The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing several cases linked to Shahzad Bhatti. Photo: Special Arrangement
Pakistan has rejected remarks by Union Home Minister Amit Shah linking its spy agency ISI to a terror network whose operatives were arrested in coordinated security operations across India ahead of Independence Day.
In a social media post on Monday (August 17, 2026), Mr. Shah said over 200 operatives of the ISI-backed terror group, Shahzad Bhatti Network, were arrested during coordinated operations in 14 States ahead of Independence Day on August 15, thwarting plans of the organisation to launch subversive attacks.
Substantial recoveries, including IEDs, grenades bearing Pakistan Ordnance Factory markings, pistols, live cartridges, and CCTV cameras used for espionage, were made from the ISI-funded group, he said.
Responding to media queries on Mr. Shah’s statement, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi, in a late night statement on Monday (August 17, 2026), described the remarks as “baseless”.
He accused India of using Pakistan-related assertions to “divert attention from its domestic security challenges”.
According to a government statement issued in New Delhi, the Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN) is a Pakistan-based terror syndicate involved in grenade, IED and petrol-bomb attacks, and targeted killings across India.
The SBN has also been paying local conduits to recce police, defence and religious sites, and to install CCTV cameras for espionage.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing several cases linked to Bhatti, including a grenade attack at the residence of social media influencer Roger Sandhu in Punjab in March 2025 and an explosion at a women’s police station in Haryana in the same year.
In April 2026, the NIA had chargesheeted Bhatti as an absconder.
Published – August 18, 2026 01:00 pm IST
