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28 confirmed ISI-linked arrests in India since June 2024

Editor's Choice28 confirmed ISI-linked arrests in India since June 2024

The probe revealed ISI’s growing digital espionage network exploiting vulnerable Indians across regions.

NEW DELHI: In a detailed investigation conducted by The Sunday Guardian, it has been found that between June 1, 2024, and June 26, 2025, at least 28 individuals were arrested across India on charges and allegations of spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). These include civilians, uniformed officials, and digital influencers, most of whom were lured through emotional manipulation or financial inducement.
It is important to note that all accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

North and West India remain primary targets
The arrests were overwhelmingly concentrated in North and West India, particularly in states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Delhi. Only one arrest was reported from South India—a YouTuber based in Telangana—highlighting a stark regional disparity in ISI’s recruitment pattern.
This geographic bias aligns with ISI’s traditional operational logic: proximity to cantonments and international borders, familiarity with Hindi and Urdu, and easier digital infiltration due to linguistic and cultural overlap.

Who is being targeted: A profile of accused
Most of those arrested are in the 20 to 35 age group. They include factory security guards, tailors, students, influencers, and self-employed technicians. Three women are among the arrested—a rarity in espionage-related cases. One is a YouTuber from Haryana who had reportedly made multiple visits to Pakistan, while the other two are widows from Punjab, lured through romantic manipulation.
Despite varying backgrounds, many of the accused shared key vulnerabilities: emotional instability, financial insecurity, or digital naïveté. In many male cases, contact from a woman proved to be the turning point.
How ISI chooses its targets
Multiple intelligence officials interviewed by The Sunday Guardian said that ISI’s selection process is rarely random. The agency deliberately targets individuals who are expendable to their systems but exploitable due to the access they possess.
Individuals expressing dissatisfaction with their economic or social conditions online—via YouTube videos, Facebook posts, or WhatsApp statuses—often become high-priority targets. ISI handlers look for signs of isolation, frustration, or desperation. Many of the arrested had lost jobs, were grieving personal losses, or needed validation and attention.
The algorithmic design of social media, especially Facebook, assists handlers in identifying, tracking, and grooming these individuals. A simple comment or like on a military post, or a mobile number used across platforms, can be the first breadcrumb leading to contact.

How the trap is set
The recruitment process is rarely rushed. Handlers initiate contact with harmless questions about daily life. Trust is developed gradually. Once rapport is built, subtle cues are introduced, “I saw on Google Maps you live in X area… there’s an army cantonment nearby, right?”
From there, the requests escalate—initially framed as curiosity—into tasks such as confirming troop presence, sending photographs, or sharing overheard conversations. The shift from personal chat to espionage is seamless.
For younger male targets, contact often begins with flirtatious messages from an attractive woman. Within days, she professes love, shares semi-explicit images, and emotionally entraps the individual. Once the target complies with a request, financial incentives are introduced—cementing commitment and complicity.
Even uniformed officials are not exempt. Some were lured by similar methods: seductive imagery, emotionally suggestive texts, and digital intimacy. One Army official was found exchanging explicit content with a woman later identified as an ISI-linked operative.
What unites the victims is not who they are—but what they lack: institutional loyalty, awareness of surveillance risks, and emotional or community support.

Digital honey-traps and lure of quick money
Most suspects were first contacted through platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, and Instagram. ISI handlers, posing as young women or professionals, built trust over time. What started as flirtation escalated to intelligence requests in exchange for modest sums—typically between Rs 3,000 and Rs 50,000—transferred via UPI or other digital methods.
Some were promised jobs, visa help, or marriage. In multiple cases, they shared information such as troop movements, cantonment photographs, maps, and audio recordings of orders.

Leaks from within the system
Although most arrests involved civilians, three uniformed officials—a CRPF Assistant Sub-Inspector, an Army jawan, and a Navy clerk—were caught leaking sensitive information. They had access to classified intel and were receiving monthly or lump-sum payments.
Their involvement signals alarming breaches within Indian security forces—where modest monetary incentives compromised operational integrity.

South Indian anomaly
Only one arrest came from South India—a bilingual YouTuber from Telangana. His fluency in Hindi and English, combined with social media visibility, made him an accessible digital mark. Experts suggest that ISI’s digital espionage efforts have struggled to penetrate the South due to language barriers, regional culture, and fewer nearby military assets.
The absence of similar cases from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, or Andhra Pradesh supports this theory—though the region remains at risk.

A strategic shift in Pakistan’s methods
Unlike traditional espionage involving covert infiltration and physical exchanges, ISI has shifted to low-cost, digitally driven recruitment. Emotional manipulation, romantic baiting, and peer-to-peer money transfers now define this new model—replacing ideology with social engineering.
This allows Pakistan to scale efforts with minimal risk, recruiting vulnerable Indians from afar using only smartphones and internet access.

A deeper, hidden network
Officials believe the real number of ISI operatives in India may be in the hundreds. Each arrest prompts handlers to evolve tactics, learning from mistakes.
More suspects—both civilians and uniformed personnel—have been identified. Agencies are reportedly waiting for an ‘opportune’ moment to act.
In many cases, once a recruit outlives their usefulness, handlers either cut them off or leak their identity—making them easy targets for arrest.
Senior counterintelligence sources advise those trapped to immediately contact central agencies or local police. Timely disclosure and cooperation can shield them from blackmail and offer legal protection.
“The worst decision one can make is to stay silent. The longer they stay embedded, the deeper they go, and the harder it becomes to exit,” a senior official said.
Remorse and cooperation have reportedly helped several suspects avoid long-term legal and psychological consequences.

Dangers ahead
The Sunday Guardian’s year-long investigation reveals a dispersed, adaptive, and deeply personal threat landscape—targeting not only security personnel but also ordinary, digitally active citizens.
Each uncovered espionage case points to serious gaps in national security—and to a deeper problem: a digitally connected yet emotionally isolated and economically fragile segment of society.
To pre-empt future breaches, India must invest not only in surveillance and counterintelligence, but also in public awareness, emotional resilience, and digital hygiene.

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