From Kashmir to Kerala: India’s coordinated counter-terror push exposes network of radical modules

NEW DELHI: Government sources have shared details of a comprehensive report summarising major anti-terror and counter-radicalisation operations conducted across India in recent months. The data covering coordinated actions from July to November 2025 reflects a series of high-impact operations led by central and state security agencies that dismantled active terror modules, disrupted radical networks, and seized a significant cache of explosives, arms, and communication devices. Sources state that a major joint operation between Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana Police from October 19 to November 10 led to the recovery of approximately 2,921 kilograms of explosives, besides detonators, timer devices, and other bomb-making materials. Several suspects, including medical professionals and clerics, were arrested in connection with the case. The operation led to the unearthing of a sophisticated “white-collar” terror module with links to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), supported by an extensive logistics and financing network spread across multiple states.

In November, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) discovered a Pakistan-linked drone network smuggling weapons and counterfeit documents into India. Three individuals, including two youths from Uttar Pradesh and one doctor from Hyderabad, were arrested for aiding the supply chain supporting terror operations within the country. Around the same time, the ATS detained a resident, identified as Maulvi Osama Umar, from Rajasthan’s Jalore district. Affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Umar had purportedly been radicalising youth online and was in touch with foreign handlers. The investigating team recovered digital evidence and records of communication indicative of long-term coordination with overseas networks. The report also referred to the operations by the Delhi Police Special Cell in October 2025, which resulted in the dismantling of an ISIS-inspired group styled as "Saut-ul-Ummah". Two operatives were arrested, and IED-making material, including timer devices, was seized. Follow-up investigations led to the arrest on October 24 of two Fidayeen trainees from Delhi who had reportedly received training in suicide attacks from foreign handlers. Parallel operations in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra this October unearthed a Jaish-e-Mohammad digital recruitment network that spread extremist propaganda and aimed to radicalise youth via the internet. Punjab Police separately discovered a cross-border arms and opium smuggling network, underlining continuing efforts by anti-India outfits to bring in weapons and contraband across international borders.

In September 2025, security agencies arrested four individuals in Uttar Pradesh who were trying to form a radical outfit called “Mujahideen Army”, with the aim of establishing “Sharia rule” through violence. On September 17, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) busted an online module of ISIS in Andhra Pradesh and conducted simultaneous raids across eight states with seizures of huge quantities of digital evidence. August operations brought further breakthroughs when NIA arrested Arif Hussain, alias Abu Talib, near the Nepal border. He was a key operative in the Vizianagaram ISIS module and was attempting to flee the country. His interrogation revealed links with a cross-border arms supply chain. Around the same time, ISI-directed Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) networks were dismantled in Punjab and Rajasthan, exposing renewed attempts to revive Khalistani terror operations through foreign backing. In July 2025, counter-terror units neutralised an Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) module propagating the “Ghazwa-e-Hind” ideology in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. The same month, three Babbar Khalsa International operatives were eliminated in Punjab, while a joint Army-Police operation in Poonch (J&K) uncovered militant hideouts and seized weapons and ammunition.

Government sources also told ANI that as early as May 2025, arrests had been made in Punjab, Hyderabad, and West Bengal, targeting both ISI-backed and ISIS-linked networks. The Batala encounter in Punjab, for example, resulted in the recovery of grenades and encrypted communication devices, while the Hyderabad Police thwarted a possible terror plot by arresting ISIS-linked operatives found with explosive chemicals. According to the officials, these operations across several states, involving close coordination between intelligence and enforcement agencies, demonstrate India's robust counter-terror framework.