26/11 plotter Tahawwur Rana extradited, Pahalgam & Delhi terror cases cracked, counter-terror Agency notches Major breakthroughs against jihadi, LWE, Khalistani and organised crime networks
New Delhi, Dec 31 (JKNS): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) marked the year 2025 with a series of landmark achievements, maintaining an impressive conviction rate of over 92 percent while securing major successes including the extradition of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks plotter Tahawwur Rana and significant breakthroughs in the Pahalgam and Delhi terror attack investigations.
A series of milestone achievements marked the year 2025 for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has maintained an impressive record of over 92 percent conviction rate while achieving major successes, including the extradition of 26/11 mastermind Tahawwur Rana as well as the arrest of several terrorists and their associates involved in the dastardly Pahalgam and the Delhi terror attacks, as per news agency JKNS, NIA spokesperson said in a year-end statement.
Tahawwur Rana was successfully extradited from the United States to India in April to face justice for plotting the horrific 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and other attacks across the country. The extradition marked a significant breakthrough in NIA’s investigation into the 26/11 terror attack conspiracy that left 166 people dead, it reads.
In another noteworthy achievement, NIA secured the deportation of gangster Anmol Bishnoi from the US. Brother and close aide of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Anmol had been absconding since 2022. The agency is making all-out efforts to ensure speedy trial against him in a case relating to the conspiracy by criminal syndicates/gangs based in India and abroad, to carry out terrorist activities in Delhi and other parts of the country.
With its chargesheet filed against seven accused, including the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its affiliate ‘The Resistance Front (TRF)’ as a terrorist organisation, the NIA wrapped up the year with a major success in its investigation into the deadly Pahalgam terrorist attack that had shocked the nation in April. Among those chargesheeted were the three terrorists who had carried out the religion-based targeted killings and were subsequently killed by the security forces.
The NIA also made remarkable progress in its ongoing probe in the Delhi Red Fort area car blast case, in which as many as nine accused were arrested in less than two months of the terrorist attack that killed 11 persons and left several others injured.
The year further saw the counter-terror agency make major strides in its action against Left Wing Extremism (LWE). The central government has set a goal to make India completely Naxal-free by March 31, 2026, and the NIA, along with state police forces and central armed police forces such as the CRPF, has been actively pursuing the Naxal cadres in the country. NIA took up a total of nine investigations against LWE members and top leaderships, and chargesheeted 34 of them during the year.
The total arrests made by NIA across key categories of crimes in the 55 cases registered during the year stood at 276, including 67 accused in Jihadi cases, 74 in LWE cases, 37 in NEI cases, 28 in Khalistan cases, 11 in Gangster cases and 59 accused in other cases. The agency notched a record 66 convictions and chargesheeted 320 accused in 2025, which witnessed a slew of property and asset attachment actions as part of its crackdown against absconding terrorists, criminals and gangsters. A total of 12 properties/assets were attached during the year.
Nationwide searches at the premises of accused and suspects in major terror and organised crime networks through the year saw a total of 200 accused arrested. These searches and arrests, which included clampdowns in cases related to designated Khalistani terrorists like Goldy Brar, were part of NIA’s concerted efforts to dismantle such networks.
The NIA further made substantial progress in cases related to human trafficking networks that have proliferated in several states in recent years. A large number of vulnerable youth have been duped by these transnational syndicates, including via the notorious ‘dunki’ route, and NIA made several arrests in connection with the latter. The agency also made significant progress in cases of cross-border human trafficking involving Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals, as well as cases of Indian youth being forced into cyber slavery in the Golden Triangle region in Laos and Cambodia.
During the year, NIA continued to intensify its actions against ISIS, Al-Qaeda, HuT and other Jihadi organisations involved in various radicalisation, recruitment and terror attack cases. These included the Red Fort Delhi blast case, terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, and other cases of conspiracy and radicalisation of youth. The agency also focused concertedly on investigations against pro-Khalistani elements and their nexus with organised criminal syndicates, with 10 such cases intensively investigated during the year.
Other important investigations during 2025 included cases against various insurgent groups such as ULFA-I and NSCN-IM in the North East. Several instances of recovery of arms, ammunition and explosives were also reported by the agency from various states. These included the seizure of illegal arms and ammunition following searches across three states, leading to the arrest of four accused in the last month of the year. This was preceded, in November, by the arrest of a wanted accused involved in the smuggling of sophisticated illegal weapons, including AK-47 rifles along with ammunition, into Bihar as part of a major anti-national conspiracy.
Major breakthroughs were made during 2025 in many cases relating to the targeted killings of Praveen Nettaru, Ramalingam, Kerala Professor T J Joseph, Ratan Dubey, Sreenivasan, Suhas Shetty, Dinesh Pusu Gawade and Priyangu Pandey. A series of convictions secured in the Pakistan-linked Vishakhapatnam Navy espionage case of 2019 added another feather to NIA’s cap. The NIA also arrested and chargesheeted several accused in various Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) cases across states.
Keeping pace with the changing terror and crime landscape in the country, NIA made major technical and operational advancements aimed at strengthening its investigation and modernising its capabilities. A ‘Lost/Looted/Recovered’ Government Weapons Database and an Organised Crime Network Database were developed to improve anti-terror capabilities not just of the NIA but of all key security and investigative agencies across states through real-time information sharing.
In a significant step towards fostering inter-agency collaboration and empowering law enforcement officials to fight the growing challenges posed by cryptocurrency-related criminal activities, the NIA conducted an advanced workshop on cryptocurrency investigations at the start of the year. Infrastructural development and expansion remained an ongoing focus area of the agency’s efforts to augment its capacity in its fight against terror, in line with its commitment to securing the nation against major terrorist and criminal networks. (JKNS)