ISIS makes India inroads

The proscribed global jihadist terror organisation — Islamic State — has reportedly made “significant” inroads in India in the last one year and is in the process of building committees at the grassroots level and local councils in every Indian state based on the Sharia law through its online recruitment on Skype and Trillian, with a clear intent to establish the Islamic caliphate under the banner of “Junud ul Khalifa e Hind,” (soldiers of the Indian caliphate).

“Unlike the Al Qaeda, Daesh believes in capturing land and it is making inroads in India with the caliphate as an ultimate objective. Daesh has a unique method of holding dawat (invitation) to invite non-members and other jihadi outfits into its fold. For its success in India, Daesh is allegedly planning to hold dawat with Bangladesh-based terror outfit, Jama’at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba,” said an official source.

The chilling details of Daesh’s India operations come in the wake of widespread arrests of 14 alleged suspects by the National Investigation Agency, who have allegedly been radicalised and recruited by two handlers of Indian origin in Syria. One of them is suspected to be alleged terror fugitive Mohammed Armar Shafi from Bhatkal.

“The 14 alleged suspects were arrested last week from Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Tumkaru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Aurangabad were reportedly being assigned different roles — of collecting and distributing funds, weapons and building its army of jihadists and fidayeens for ‘Junud’. Mumbai resident Muttabir Mushtaq Sheikh was allegedly appointed as the ‘Emir’ of ‘Junud’ by his handlers. The suspects have an online communication with their handlers and colleagues to avoid being intercepted by Intelligence agencies. The NIA has allegedly seized a huge cache of electronic equipment from the arrested suspects, which will be sent for forensic analysis for further investigation,” the officer added.