Description: From honeytraps and armed jihad in India to espionage networks across Europe, Pakistan’s shadowy ISI continues to wage a silent war through terror funding, narcotics, and black-ops units with global reach.
A sprawling web of narcotics trafficking between Pakistan and Europe has surged in recent years, with the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands emerging as key targets. Behind this surge lies Pakistan’s shadow intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), whose operations have morphed from domestic control to a transnational apparatus orchestrating espionage, terrorism, and destabilization.
On July 23, 2025, Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) carried out a series of coordinated raids, arresting four Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) operatives Fardin Sheikh, Mahammad Faique, Jishan Ali, and Saifullah Qureshi. These individuals were in regular contact with the Pakistan Army and ISI, exchanging sensitive information during “Operation Sindoor.” The accused circulated jihadist propaganda via social media, aiming to disrupt India’s democratic fabric and replace it with Sharia law through an armed insurrection.
Just a month earlier, on June 26, Vishal Yadav, a clerk working at the Indian Navy headquarters in New Delhi, was arrested for espionage by the Rajasthan Police’s Intelligence Wing. Authorities allege that Yadav had been leaking sensitive military intelligence to the ISI for months. His handler, a female ISI agent posing as “Priya Sharma,” entrapped him via social media, offering cryptocurrency payments and direct bank transfers in exchange for classified naval data.
In another troubling development, the April 22 terror attack at Baisaran Maidan in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, was traced back to a joint operation by ISI and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), according to intelligence reported on July 15, 2025. The assault was led by Sulaiman, believed to be a former Pakistani Special Forces commando trained at LeT’s infamous Muridke camp. Armed with an M-4 rifle, he executed the attack under direct orders from Pakistan’s political and military leadership.
Further south, on May 29, 2025, Delhi Police arrested Mohammad Kasim from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur District for espionage. Investigators revealed that Kasim had visited Pakistan twice—once in August 2024 and again in March 2025—and had been in touch with his ISI handlers through encrypted chat apps and social platforms. He reportedly stayed in Pakistan for nearly 90 days across both trips.
Earlier that month, on May 1, Rajasthan Intelligence arrested Pathan Khan from Jaisalmer District for spying on behalf of ISI. Khan had first encountered ISI officers during a visit to Pakistan in 2013 and remained in contact, funneling sensitive information about the India-Pakistan border to handlers in return for money.
On February 14, 2025, the Delhi Police apprehended Nepalese-origin ISI agent Ansarul Miya Ansari in East Delhi’s Vishwas Nagar. Ansari’s arrest unveiled a transnational Pakistani espionage network stretching across West Asia, Nepal, and India. At the time of capture, authorities recovered Army manuals, secret deployment materials, and a copy of the classified training document “Fighting in Built-Up Areas 1982.”
Data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) shows that between 2000 and July 27, 2025, 630 ISI agents have been arrested in India in 313 separate incidents.
The ISI, founded in 1948 by Australian-born British Army officer Major General Walter Joseph Cawthorn, was modeled after the British MI6. With personnel drawn from both the military and civilian wings of pre-partition India’s Intelligence Bureau, ISI initially received training from the CIA and French intelligence (SDECE). Over the decades, the agency expanded into seven distinct sections:
Joint Intelligence X (JIX),
Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB),
Joint Counter Intelligence Bureau (JCIB),
Joint Intelligence/North (JIN),
Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous (JIM),
Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB),
Joint Intelligence Technical Division (JIT).
Each division plays a unique role. JIN focuses on Jammu and Kashmir, supporting terrorist proxies and monitoring Indian military operations. JIX functions as the secretariat. JIB monitors domestic political developments, while JCIB runs intelligence operations in Central and South Asia, the Middle East, Israel, and Russia. JIM executes covert and wartime espionage missions. JSIB manages signals intelligence and provides operational communications. JIT oversees explosive materials and chemical warfare units.
Beyond South Asia, ISI has deepened its global footprint. In Bangladesh, ISI has ramped up influence operations, especially after the departure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. On May 6, 2025, reports surfaced that several Hamas leaders had met in Bangladesh under ISI’s coordination to promote anti-India propaganda and recruit youth from the Northeast. Rawalpindi even dispatched a senior ISI delegation to Dhaka on January 21, 2025—a rare diplomatic move after two decades. A Bangladeshi military official received the group at the airport after their arrival from Dubai.
