Jaipur, June 21 -- A Jaipur woman whose phone allegedly contained contacts linked to senior Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operatives, including the brother-in-law of JeM founder Masood Azhar, has been arrested by the Rajasthan ATS-SOG in a case investigators say exposes efforts by Pakistani handlers to recruit Indian nationals as cyber assets.
According to intelligence sources, the accused, Babita Dhakad alias Khadija, was allegedly being groomed to operate mobile OTP networks that could be used by Pakistan-based operatives to evade Indian surveillance.
Sources said one of the numbers found in her contacts was linked to Qari Zarar, a JeM commander wanted in connection with the 2016 Nagrota Army camp attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which six Indian soldiers were killed. Another contact was allegedly linked to Yusuf Azhar alias Gori, Masood Azhar's brother-in-law and one of the accused in the 1999 IC-814 hijacking.
The arrest comes months after Masood Azhar reportedly launched JeM's women's wing, Jamaat-ul-Muminat, in October 2025. Intelligence officials claim the outfit has been using online platforms to target and radicalise women through a mix of religious outreach and ideological indoctrination.
During questioning, Dhakad allegedly told investigators that she first came in contact with JeM-linked operatives through social media.
Officials said an online religious conversion ceremony was conducted by a Pakistani cleric in April 2026, after which she was allegedly encouraged to travel to Pakistan through routes such as Nepal, Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Travel expenses, investigators claim, were to be
arranged through cryptocurrency transactions.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.