
Who is 'Madam N' from Pakistan, ISI agent accused of building an army of 500 spies in India, she runs..., her name is...
Since the Pahalgam terror attack, relations between India and Pakistan have been severely strained. Several Indian YouTubers and citizens have recently come under scrutiny after being accused of allegations of spying on behalf of Pakistan. The individuals are accused of having passed on confidential information or conducted online activities that threatened national security, further fueling the already charged atmosphere between the two countries.
One such person is YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, was also accused of spying against India. The first hearing of Jyoti's case will be held in the Hisar court on June 9. Lawyer Kumar Mukesh, who will plead Jyoti's case in Haryana's Hisar District Court, said that Jyoti has made videos for her YouTube channel at different places and has also gone abroad with a visa. On May 26, the court sent Jyoti to judicial custody for fourteen days.The YouTuber was arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen. She allegedly met a Pakistani officer, Ahsan-ur-Rahim, in Delhi, travelled to Pakistan twice, and shared sensitive information. During the preliminary investigation, the woman told the police that she went to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023 to apply for a visa and met a man named Ahsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish.
According to sources cited by NDTV, a businesswoman running a 'travel agency' in Lahore, Pakistan, has been identified as the key figure behind facilitating visits of Indian social media influencers to Pakistan. She is believed to have laid the groundwork to use them as spies, raising serious concerns over cross-border espionage efforts.
Sources reveal that Noshaba Shehzad, a businesswoman operating under Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), played an important role in facilitating the travel of Indian social media influencers to Pakistan. Through her Lahore-based company, 'Jaiyana Travel and Tourism', she assisted individuals like Jyoti Malhotra, who was recently arrested, along with several others, in entering the country.
As per the NDTV report, Sources say that during the interrogation of arrested social media influencers in India, investigators uncovered the name of a key figure—Ms. Noshaba Shehzad, known within Pakistan's ISI by the codename 'Madam N.' Shehzad's role, they allege, was far more than just arranging travel. She had been quietly working to build a vast sleeper cell network of at least 500 individuals—people trained to blend into everyday life and operate undetected across India.
According to sources cited by NDTV, Ms. Shehzad is married to a retired officer of the Pakistani civil services. Acting on detailed instructions from the Pakistani Army and the ISI, she was tasked with establishing a sleeper cell network within India, designed to operate discreetly and avoid detection.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Hindu
13 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Mithi River desilting: ED summons actor Dino Morea, BMC officials
At least eight people, including actor Dino Morea, his brother, and some BMC officials have been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning next week in a money laundering case linked to an alleged ₹65 crore worth Mithi River desilting "scam", official sources said on Saturday (June 7, 2025). The notices came after the federal probe agency on Friday (June 6, 2025) searched more than 15 premises linked to these people in Mumbai in Maharashtra and Kochi in Kerala. "Around eight to nine people, including actor Dino Morea, his brother Santino and some Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials, have been asked to appear before the agency at the ED office in Mumbai on different dates next week," a source said. Their statements will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) once they depose, he said. Dino Morea's house in the Bandra (West) area, apart from premises linked to his brother, and those of BMC officials and contractors, were searched by the ED on Friday. The ED case stems from a Mumbai Police economic offences wing (EOW) FIR filed in May against 13 people, including contractors and civic officials, for an alleged Rs 65.54 crore scam in the tenders awarded from 2017-2023 for desilting of the Mithi River which flows through Mumbai and acts as a stormwater drainage channel for the metro city. The Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena controlled the cash-rich BMC from 1997 till the party's split in 2022. After the expiry of the general body in 2022, the civic body was controlled by the state government, which was then headed by Eknath Shinde. It was alleged by the police in its complaint that BMC officials tailored the tender for the desilting contract in such a way that it benefited a particular supplier of machinery, and the contractors reportedly generated fraudulent bills for transporting the sludge out of Mumbai. Morea and his brother were questioned by the Mumbai Police EOW in this case last month. The 49-year-old actor has been questioned twice by police. The Morea brothers, it is understood, were questioned by the police about their alleged links with alleged middleman Ketan Kadam, arrested in the case along with another accused, Jai Joshi, apart from some financial transactions made in a company linked to Santino. Kadam and Joshi, according to police, were involved in the renting out of 'silt pusher' machines and multi-purpose amphibious pontoon machines to contractors who were carrying out Mithi river desilting work. This is the second time that the actor has been in the crosshairs of the ED, as, in 2021, the agency had attached his assets as part of a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged bank fraud case against Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech and its promoters. The plan to desilt the river was planned by the Mumbai civic authorities following the 2005 floods, which brought the city to a grinding halt.
