How ISIS planned to use citizenship law protests to incite Indian Muslims

New Delhi, Sep 03: The National Investigation Agency in its chargesheet has said that an ISIS module was inciting Muslims against non-Muslims and also exhorting them to rise against the Government of India.

The accused have been charge-sheeted for their affiliation with the proscribed terrorist organisation ISIS/ISKP and for conspiring to create disaffection against Government of India, promoting enmity among different religious communities and for committing subversive activities.

Jahanzaib Sami, Hina Bashir Beigh, Abdullah Basith, Sadiya Anwar Shaikh and Nabeel Siddick Khatri have been charged by the NIA. The case was originally registered by the Delhi Police following the arrest of Sami and his wife Hina from their rented home at Okhla Vihar in Delhi. The NIA took over the probe in March 2020.

The probe revealed that, Jahanzaib, a B.Tech from Ferozpur, Punjab, got radicalised and inclined towards ISIS/ISKP by reading about it on the internet. He established contact with ISIS handler Huzaifa-al-Bakistani and the latter's father-in-law through Abu Usman-Al-Kashmiri (Head of Indian affairs of ISKP) in 2017 on a secure messaging platform. Huzaifa-al-Bakistani further introduced him to Abdullah Basith, another ISIS operative, who is already in

judicial custody at Tihar jail in connection with another NIA case (ISIS Abu Dabhi Module).

Hina who pursued her higher education from Pune also got radicalised in 2015 by reading up on the ISIS. Sami got married to her in 2017.

The accused persons were constantly in contact with the ISIS operatives based out of both Afghanistan and Syria. Based on the instructions given to them, they prepared a magazine called 'Voice of Hind'. The intent was to incite Muslims against Non- Muslims and exhort them to rise against the Government of India and join ISIS.

The magazine eulogised ISIS/ISKP terrorists including Huzaifa-al-Bakistani who was killed in July 2019 in a drone strike in Afghanistan and denigrates the Indian Constitution and democratic system.

Further the accused conspired to utilise the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests to instigate Muslims against the Indian Government by coining seditious slogans and making graffiti at public places and highlighting the same on social and international media.

They were also provoking some gullible youth to participate in anti-CAA protests actively. In case these protests failed to provoke the Muslims, they were planning to destroy government buildings and public property in a bid to instigate the people to indulge in rioting. They also aimed at exploiting Muslim sentiments, the NIA said.

They also tried to make an improvised IED and were planning to carry out mass-killings in crowded places to further the activities of ISIS/ISKP in India. They also conducted reconnaissance in sensitive locations at Maharashtra, which are frequented by foriegners.