Udaipur killing: ISIS styled knife strike or doing of a foreign backed local terror cell

The ISIS has used knives in several attacks, the most prominent one being at Nice in France. The ISIS also has a manual on the use of knives in terror attacks

New Delhi, Jun 29: The gory killing of Kanhaiya Lal, a Hindu from Udaipur on Tuesday has left the nation shocked and horrified. Now with the National Investigation Agency set to take over the investigation, all possible angles would be probed.

Officials OneIndia spoke with said that the foreign link, local cells and the association of the two accused to a radical Muslim organisation will be probed. This appears to be a deep-rooted conspiracy, the official who did not wish to be named said.

Another angle that would be probed would be whether this was a lone wolf attack. While prima facie it appears that the two accused Gos Mohammad and Riyaz Akhtari were acting at the behest of a foreign force controlled local terror cell, a lone wolf angle also cannot be ruled out.

Looking at the choice of weapon used to slit the throat of Lal, it appears a very Islamic State styled attack. The Intelligence Bureau has several times warned that the ISIS is planning knife attacks in India. The knife is a weapon that generally does not come under the radar of the police and hence the outfit has decided to stage knife attacks which also creates a great deal of impact.

ISIS has issued several instructions in the past about practicing unconventional terrorism. The Nice attack in which a lorry was used as the weapon to run over and kill people was one such example of how unconventional yet impactful terrorism has become. The ISIS manuals also suggest the use of knives for attacks. In another manual it has suggested using stones to kill people. Even if you can push people of the building it should serve the purpose, the ISIS says in another manual.

In India the first area that the ISIS wanted to use the knife attack was at the Dal lake in Srinagar. Considering the large number of foreign tourists at that place, ISIS felt that it was the best place to strike. ISIS had also roped in an operative to conduct a reconnaissance of the place.

The ISIS has also spoken about targeted killings in India. In 2016 in an interview published in the Dabiq magazine a mouthpiece of the outfit, Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif who is the emir of the ISIS in Bangladesh that the idea is to liberate India from the disbelievers or the mushikirins.

The intention is to rid India of mushikirins. The Hindus in India have been waging a war against Muslims and Islam. He says that the Hindus in India have been showing their animosity openly against the Muslims in India, he had said.

The Intelligence Bureau says that the ISIS has been putting up such propaganda material for long and their idea is to rope in Indian Muslims into their fold. While at first they did not succeed, one has to look at the developments in Afghanistan and the manner in which the Islamic State is carrying out attacks on Afghan Hindus and Sikhs, an official explained.