&w=3840&q=100)

First Post
17 minutes ago
- First Post
4 'firsts' when PM Modi travels to Canada for G7 meet
It is PM Modi's first visit to Canada since the bilateral ties nosedived under PM Trudeau following the Nijjar controversy. Modi's visit provides an opportunity to both nations to press the reset button read more Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday (June 6) confirmed his participation at the upcoming G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada. The PM said his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney extended an invitation to him, which he accepted. 'Glad to receive a call from Prime Minister Mark J Carney of Canada. Congratulated him on his recent election victory and thanked him for the invitation to the G7 Summit in Kananaskis later this month,' PM Modi posted on X. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The visit by the Indian PM to Canada is extremely significant, especially in the backdrop of Ottawa-New Delhi tensions that followed the killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in 2023. Carney's predecessor Justin Trudeau accused the Modi government of orchestrating the fatal attack on Canadian soil, which led to the rapid deterioration of bilateral ties. Now, Modi's visit to Canada signals an emerging thaw in the bilateral relationship. First Modi-Carney meeting It would be the first meeting between PM Carney and PM Modi. During his election campaign, Carney repeatedly called India ties 'incredibly important' for the country. 'There are strains on that relationship that we didn't cause, to be clear,' he said. 'But there is a path forward to address those with mutual respect.' Carney, who was under pressure by pro-Khalistani groups over the invitation to Modi, told reporters Thursday that a legal process was still underway in Canada and 'it's never appropriate to make comments'. He also justified G7 invitation to PM Modi, saying, 'India is the fifth largest economy in the world, the most populous country, and central to supply chains.' First visit to Canada since diplomatic blow-up It is PM Modi's first visit to Canada since the bilateral ties nosedived under PM Trudeau following the Nijjar controversy. The Trudeau administration not only accused India of interfering in its election process but also blamed 'agents of the government of India' for Nijjar's murder. Followed by this, diplomatic expulsions took place on both sides. Now, Modi's visit to Canada provides an opportunity to both nations to press the reset button. Modi's first foreign visit since the conflict with Pakistan It is PM Modi's first foreign visit after India's four-day military conflict and Operation Sindoor against Pakistan in May. During the visit, the prime minister is likely to call out Pakistan's terror agenda. Meanwhile, the Canadian readout did not highlight much about the visit. PM Modi's first meeting with Trump amidst tariff tussle The G7 summit will see PM Modi and Trump come face-to-face for the first time since the latter imposed a 26 per cent tariff on India in April this year but later paused. As per reports, extensive talks are underway between India and the US to reach a trade deal. Both sides are pressing each other for tariff cuts and concessions amid pressure to hammer out a draft ahead of the July 9 deadline. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This will be Modi's first interaction with Trump since their White House interaction in February. The G7 summit will be held in Alberta province from June 15 to 17. While India is not a member of the elite bloc, India has been receiving invitations to the table as a guest nation since 2019, when France first extended an invitation to the Biarritz summit.


Time of India
19 minutes ago
- Time of India
Can an American pope apply US-style fundraising and standards to fix troubled Vatican finances?
As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was often on the lookout for used cars that he could buy cheap and fix up himself for use in parishes around his diocese. With cars that were really broken down, he'd watch YouTube videos to learn how to fix them. That kind of make-do-with-less, fix-it-yourself mentality could serve Pope Leo XIV well as he addresses one of the greatest challenges facing him as pope: The Holy See's chronic, 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit, 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall and declining donations that together pose something of an existential threat to the central government of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church . As a Chicago-born math major, canon lawyer and two-time superior of his global Augustinian religious order, the 69-year-old pope presumably can read a balance sheet and make sense of the Vatican's complicated finances, which have long been mired in scandal. Whether he can change the financial culture of the Holy See, consolidate reforms Pope Francis started and convince donors that their money is going to good use is another matter. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Promoções imperdíveis de voos baratos Voos | Anúncios de Pesquisa Saiba Mais Undo Leo already has one thing going for him: his American-ness. US donors have long been the economic life support system of the Holy See, financing everything from papal charity projects abroad to restorations of St. Peter's Basilica at home. Leo's election as the first American pope has sent a jolt of excitement through US. Catholics, some of whom had soured on donating to the Vatican after years of unrelenting stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal, according to interviews with top Catholic fundraisers, philanthropists and church management experts. "I think the election of an American is going to give greater confidence that any money given is going to be cared for by American principles, especially of stewardship and transparency," said the Rev. Roger Landry, director of the Vatican's main missionary fundraising operation in the US, the Pontifical Mission Societies. Live Events You Might Also Like: Whoops, waves, tears: Faithful react to Pope Leo's first Sunday blessing in St. Peter's Square "So there will be great hope that American generosity is first going to be appreciated and then secondly is going to be well handled," he said. "That hasn't always been the circumstance, especially lately." Reforms and unfinished business Pope Francis was elected in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Vatican's opaque finances and made progress during his 12-year pontificate, mostly on the regulatory front. With help from the late Australian Cardinal George Pell , Francis created an economy ministry and council made up of clergy and lay experts to supervise Vatican finances, and he wrestled the Italian-dominated bureaucracy into conforming