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.
The Shahzad Bhatti Network (SBN) is a Pakistan-based terror syndicate involved in grenade, IED and petrol-bomb attacks, and targeted killings across India, according to a government statement issued in New Delhi.
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”.
