Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has adopted a new strategy of establishing covert "desks" in various countries to orchestrate operations, Indian intelligence agencies have revealed.

These desks mirror an ISI setup in Sri Lanka 14 years ago, aimed at creating terror modules in South India. Though that plot was thwarted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the ISI continues such activities, a senior official said.

To expand this network, the ISI is collaborating with Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation (NIO), which recently helped establish the "Dhaka Desk" in Bangladesh.

The ISI is now building a "Moscow Desk" to form modules in Russia -- an Indian ally -- for sabotage and covert actions. Similar desks are planned for Myanmar, Nepal, and a revival in Sri Lanka to target southern India, where Al Qaeda and Islamic State splinter groups dominate online radicalization amid the vacuum left by the banned Popular Front of India.

Overseeing these efforts are Brigadier Muhammad Asif Khan and two other senior Pakistani army officers. Beyond terror modules, the desks will conduct intelligence-gathering "fishing missions" and infiltrate host countries' agencies, officials noted.

The Dhaka Desk has proven successful, training Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HuJI) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JuMB) members to infiltrate India's northeast and West Bengal. Operations flourished under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, who was lenient toward Pakistan. Its future under the new BNP-led government -- with Tarique Rahman sworn in as Prime Minister on Tuesday after the party's poll victory -- is uncertain. This marks Bangladesh's first election since Sheikh Hasina's ouster in August 2024.

An Intelligence Bureau official warned that the Turkey-Pakistan axis poses a deeper threat: "While setting up modules is one part, infiltrating intelligence agencies signals a massive bid for control and covert dominance."