to international accounting and budgetary standards. He authorized a landmark, if deeply problematic, corruption trial over a botched London property investment that convicted a once-powerful Italian cardinal. And he punished the Vatican's Secretariat of State that had allowed the London deal to go through by stripping it of its ability to manage its own assets. But Francis left unfinished business and his overall record, at least according to some in the donor community, is less than positive. Critics cite Pell's frustrated reform efforts and the firing of the Holy See's first-ever auditor general, who says he was ousted because he had uncovered too much financial wrongdoing. You Might Also Like: Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass after historic election as Pope Francis' successor Despite imposing years of belt-tightening and hiring freezes, Francis left the Vatican in somewhat dire financial straits: The main stopgap bucket of money that funds budgetary shortfalls, known as the Peter's Pence, is nearly exhausted, officials say. The 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall that Pell warned about a decade ago remains unaddressed, though Francis had planned reforms. And the structural deficit continues, with the Holy See logging an 83.5 million euro ($95 million) deficit in 2023, according to its latest financial report. As Francis' health worsened, there were signs that his efforts to reform the Vatican's medieval financial culture hadn't really stuck, either. The very same Secretariat of State that Francis had punished for losing tens of millions of euros in the scandalous London property deal somehow ended up heading up a new papal fundraising commission that was announced while Francis was in the hospital. According to its founding charter and statutes, the commission is led by the Secretariat of State's assessor, is composed entirely of Italian Vatican officials with no professional fundraising expertise and has no required external financial oversight. To some Vatican watchers, the commission smacks of the Italian-led Secretariat of State taking advantage of a sick pope to announce a new flow of unchecked donations into its coffers after its 600 million euro ($684 million) sovereign wealth fund was taken away and given to another office to manage as punishment for the London fiasco. "There are no Americans on the commission. I think it would be good if there were representatives of Europe and Asia and Africa and the United States on the commission," said Ward Fitzgerald, president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation . It is made up of wealthy American Catholics that since 1990 has provided over $250 million (219 million euros) in grants and scholarships to the pope's global charitable initiatives. Fitzgerald, who spent his career in real estate private equity, said American donors - especially the younger generation - expect transparency and accountability from recipients of their money, and know they can find non-Vatican Catholic charities that meet those expectations. "We would expect transparency before we would start to solve the problem," he said. That said, Fitzgerald said he hadn't seen any significant let-up in donor willingness to fund the Papal Foundation's project-specific donations during the Francis pontificate. Indeed, U.S. donations to the Vatican overall have remained more or less consistent even as other countries' offerings declined, with U.S. bishops and individual Catholics contributing more than any other country in the two main channels to donate to papal causes. A head for numbers and background fundraising Francis moved Prevost to take over the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. Residents and fellow priests say he consistently rallied funds, food and other life-saving goods for the neediest - experience that suggests he knows well how to raise money when times are tight and how to spend wisely. He bolstered the local Caritas charity in Chiclayo, with parishes creating food banks that worked with local businesses to distribute donated food, said the Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, a diocesan spokesperson. In 2019, Prevost inaugurated a shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo, Villa San Vicente de Paul, to house desperate Venezuelan migrants who had fled their country's economic crisis. The migrants remember him still, not only for helping give them and their children shelter, but for bringing live chickens obtained from a donor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prevost launched a campaign to raise funds to build two oxygen plants to provide hard-hit residents with life-saving oxygen. In 2023, when massive rains flooded the region, he personally brought food to the flood-struck zone. Within hours of his May 8 election, videos went viral on social media of Prevost, wearing rubber boots and standing in a flooded street, pitching a solidarity campaign, "Peru Give a Hand," to raise money for flood victims. The Rev. Jorge Millan, who lived with Prevost and eight other priests for nearly a decade in Chiclayo, said he had a "mathematical" mentality and knew how to get the job done. Prevost would always be on the lookout for used cars to buy for use around the diocese, Millan said, noting that the bishop often had to drive long distances to reach all of his flock or get to Lima, the capital. Prevost liked to fix them up himself, and if he didn't know what to do, "he'd look up solutions on YouTube and very often he'd find them," Millan told The Associated Press. Before going to Peru, Prevost served two terms as prior general, or superior, of the global Augustinian order. While the order's local provinces are financially independent, Prevost was responsible for reviewing their balance sheets and oversaw the budgeting and investment strategy of the order's headquarters in Rome, said the Rev. Franz Klein, the order's Rome-based economist who worked with Prevost. The Augustinian campus sits on prime real estate just outside St. Peter's Square and supplements revenue by renting out its picturesque terrace to media organizations (including the AP) for major Vatican events, including the conclave that elected Leo pope. But even Prevost saw the need for better fundraising, especially to help out poorer provinces. Toward the end of his 12-year term and with his support, a committee proposed creation of a foundation, Augustinians in the World. At the end of 2023, it had 994,000 euros ($1.13 million) in assets and was helping fund self-sustaining projects across Africa, including a center to rehabilitate former child soldiers in Congo. "He has a very good interest and also a very good feeling for numbers," Klein said. "I have no worry about the finances of the Vatican in these years because he is very, very clever."