UP emerges as key target in Pak-linked digital radicalisation, sleeper-cell network probe

Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a major target in Pakistan’s evolving digital radicalisation and sleeper-cell recruitment strategy, with recent ATS arrests and multi-district investigations exposing an expanding network allegedly operated through social media by Pakistan-based gangster Shahzad Bhatti and handlers linked to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), senior central and state security agencies said.

Security agencies say the network reflects a new-age “hybrid threat” model in which online radicalisation, espionage, organised crime and covert anti-India activities are increasingly merged through decentralised and civilian-embedded modules that are harder to detect.