The Shadow Queen Of ISI: How ‘Madam N' Wove A Spy Web Of Sleeper Agents Across India
New Delhi: In a story that reads like the plot of a high-stakes geopolitical thriller, Indian intelligence agencies have uncovered the presence of a mysterious Pakistani woman known as 'Madam N' – a suave and powerful business tycoon from Lahore with alleged orders straight from Pakistan's notorious spy agency – the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Her mission was to infiltrate India through culture, faith and charm and to raise a ghost army of 500 spies scattered quietly across Indian soil.
What began as a routine interrogation of arrested social media influencers turned into the stunning revelation. Hidden behind the polished curtains of diplomacy and travel was Naushaba Shahzad, owner of 'Zyana Travel and Tourism' in Lahore, now accused of masterminding an audacious espionage network that reached deep into India's digital and spiritual spaces.
According to sources, Naushaba, under the ISI codename 'Madam N', had been working meticulously for months to build a covert network of sleeper cells in India. She was not sending spies across borders with weapons or radio sets. She was using smartphones, spiritual pilgrimages and social media likes. Her bait? Culture, faith and an open invitation to Pakistan – in the name of Sikh and Hindu pilgrimages.
Over just six months, 'Madam N' allegedly brought over 3,000 Indian citizens and 1,500 NRIs to Pakistan. They were not just tourists or devotees. Intelligence inputs suggest many of them unknowingly walked into a well-scripted ISI recruitment program – meeting with military officials, being groomed for 'information gathering' and in some cases, receiving suspicious funding.
Her operation was so slick and so invisible that she could allegedly arrange a visa to Pakistan with just a phone call. Her connections ran deep inside Pakistan's diplomatic machinery. One of her key contacts was Danish aka Ahsan-ur-Rahman, an ISI operative posted at the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi – recently expelled by India on charges of espionage.
But Madam N's real genius was hiding the machinery of a spy factory behind the peaceful facade of religious tourism. She collaborated with Pakistan's Evacuee Trust Property Board, the body responsible for managing Sikh and Hindu shrines in the country. The pilgrimages, the cultural outreach and the hospitality – it was all a shimmering curtain. Behind it, millions of rupees allegedly moved silently to fund ISI propaganda, recruit informants and amplify anti-India narratives.
What India has now stumbled upon is not another case of cross-border intelligence warfare, it is a new blueprint of soft-espionage – one that is harder to detect, harder to prove and deeply embedded in the emotional and cultural fabric of the people it targets.
Indian security agencies are now in high alert mode. The revelations have jolted the intelligence community, not just for the scale of the network but for the subtlety with which it was built.
The story of 'Madam N' is also not about one woman. It is about a reminder that the war for information is not being fought on battlefields anymore. It is being fought on timelines, visas, WhatsApp groups and temple visits.
The spy game has changed. And India is finally waking up to just how dangerous the new frontlines are.
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