How Islamic State is leaving a mark in India

The Islamic State may have not captured the imagination of a majority of the Muslims in India, but it is slowly leaving its mark on several youth. The recent raids conducted in Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal and Rajasthan have shown that the dream of the Caliphate has managed to impress a select set of youth who are ready to wage a war in India in the name of the Islamic State.

Going by the investigations conducted in all these cases, it has been found that the IS has not managed to set up full fledged modules like how the Indian Mujahideen or the Lashkar-e-Tayiba had done. A select set of youth are targeted in every place and told to operate on their own.

The handlers intentionally let groups works in isolation instead of linking them through modules. This means that the IS wants people to carry out lone wolf attacks. Moreover the scanner or heat is less when people work in isolation instead of linking them through modules.

Intelligence Bureau officials say that the IS will not be able to penetrate fully into the minds of the Muslims in India. However the danger would be from the lone wolves. The IS not just in India, but in other parts of the world has been pushing hard for lone wolf attacks. This is the real worry says officials with the Intelligence Bureau. The threat from the IS is more in the form of a lone wolf strike rather than a coordinated attack, officials also say.

The other worry for India regarding the IS is the number of people joining the outfit in Iraq, Syria and now Afghanistan. Until 2015, the number of Indians who had travelled to Iraq and Syria was at 23. However in the past one year there has been a rush to join the outfit in Afghanistan. At least 21 Indians most of them from Kerala have joined the Afghanistan Khorasan. The proximity to India and cultural similarities are cited as the primary reasons for Indians making a beeline to Afghanistan.

Indian officials also say that security agencies must also keep a watch on recruits returning to India. The returnees are very dangerous as they come programmed to carry out a big strike. These persons are trained and then launched into India. They do not react immediately, but wait and watch before striking it big. This has been seen in the case of the Paris attack, officials also point out.

OneIndia News