The story so far: On September 16, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) designated the Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN) as a terrorist group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The MHA said in a notification that the outfit, through its terrorist activities, poses a “serious threat to the democratic system, communal harmony, and internal security of the country”.
Who is Shahzad Bhatti?
Shahzad Bhatti, a social-media influencer and a Pakistani gangster is said to be the prime suspect behind the arrest of over 200 suspects in a countrywide counter-terror operation across the country ahead of Independence Day. Bhatti, who speaks Punjabi and regularly posts video on Instagram and Facebook, currently operates from the UAE, and over the past one-year has graduated from “organised crime” to “terror-related activities”. Several of his Instagram accounts ending in “333” have been flagged by security agencies. Before the pre-Independence Day pan-India raids and arrests against the SBN, Delhi Police had blocked 125 Instagram accounts related to Bhatti.
Detailing the reach of the network, Dehi Police said that since October 2025, the police registered 15 FIRs and arrested 69 accused, two-thirds from Punjab and U.P. Most were poorly educated, economically vulnerable individuals recruited via social media for money, Gulf relocation, or resolving personal issues. Monetary incentives generally outweighed ideology, police said. Multiple handlers assigned recruits tasks including reconnaissance, attacks, funding and logistics. The network’s Delhi-NCR targets included security personnel, political offices, businesses and activists. The police identified 108 raid targets, initiated proceedings against 35 and recovered grenades, pistols, cartridges, petrol bombs, CCTV cameras and SIM cards.
His earliest association with criminal activities in India started from Punjab and it soon spread across 14 States — Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered three cases allegedly involving Bhatti.
What does the latest notification under UAPA entail?
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in a post on X on September 16, “Pursuing PM Shri @narendramodi Ji’s vision of zero tolerance against terror, the MHA declares the Shahzad Bhatti Network as a terrorist organisation under the UAPA.”
SBN is the 46th outfit to be designated as a “terrorist organisation” under the UAPA.
The designation has been made under Section 35 (I) of the UAPA, 1967 which empowers the MHA to designate an outfit as a “terrorist organisation”.
The other outfits in the list include — Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), United National Liberation Front (UNLF), Kangleipak Communist Party, All Tripura Tiger Force, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Communist Party of India (Marxizt-Leninst) – Peoples War, all its formations and front organisations among others.
Does the notification mention specific cases against SBN?
Without mentioning the specific cases against the network, the notification listed nine categories of crimes registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Information Technology Act, 2000, Explosives Substances Act, UAPA, the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (OSA), the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 and the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 2007.
MHA said that SBN is an organisation whose objective is to involve gullible youth and local criminals to smuggle arms, explosives, and narcotics from across the border, and through terrorist activities, pose a serious threat to the democratic system, communal harmony, and internal security of the country. It added that “several criminal cases” have been duly registered against the cadres of SBN across multiple jurisdictions for their involvement in unlawful and terrorist activities.
It further said that SBN is involved in radicalising gullible youth by offering various allurements, motivating them for anti-national activities, and mobilising resources for anti-national acts in collusion with other banned organisations and designated entities.
“SBN is promoting terrorism through violent activities that disrupt public order and by using various digital communication platforms to disseminate provocative messages, posing a serious challenge to the integrity of the nation…the Central Government believes that ‘Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN)’ is involved in terrorism and has participated in various acts of terrorism in India,” the notification said.
Published – September 17, 2026 03:39 pm IST
