Delhi Police arrested 482 alleged gangsters and their associates in an Operation Gang Bust 2.0 across five states in just 48-hours. This operation uncovered a chilling ISI-backed terror plot to bomb a Delhi temple, a Dhaba and a military camp in Haryana. The Special Cell and district police units worked together from May 5 to May 7, 2026 to conduct a joint operation that covered areas in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
Operation Gang Bust 2.0 Explained
This operation’s scope is exceptional in every way. Police teams carried out 1,014 raids across five states using over 1,000 teams at one time. At least twelve criminal gangs were simultaneously targeted. As for the contraband and assets seized, around 141 illicit handguns, 212 cartridges, 79 knives, and 24 cars were confiscated.
Additionally, three gunrunners from Punjab were captured, indicating that the capital’s criminal ecosystem is fed by active interstate arms supply chains.Police teams carried out 1,014 raids across five states using over 1,000 teams at one time. At least twelve criminal gangs were simultaneously targeted.
Among the 482 arrested, nine were confirmed operatives of Shahzad Bhatti, a Pakistan-based gangster with deep ties to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and a history of directing violence inside India from across the border.
How Close Did India Come to a Bombing at a Delhi Temple and a Military Camp?
According to Delhi Police, the group had conducted active reconnaissance of a historic temple in Delhi, a popular dhaba on the Delhi-Sonipat highway, and a military installation in Haryana. These were not vague threats. Investigators say the operatives had used IP-based CCTV cameras installed at these locations to conduct remote surveillance of the targets, turning commercial security infrastructure against itself.
A senior Delhi Police official confirmed that the operation uncovered “a new and dangerous dimension” to organised crime in India, where traditional gangster activities like extortion, drug trafficking, and contract killing are now being directly merged with ISI-directed anti-national operations.
Who Is Shahzad Bhatti?
Shahzad Bhatti founded his criminal empire after infiltrating the Lawrence Bishnoi gang network in Pakistan. A number of high-profile targeted killings in India are believed to have been orchestrated by him, including the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in 2022 and the murder of NCP leader Baba Siddiqui in Mumbai in 2024.
The discovery that Bhatti’s network is still active in 2026 and preparing new attacks has raised serious concerns about cross-border impunity and the speed of institutional response. Intelligence agencies have long flagged Bhatti’s ISI connections, but this operation marks the first time a large-scale coordinated operation has netted his operatives in such numbers inside India.
How Is ISI Finding Its Foot Soldiers Inside India?
Young men from smaller towns, with limited education and few economic prospects, are being drawn in by the glamour of gangster culture on social media and then weaponised for terror-adjacent tasks.
One operative, Hargunpreet Singh, a Class 12 pass youth from Firozpur in Punjab, confessed to carrying out a grenade attack on Bhatti’s instructions. Another operative, Prajapati, 19, from Datia in Madhya Pradesh, said he had reached out directly to Bhatti after watching his videos online. He had no prior criminal record.
How Big Was This And Has India Ever Seen Anything Like It?
India has seen large-scale organised crime crackdowns before. Operation All Out launched in 2017 in Uttar Pradesh resulted in thousands of arrests and hundreds of interactions with gangsters. Mumbai Police has carried out periodic sweeps targeting underworld networks over the decades.
But an operation involving 1,014 raids across five states, over 1,000 teams, and 12 gangs targeted simultaneously within a 48-hour window is rare in Indian policing history. Combined with the ISI terror angle and the seizure of weapons on this scale, Gang Bust 2.0 represents a qualitatively different kind of operation.
What was the result of this Operation Gang Bust 2.0?
What sets it apart from earlier crackdowns is its explicit focus on the full support ecosystem around organised crime, not just the gangsters themselves.
Police targeted financiers who fund criminal operations, SIM card suppliers who enable untraceable communication, arms dealers, vehicle providers, shelter operators who hide wanted criminals, and social media handlers who manage gangsters’ online presence and recruitment pipelines.
This strategy reflects a realization among Indian law enforcement that the distinction between state-sponsored terrorism and organized crime has become dangerously hazy. Groups like the Bhatti network are not simply criminal enterprises. They are, investigators say, hybrid structures being actively guided by Pakistan’s ISI to destabilise India’s internal security.
Is Gang Bust 2.0 a Security Operation or a Political Moment?
Delhi Police operates under the Union Home Ministry, not the Delhi state government. The timing of the operation, launched in the immediate post-Operation Sindoor period of maximum India-Pakistan diplomatic tension, has drawn attention from political observers who see it through different lenses.
Supporters of the operation call it a decisive and necessary security response to a documented threat. Critics note that large-scale operations with high-visibility ISI connections tend to attract political attention when they coincide with charged national moments.
Police officials, however, have stressed that the operation was intelligence-driven and planned well in advance.
Investigations are ongoing. Police have indicated further arrests are expected as the network’s financiers and logistics handlers are traced.
