Did al-Qaeda sneak in while Indian police were focusing only on ISIS

New Delhi, Dec 17: The Delhi police which has arrested three operatives suspected to be members of the al-Qaeda in the Sub-Continent of AQIS has learnt that there were six operational modules in India.

While two arrests were carried out at Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh the other operative was arrested in a joint operation with the Odisha police in Cuttack.

A senior official with the Special Cell of the Delhi police informed OneIndia that the probe would be furthered to Andhra Pradesh, Maharasthra and West Bengal where these modules are said to be active. The questioning of these persons will lead up to the trail of the modules the official also added.

Recruit and bomb:

The busting of this module has revealed some startling details about the plot that the AQIS was allegedly hatching. While one part of the plot was to bomb the Delhi metro, the other involved a recruitment spree. The AQIS has since its launch almost two years back has failed to make a mark in the sub-continent and is often seen running piggy back on Bangladesh based radical groups.

The Delhi police say that these persons were inspired by the writings of Asim Umar, the man appointed as chief of the AQIS. The supreme commander of the al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri had named Umar as the chief as he was well versed with the landscape of the sub-continent.

Intelligence Bureau officials had always warned that if the AQIS makes a mark it would do so through West Bengal. With some modules of the AQIS now being discovered in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra counter intelligence operations would be stepped up.

Chasing the ISIS:
The AQIS looked to take advantage of the fact that the entire Indian mechanism is focusing on the ISIS alone. With enhanced counter terror measures focusing on the ISIS, the AQIS did attempt to sneak into India and carry out a recruitment drive.

There is however a big question mark on how successful these persons have been in indoctrinating the youth in India. After the launch of the AQIS, several Indian Muslims denounced this group and the agenda it proposed to set up in the sub-continent.

The AQIS when it was launched said that it would set up an Islamic Caliphate in the sub-continent and the route map that it had drawn indicated that it would enter into India from Bangladesh and make inroads into West Bengal first.

OneIndia News