NIA's pan-India raids reveal Islamic State's targets in India are Hindus, Hindu temples

The NIA has learnt that scores of Muslim youth have been radicalised online, thanks to the material that the Islamic State has put up on the internet and social media.

New Delhi, Aug 08: The deep-rooted problem of the Islamic State in India came to the fore yet again following the arrest of a radicalised and active member of the group from his residence in Delhi.

While the National Investigation Agency (NIA) continues to question Mohsin Ahmad, the agency conducted raids at different locations in Doda and Jammu on Monday, sources have told OneIndia.

The raids being conducted today are also in connection with the case relating to the Islamic State. The source cited above said that they are cracking down the pan-India modules of the terror group which have infiltrated deep and are radicalising several Muslim youth across the country.

"Yesterday (06.08.2022), NIA conducted search operations in the residential premises of accused Mohsin Ahmad, presently residing near Jogabai Extention in Batla house, New Delhi and permanent resident of Patna in Bihar and subsequently arrested him in the case pertaining to online and on-ground activities of ISIS," the NIA said in a statement following the arrest on Sunday. The NIA has been conducting raids at various locations and has learnt that scores of Muslim youth have been radicalised online, thanks to the material that the Islamic State has put up on the internet and social media.

Only last week did the NIA carry out raids at multiple locations in the country. Raids were carried out at Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Sources say that with each of these raids the extent of radicalisation that has taken place became clear. In Bhopal, two persons Mohammad Anas and Zuber Khan were arrested. The NIA said that one of them was a madrasa educated student and the other a graduate from Bhopal.

In Tumakuru, Karnataka, the NIA arrested a students of Unani Medical College. The student originally hails from Mumbai and he is accused of putting out radical Islamic content on the net.

Meanwhile two college students were arrested at Huppari in Maharashtra. Raids were also conducted at Bhatkal and few persons were questioned by the NIA. Meanwhile a Tamil Nadu based operative, Meer Anaas Ali was picked up by the NIA. He is a third year engineering student and was picked from Ambur Town.

Officials say that the questioning of these arrested Muslim youth shows that not only were they deeply radicalised, but they had reached out to scores of others and radicalised them.

In March this year, the NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet against two residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA said that in order to achieve their goal, an organised campaign was launched online supplemented by on-ground financing activities. The case was registered against cyber entity Qasim Khurasani and his associates.

The NIA said that in the case Parvaiz is a top ISIS operative and a close associate of one Umar Nisar. He was also associated with the Afghanistan-Pakistan based ISIS operatives and was involved in the recruitment of youth. Following the arrest of Nisar, he was appointed as the head of the ISIS in India.

Parvaiz was also handling the media as well as the ground activities of the ISIS. He was also actively disseminating the ISIS propaganda material through various online platforms.

The other accused Tawheed Latief Sofi was also a close associate of previously charge-sheeted accused persons Umar Nisar and Jufri Jawhar Damudi. He was involved in content editing and poster creation for ISIS propaganda magazine, Voice of Hind and had also carried out recee of Hindu temples, Government buildings including police stations to carry out subversive acts.