Pro-ISIS group prompts Indian Muslims to follow Saifullah as example

Mumbai: Al-Hindi, a pro-ISIS channel that operates in encrypted messaging app Telegram, has praised Lucknow terror suspect Saifullah as an inspiration for lone-wolf attacks in India and prompted other Indian Muslims to follow his example.

According to a report in dna, the channel also called Saifullah’s father as a ‘non believer’ for refusing to accept his son’s body, and encouraged other youths to disobey their parents if they ‘stood in the way of Allah.’ It also called jihad an obligation of every individual.  "Don't obey them. And remember jihad is Fardhul Ayn in Hindu mushrik, secular and democratic country of India.''

The group Al Hindi, is one of the several channels operated by the ISIS and the al-Qaeeda for jihadist activities.

"Muwahideen of India. Kill them, stab them, hit them with car, use guns, weapons anything you have. And make them weak, shed their (mushrik, murtdad) blood like water…and make your way easier to jannah…,'' the post reportedly said.

A 12-hour anti-terror operation in a busy Lucknow locality ended alst Wednesday when commandos shot dead a suspected terrorist allegedly involved in a train explosion in Madhya Pradesh a day before.

The UP police said he was a “self-radicalised sympathiser” of terror outfit ISIS, while the state’s anti-terror squad (ATS), involved in the operation, called him an “active member” of an ISIS module.

Television footage showed policemen carrying a body wrapped in a white sheet from a house in the city’s thickly populated Thakurganj area where Saifullah, 23, was holed up.

Several Indians, mostly from Kerala, have joined ISIS, but he is the first homegrown terror suspect being linked to the outfit that has overran large parts of Syria and Iraq in its quest to establish a caliphate under strict Islamic laws.

Saifullah’s father, a teacher in Kanpur, refused to accept his son’s body, branding him a “traitor”.

The operation got over at around 3 am, hours before people began voting in UP’s last phase of Assembly elections.

A large quantity of arms and ammunition, some mobile phones and maps, besides an ISIS flag were recovered from the rented house.

Six people — three each from UP and MP — have been arrested in connection with the train blast in which 12 people were injured.

Senior UP police official Daljit Singh Chaudhary said there was no evidence that the suspects had any direct connection with ISIS, but had become radicalised online.

The module planned to blow up a famous Sufi shrine, Dewa Sharif, in UP’s Barabanki on March 27, top sources said. Security at the shrine and in the town has been stepped up.

However, top ATS official Aseem Arun said the slain suspect was an active member of ISIS’ module in Khurasan, a region that includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and parts of northwestern and western India.