ISIS module in Madhya Pradesh: Sinister plot busted

Sultan Armar died in the month of March 2014 while battling in Kobane in Syria. Armar the emir of the Ansar-ul-Tawhid a recruiting wing of the ISIS for India and the sub-continent had played a major role not just in recruiting the youth, but investigations have shown that he had even managed to set up a module in India.

A module that was busted in a joint operation by the Madhya Pradesh police and the intelligence bureau has found that a group of five youth were appointed for the job. Their role including both recruitments and also carrying out terror strikes holding the ISIS banner.

The Ratlam module of the ISIS

Headed by a person called Irfaan Khan, this module was set up for the ISIS and had planned on carrying out attacks in India. Khan in several conversations that he had with Armar prior to the latter's death was heard seeking advise on various factors that included preparation of explosives to recruitments.

Khan along with four others were picked up and questioned by the police and the IB and their interrogation led to several startling details. During the course of the investigation they said that they were planning on staging a couple of attacks.

The idea behind carrying out attacks was to announce the arrival of the ISIS in India. They had also sourced materials to prepare the explosives and also took the name of Armar with whom they had discussed the plan.

A new Armar comes into the picture

While the module in India and also the other recruitments for the ISIS were carried out by Sultan Armar, today after his death his brother Shafi Armar has come into the picture.

Shafi Armar who goes by the alias Yusuf hails from Bhatkal. After the death of Sultan, investigators have found that Shafi has been in charge of the ISIS operations in India. These youth from Ratlam have been in touch with Shafi and going by the investigations he was the one in charge of setting up of this module.

Shafi's name had first cropped up a couple of years back during the investigations into the operations of the Indian Mujahideen. Like his brother, Sultan he too was part of the IM, but then following the big split in the outfit, they moved towards the ISIS.

Shafi who hails from Bhatkal in Karnataka has been operating from out of India. IB officials suspect that he could be in the Gulf or may have moved to Syria after the death of his brother. Currently he is in charge of the Ansar-ul-Tawhid which was earlier headed by his brother.

The busting of the module

The busting of the module at Ratlam throws open two points. The first is that this is probably the first of the dedicated modules of the ISIS in India. Secondly it also goes on to show that these youth were not just into recruitments, but wanted to stage attacks in the name of the ISIS.

The ISIS has treaded slowly where its India operations is concerned. The ISIS has primarily focused on recruitments with an intention of building up their Afghanistan module which is called the Al-Khorasan. However this is for the first time that one is witnessing an ISIS plot to carry out attacks in India.

Khan who was heading the module had sourced chemicals to be used in the explosives. It was this trail which led to the police nabbing him in the month of April 2014. His questioning led the police to pick up his 4 accomplices.

At first it was not known to which module these persons belonged. However after investigations it was found that all of them subscribed to the ISIS and had planned on carrying out attacks in Madhya Pradesh.