New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) : Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) launched a multi-state destabilisation plot targeting Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Manipur in the run-up to the 2027 assembly elections, intelligence agencies have warned.
Seven key states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Goa, would go to the polls between February and March next year.
The intelligence agencies have drawn up a list of states that are vulnerable during the elections or in the run-up to them. The ISI has set its eyes particularly on Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that these three states are extremely vulnerable to ISI-driven activities.
“In Uttar Pradesh, the focus will be on terror attacks and espionage activities. In Punjab, it will be arms and narcotics smuggling, besides random grenade attacks. In Manipur, the attempts will be aimed at creating widespread unrest in the state ahead of the elections,” the IB official said.
This plan was set in motion almost a year back, when the ISI roped in Shahzad Bhatti to recruit Indian youths. His focus was pan-India, and he managed to recruit youths for a small sum of money.
“He would instruct these recruits to carry out hit jobs, install CCTV cameras in sensitive and crowded locations, carry out surveillance for terror attacks, indulge in narcotics smuggling and counterfeiting of Indian currency,” the official said.
The Bhatti network focused heavily on the election-bound states. Recruitment was high in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, investigators say. These recruits were planning strikes in the run-up and also during the elections.
In states like UP, the focus was mainly on carrying out big-ticket attacks. While carrying out surveillance on sensitive locations, there was equal emphasis on crowded locations such as railway stations and bus stands too. This makes it amply clear that the Bhatti network was aiming at big attacks in the state.
Another official said that it is not just the Bhatti gang that was focusing on the election-bound states; there are multiple players on the payrolls of the ISI who have been on the job.
“In Punjab, the brief is clear, and that is to ramp up narcotics smuggling and arms trade. The ISI-backed networks have been told to dump as much ammunition and narcotics into the state ahead of the elections,” the official said.
While the dumping of drugs and arms has been underway, the state of Punjab has also been witnessing stray grenade attacks and vandalism by pro-Khalistan operatives, the official said.
There are two objectives behind these stray incidents of violence. This is meant to promote the Khalistan movement, but more importantly, to keep the security agencies busy so that the narcotics and arms trade goes on smoothly without coming under the radar, the official said.
While Punjab and Uttar Pradesh remain states of concern, security agencies are particularly worried about Manipur. Multiple players are believed to have an interest in triggering widespread unrest in the state. The ethnic violence that erupted in 2023 has subsided in intensity, but several issues linked to the conflict remain unresolved.
Since the violence broke out, the Central government has been exploring various measures to restore lasting peace in Manipur. Compared with the situation in 2023, the nature of the conflict has changed, with the state now facing what security officials describe as a low-intensity crisis.
Another official said that the situation does remain tense and these vested interest groups would look to fuel speculation and run fake narratives so that Manipur returns to its 2023 scenario.
While it is easiest for these ISI-backed groups to fuel tensions in Manipur at the moment, the larger game is to ensure that violence spreads across the North-eastern region
The ISI has been working alongside some of its proxies both in Bangladesh and India to fuel tensions during election year in Manipur, with the hope that it spreads and the entire Northeast burns, an official said.
