India Says 350 Arrested Over Network It Banned This Month; Shah Launches Extradition Portal

Home minister sets out a ten-year counter-terrorism framework and says 288 fugitives have been brought back since 2019

Image Source: @AmitShah on X

Indian agencies have arrested 350 people across 15 states in an operation against the Shahzad Bhatti Network, the group New Delhi designated a terrorist organisation earlier this month, the home minister said on Monday.

Amit Shah said more than 40 modules of the network, which the government accuses of smuggling weapons, explosives and narcotics across the border, had been dismantled, and that more than 100 first information reports had been registered. He attributed the results to improved coordination between agencies.

The government added the network to the First Schedule of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on 16 September, making it the 46th organisation on that list. The notification accused it of recruiting young people and local criminals into cross-border smuggling and of posing a threat to communal harmony and internal security.

Shah was speaking at the inauguration of a conference in New Delhi on what the home ministry calls PRAHAAR, a counter-terrorism policy framework built on seven pillars: prevention, response, aggregating internal capacities, human rights, attenuating the conditions for terrorism, aligning international efforts, and recovery and resilience.

He said the framework should be built to last a decade, refined through continuous analysis of terrorist incidents, and pushed down to the level of the individual police station. He called for an automated counter-terrorism response institutionalised at every level of the structure, and for coordination that prevents delay in acting.

The inclusion of human rights as one of the seven pillars is notable in an Indian counter-terrorism document. The release did not elaborate on what the pillar covers in practice.

Shah also launched an extradition portal intended to speed up the return of fugitives from abroad. He said 288 fugitive criminals had been brought back from 36 countries between 2019 and 2026, and urged state police forces to set up dedicated teams to work with central agencies on such cases.

That figure has moved. Speaking in Goa on 6 September, Shah gave the number as 274 extraditions from 36 countries between 2019 and July this year, which implies 14 further returns in under three weeks. The government has not published a breakdown.

Extradition is among the slower instruments of Indian law enforcement. Cases can run for years through foreign courts, and India has extradition treaties with a limited number of countries, relying on less binding arrangements elsewhere. A portal will not change the law in the requested country, but it may reduce the delay on the Indian side, where requests have historically moved between the home ministry, the external affairs ministry and state police forces without a single tracking system.

The conference was attended in person by the home secretary, the foreign secretary, heads of the central armed police forces, directors general of police from 15 states and the anti-terrorism squad chiefs of all states and union territories. Other state police chiefs joined online.

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