Bangladesh’s unresolved Rohingya refugee crisis has also been weaponized. Reports from July 18, 2025, suggest that many Rohingya refugees have undergone paramilitary and ideological training via ISI.
In Afghanistan, ISI has had a long-standing presence. On January 11, 2025, former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh alleged that more than 150 ISI officers were stationed at the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul. Saleh claimed that ISI began deploying its cadres across Afghanistan immediately after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, with orders to eradicate “Indian sentiment” from Afghan media and promote Pakistan’s interests. In May 2024, an ISI-controlled covert unit Jabhaa Rubaat was active in provinces such as Paktika, Kunar, Nuristan, and Nangarhar, tasked with hunting anti-Pakistan resistance groups.
Nepal has not been spared. On May 22, 2025, Indian Intelligence uncovered another ISI terror plot targeting India. The source was the same agent, Ansarul Miya Ansari. During questioning, Ansari revealed that ISI aimed to use Nepal as a base to smuggle military documents to Pakistan. Additionally, Turkey, acting at Islamabad’s behest, has been funding madrassa and mosque construction along the Indo-Nepal border to spread radical Islamist ideology. Turkish intelligence is allegedly working closely with ISI in this destabilization campaign. On July 9, 2025, it was reported that Turkish NGO IHH, linked to extremist networks, had extended operations along this border corridor.
ISI’s motto, drawn from Quranic verse 4:71, reads: “O you who have believed, take your precaution and [either] go forth in companies or go forth all together.” This ideology permeates every covert and overt action the agency takes.
Currently led by Lieutenant General Asim Malik, the ISI operates under a three-tier command with three deputy directors general (DDGs), each a two-star officer from the military. ISI is structured into multiple wings: ‘A’ for analysis, ‘B’ for strategy and counter-insurgency, ‘C’ for internal security, ‘S’ for field intelligence, ‘CT’ for counter-terrorism, ‘T’ for signals and tech, ‘P’ for personnel, ‘I’ for internal affairs, and a cyber and media operations unit.
Among the most feared is the ‘S’ Wing, comprising elite ISI officers, ex-military personnel, and specially trained civilians. Operating without ethical constraints, they conduct clandestine “black ops” to protect Pakistan’s interests—often with little regard for legality or human life.
With a workforce of around 25,000, the ISI includes a 60:40 mix of civilian recruits and deputed officers from Pakistan’s armed forces, police, and paramilitary agencies.
The agency’s footprint extends into Europe and Africa. After fleeing Pakistan in 2022, Major (Retd.) Adil Farooq Raja now faces a defamation trial in the UK’s High Court, believed to be instigated by ISI. He claimed in court that ISI operates directly out of the Pakistani Embassy in London, naming Colonel Asad Rasheed and Air Attaché Colonel Taimoor Khan as handlers.
Journalist Arshad Sharif, who fled ISI persecution in 2022, was later killed in Kenya in a brutal execution-style murder. Autopsy reports confirmed torture, including fingernail removal, before his death. A Pakistani FIA report eventually linked ISI agents to the killing. No action followed. Other victims include Sajid Hussain, a Baloch journalist found dead in Sweden’s Fyris River in 2020, and Karima Mehrab, whose body was found in Toronto later that year. Both had criticized the ISI. Blogger Ahmad Waqass Goraya narrowly survived an ISI-planned attack in the Netherlands in 2020.
Pakistan’s global terror ties go back decades. From 9/11, where ISI Chief Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed was linked to payments sent to hijacker Mohamed Atta, to the 2005 London bombings, Pakistan has repeatedly been implicated. A 2006 British Ministry of Defence paper even acknowledged Pakistan’s indirect support for global terrorism. More recently, in May 2022, Europol arrested 14 Pakistan-linked individuals tied to a terror cell in Italy connected to the 2020 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. Reports from 2020 and 2023 confirm ISI’s grooming of drug trafficking networks in Europe to serve as its covert partners.
These drug routes, particularly between Pakistan and Europe, continue to flourish. Recent seizures in Spain, Italy, and other European nations trace their origins to Pakistani syndicates.
In all its manifestations from espionage to terror funding, ISI has positioned itself as a state within a state, wielding power unchecked by Pakistani civil governance. Shielded by powerful allies and global indifference, ISI’s malignant reach now spans continents, leaving a trail of destabilization, propaganda, and blood.
