Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has significantly escalated its espionage operations inside India following Operation Sindoor, with Indian SIM card smuggling emerging as a critical enabler of its honey-trap network, according to security officials. The arrest of a young couple in New Delhi on Friday, 29 August has thrown a spotlight on a growing racket that routes Indian SIM cards through the Gulf and Nepal to handlers in Pakistan.

The Delhi Arrest That Exposed the Racket

Mohammad Sahil (25) and his wife Sameera (21) were detained by Delhi Police after an investigation revealed that between 2024 and 2025 the couple had procured eight Indian SIM cards and dispatched them to Pakistan via Dubai. Officials said the pair were part of a broader ISI-backed module in which specific individuals are assigned only one task: source Indian SIMs and move them across the border.

This comes amid a string of recently busted espionage cases in which a similar pattern has emerged — a layered network where different operatives handle SIM procurement, information collection, and honey-trapping as distinct, compartmentalised functions.

Why ISI Wants Indian SIM Cards

According to an Intelligence Bureau official, the demand for Indian SIM cards is driven by two operational advantages. First, Pakistani handlers can activate WhatsApp accounts on Indian numbers, making initial contact appear domestically rooted and delaying detection by Indian agencies. Second, using Indian SIMs leaves no direct digital trail back to Pakistan.

'Almost 90 per cent of these operations are carried out by activating WhatsApp accounts using Indian SIM cards,' an official said. The first approach is typically made through social media — scouts in Pakistan scan platforms for individuals photographed in uniform or associated with defence establishments — before the conversation migrates to WhatsApp for the actual honey-trap.

Scale and Targets of the Operation

Officials say the ISI has, through its Indian agents, reportedly procured hundreds of SIM cards for such activity. The honey-trap modules operating out of Pakistan focus extensively on the Indian defence sector, but other government officials are also considered high-value targets. Individuals with no government affiliation are separately recruited to conduct physical surveillance around defence installations and relay information to ISI handlers.

Notably, this is not an isolated module — officials describe a multi-layered architecture in which recruits in Pakistan are dedicated solely to social media scouting, while Indian-side operatives handle procurement and ground intelligence.

Post-Operation Sindoor Escalation

Security officials believe the spike in espionage activity is directly linked to the military setback Pakistan suffered during Operation Sindoor. According to one official, 'Pakistan may be planning a major misadventure and hence has stepped up surveillance and espionage activity in India.' The ISI's intensified drive to collect Indian military intelligence is seen as an attempt to compensate for the strategic embarrassment inflicted by the Indian armed forces.

Persistent Threat Despite Repeated Warnings

Indian agencies have dismantled multiple honey-trap modules in recent months, yet officials acknowledge that such cases continue to surface with troubling frequency. What concerns security personnel most is that awareness campaigns have not been sufficient deterrents — individuals from the defence and government sectors continue to fall prey to ISI-run networks.

With the scale of SIM smuggling operations reportedly growing and the Gulf and Nepal corridors actively exploited, Indian intelligence agencies are expected to tighten cross-border SIM card monitoring in the weeks ahead.