhatti has become the ISI’s most important asset. He had been tasked not just with coordinating terror strikes in India, but also managing a fake narrative campaign.

Bhatti currently coordinates with members of India’s underworld and even recruits persons to carry out attacks in India. He largely operates through social media, and agencies tracking him say he is currently the ISI’s biggest asset in operations against India.

While bridges in Mumbai were on the gang’s target list, the gang also conducted reconnaissance of various government offices in Delhi.

An official explained that this was a complex network involving not just the ISI, but also the underworld and criminals from different parts of the country.

The official said that funds were pumped in from multiple channels, which is currently under investigation.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that as part of its home-grown terror module strategy, the ISI has been using the underworld and gangsters to execute strikes in India.

The official added that Dawood remains a key asset for the ISI and his network is being extensively used not just to undertake narcotics smuggling but terror attacks as well.

The Dawood network has plenty of sharpshooters in India, and these persons are being used extensively to carry out attacks.

The ISI has been pushing the Dawood syndicate since 2015 to execute attacks in India.

Police had even busted a module in Gujarat in 2015, which had prepared a list of important persons to be executed.

During the course of the investigation, it was found that the module in Gujarat had planned on carrying out these executions with the intention of creating communal violence in the state.

The module busted by the Delhi Police was similar to the one in Gujarat. The main difference was that the plans they had decided to execute were on a much larger scale.

The plan was to execute a series of coordinated attacks both in Delhi and Mumbai.

The resources they used were all from underworld circles, suggesting a shifting strategy by the ISI, an official said.

Since the Indian armed forces carried out Operation Sindoor, the ISI has only been looking to execute attacks in India using home-grown modules.

To execute this plan, the ISI has been using the underworld extensively.

The Dawood syndicate is familiar with the Indian terrain. This means there is not much investment needed in recruitment and logistics.

The ISI has told the syndicate to use its local criminals to execute major attacks in Indian cities.

Police found that the primary targets were in Mumbai and Delhi. However, they are trying to unearth a larger conspiracy involving targeting many other cities across the country.

The module busted by the Delhi Police had larger plans and was planning on targeting many more cities.

An official explained that the Dawood syndicate is a structured one in India. It has operatives across the country, and the ISI is trying to turn them into assets to carry out terror attacks.

The official said that the ISI is trying to replicate what it is attempting in Punjab. In Punjab, where it is trying to revive the Khalistan movement, the reliance has been very high on the gangster-terror network.

The same is being witnessed in the case of the Dawood syndicate, where the ISI is trying to use the underworld to carry out attacks in the rest of the country, the official added.

–IANS

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