Terrorist groups: Different names, same ideology

New Delhi, Jan 23: The SIMI became Indian Mujahideen, the Indian Mujahideen became the Deccan Mujahideen. In such a scenario it comes as no surprise if the ISIS or Ansar-ul-Tawhid becomes Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind.

This was the name under which some of the persons detained by the NIA yesterday were operating.

Terrorist groups changing names is nothing new. One must recollect that after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) had sent out a communication in the name of the Deccan Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the strike.

Different names similar ideology:

Be it any terror group there is just one ideology and that is to cause destruction in the name of religion. However the other reason why terrorist group take different names is to avoid the surveillance.

Intelligence Bureau officials tend to keep their eyes and ears open to familiar groups and in such a scenario, terrorist groups feel that they can dodge being watched by changing names.

While the changing of names does not yield any long term result for the group, it does however manage to avoid the heat for sometime. Intelligence Bureau officials say that groups such as the ISIS or al-Qaeda operate under at least a 1,000 different names. However it is not very difficult to track them.

The chatter, the modus operandi are all too similar in nature and sooner or later their bluff is caught. The other reason terrorist groups operate under different names is because it makes money transactions also easy. If an ISIS operative has to receive money, he will seek it in the name of a different name.

For instance the NIA is probing to find out how the Mumbai based man Mushtaq arrested yesterday had sourced Rs 20 lakh despite being out of job for the past 2 and half years.

He was clearly operating under the name of the Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind with an intention of avoiding being tracked. He was successful in dodging the agencies for sometime and in the meantime could have effected the money transfer into his account, sources in the NIA point out.

OneIndia News