How 'Madam N' Lured Indian Social Media Influencers To Spy For Pakistan

A businesswoman who runs a 'travel agency' in Pakistan's Lahore has been identified as the person who helped Indian social media influencers travel to her country and set the groundwork for using them as spies, sources have said.

Working under Pakistan's espionage agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the businesswoman Noshaba Shehzad who runs the Lahore-based company 'Jaiyana Travel and Tourism', helped Indian social media influencers like Jyoti Malhotra - who was arrested recently - and many others to visit Pakistan, sources said.

Known by the codename 'Madam N' by the ISI, Ms Shehzad came into the picture during interrogation of arrested social media influencers in India, sources said, adding she had been working to set up a massive sleeper cell network of at least 500 spies who can hide in plain sight across India.

Ms Shehzad's husband is a retired officer of the Pakistani civil services. The Pakistani Army and the ISI sent her instructions on how to set up the sleeper cell network in India, sources said.

Sources said the Pakistani businesswoman introduced Indian social media influencers to her country's army and the ISI, and would lure Hindus and Sikhs living in India. She helped nearly 3,000 citizens from India and 1,500 non-resident Indians (NRIs) visit Pakistan in the last six months, sources said.

Ms Shehzad's influence reached the visa department of the Pakistani embassy in Delhi. She had been in touch with the First Secretary (visa) Suhail Qamar and Counsellor (trade) Umar Sheryar, which meant that whoever she wanted would get a Pakistani visa immediately, "with a single phone call", sources said.

She was also in touch with ISI operative Danish alias Ehsan-ur-Rehman, who worked as a visa officer in the Pakistani embassy in Delhi. Danish was expelled from India in May, after Jyoti Malhotra was exposed.

While there is neither any system to send tourists from India to Pakistan nor any process to issue tourist visas to Indian citizens, the Pakistani High Commission had been issuing visitor visas on the recommendation and sponsorship of 'Madam N'.

Her connection with the Pakistani Army and the ISI can also be understood from the fact that her company is the only agency that organises Sikh and Hindu pilgrimage to Pakistan, which works in collaboration with the Evacuee Trust Property Board.

On the side, Ms Shehzad charged a huge amount of money from Indian pilgrims and used the funds for promoting Pakistani propaganda, sources said. She recently appointed some travel agents in Delhi and other cities, who are now promoting her company on social media.