Opinion | India’s New Terror Matrix: White-Collar Terrorism

Opinion | India’s New Terror Matrix: White-Collar Terrorism

The November 2025 car explosion in Delhi, suspected to have been orchestrated by cadres of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist organisation, underscores an unsettling reality: terrorism in India is undergoing a profound transformation. A new kind of threat from white-collar extremists is replacing the old image of a terrorist cadre trained in remote camps. These are well-educated professionals, with respectable careers, who are radicalised and engaging in violence.

Technological advancements and the growth of encrypted messaging platforms aid this new breed of terrorists. Consequently, the traditional concepts of counter-terrorism (CT) that mostly relied on profiling of the disenfranchised and the marginalised are crumbling. Indian security agencies now confront extremist networks made up of doctors, engineers, and business professionals, who utilise their knowledge, experience, and social standing to commit terrorist acts.

However, this is not a new trend.

Earlier, we had seen the Indian Mujahideen in the late 2000s, which had recruited software professionals and committed terrorist attacks. Similarly, for the 9/11 attacks in 2001, al-Qaeda had used trained pilots, and the European jihadist networks of the Islamic State in much of the previous decade, too, had remained active by recruiting engineers and IT professionals. Called “lone wolf" terrorists, these are the individuals who self-radicalise from the online propaganda of the terrorist groups and other extremists. Their emergence was a logical evolution of the al-Qaeda strategy to empower and motivate individuals to commit acts of violence completely outside any terrorist chain of command.

Al-Qaeda had long promoted “open-source jihad", intended to equip aspiring terrorist sympathisers with the tools they need to conduct attacks without travelling to jihadist training camps. However, ‘lone wolf' is a misnomer precisely because there is a virtual pack, a social network, behind every ‘lone wolf' and a chain of command that controls these lone wolves through encrypted messaging apps and chat rooms. Now, Pakistan-based anti-India terrorist groups like the JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) are adopting this tactic to masquerade their involvement and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence's (ISI) collusion in supporting terrorism in India. This allows the Pakistani state and the ISI to deflect international attention and project a ‘homegrown' dimension to terrorism.

White-collar terrorists or educated radicalised individuals are joining terrorist networks, using their technical skills and social status, which in a way strengthens the terrorist organisations. As seen by the example of the JeM module operating out of Al-Falah University on Delhi's outskirts, these individuals also train recruits, not just in weapons or explosives, but in areas such as digital financial transactions. Pakistan appears to be adapting its strategy around this shift, using it to fuel violence in Jammu and Kashmir and across India.

For these white-collar terrorists, violence is more theatrical and symbolic, as can be seen by the choice of targets. Attacks are no longer only about physical destruction and violence; rather, they are designed as political performances. Therefore, choosing high-profile targets such as the Red Fort aims to strike at India's national spirit, evoke collective memory, and send a powerful ideological message.

Technological advancements have only strengthened the hands of this breed of terrorists. The proliferation of encrypted messaging apps and chatrooms on the darknet has enabled these violent actors to communicate anonymously, evading the surveillance of law enforcement agencies. Besides, cryptocurrencies allow them to move money without being traced. This makes it harder to follow trails of illicit money and cut them off. The most noticeable, however, has been the weaponisation of commercially available drones, which are being used to move arms and explosives. This was seen during the LeT's attack on the Indian Air Force base in Jammu in June 2021.

In the case of the Delhi blasts, the JeM module had reportedly used the Telegram app for coordination. Moreover, agencies suspect that both LeT and JeM are utilising Pakistani digital payment platforms to raise money to support their causes. The Pakistani establishment has also misused Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated deepfake videos in its anti-India propaganda efforts. Given their symbiotic ties with terrorist groups, it's a matter of time before this technology makes its way to the terror handlers. This will be especially useful for radicalisation, as with AI, the outfits and recruiters can make hyper-personalised videos to facilitate the radicalisation of potential recruits.

India has responded to this emerging threat by strengthening a robust CT framework. In the past decade, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has reinvigorated the Multi-Agency Centre within the Intelligence Bureau. It serves as an information-sharing platform on CT for security and intelligence agencies. Another key measure has been the establishment of the National Intelligence Grid, which enables real-time information sharing between agencies by linking their databases.

A key focus in the last few years has been on countering terrorist financing, which sustains many of the terrorist activities. The National Investigation Agency, as the primary CT agency, has taken up several cases related to terrorist financing, particularly in J&K. It is also now examining the modus operandi of the Delhi blast-linked JeM module.

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The vigorous implementation of these measures, along with the military responses to the recent terrorist attacks, including through the May 2025 Operation Sindoor, has also pushed the Pakistan-based organisations to change their tactics. This evolving nature of cross-border terrorism, therefore, demands more vigilance, particularly vis-à-vis the activities of the so-called lone wolf terrorists and the modules like that of the JeM. Specifically, the focus must be on denying these terrorist modules access to novel tech capabilities and shadowy funding mechanisms.

Sameer Patil is Director, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation. Uday Pratap Singh is an Assistant Professor, Department of Defence & Strategic Studies, ISDC, at the University of Allahabad, Prayagraj. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.

Source: News18
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