The November 2025 car explosion in Delhi, suspected to have been orchestrated by cadres of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist organisation, underscores an unsettling reality: terrorism in India is undergoing a profound transformation. A new kind of threat from white-collar extremists is replacing the old image of a terrorist cadre trained in remote camps. These are well-educated professionals, with respectable careers, who are radicalised and engaging in violence.

Technological advancements and the growth of encrypted messaging platforms aid this new breed of terrorists. Consequently, the traditional concepts of counter-terrorism (CT) that mostly relied on profiling of the disenfranchised and the marginalised are crumbling. Indian security agencies now confront extremist networks made up of doctors, engineers, and business professionals, who utilise their knowledge, experience, and social standing to commit terrorist acts.

However, this is not a new trend.

Earlier, we had seen the Indian Mujahideen in the late 2000s, which had recruited software professionals and committed terrorist attacks. Similarly, for the 9/11 attacks in 2001, al-Qaeda had used trained pilots, and the European jihadist networks of the Islamic State in much of the previous decade, too, had remained active by recruiting engineers and IT professionals. Called “lone wolf" terrorists, these are the individuals who self-radicalise from the online propaganda of the terrorist groups and other extremists. Their emergence was a logical evolution of the al-Qaeda strategy to empower and motivate individuals to commit acts of violence completely outside any........

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