Sunday, 10 July 2016

ISIS attack eminent in India

Ramananda Sengupta: Knock, knock... It's ISIS! 

All signs point to a major terrorist strike in India within the next few months.  This is likely to happen despite our intelligence and security agencies frantically raising red flags across the country. 
Delhi, Mumbai and Goa have been put on alert after a Punjab police
warning on July 7 that three terrorists from Pakistan, armed with
sophisticated weapons and possibly a suicide belt, may have sneaked into
India. 

In the east, West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya have ramped up
security, following the July 1 massacre at a Dhaka café by affluent
youngsters claiming allegiance to the Daesh, or Islamic State, followed
by the bomb attack on the country’s largest Eid gathering on July 7. 

Then there are reports that Asim Umar, the
head of the Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, or AQIS, has recently
urged Indian Muslims to follow the example of lone wolves in Europe and
kill senior IAS and IPS officers. 

In the last week of June, 11 young men
said to be members of a Daesh affiliate were arrested in Hyderabad, and
accused of planning massive city wide attacks. 
While the flow of jihadis from Pakistan is a decades-old threat, the
rise of the Daesh, and its clones in Bangladesh, is an ominous new
development. 
Even more disturbing are reports that two of the Dhaka café
attackers, as well as some of the Daesh suspects arrested in Hyderabad,
claim to be inspired by the sermons of Zakir Naik, a popular
Mumbai-based Islamist preacher. 
Forget ‘intelligence inputs’, the Daesh itself has made its intentions very clear. 
According to Abu Ibrahim Al-Hanif, the newly appointed Emir of the
Daesh in Bangladesh, “….having a strong jihad base in Bengal will
facilitate performing guerrilla attacks inside India simultaneously from
both sides and facilitate creating a condition of tawahhush (savagery
causing fear and chaos) in India along with the help of the existing
local mujahidin there.” 
“It is not the methodology of the Khilafah’s [caliphate] soldiers to
send more threats to the enemies of Allah,” he says in a long interview
in the April issue of Dabiq, the rabid outfit’s slickly produced online
magazine. ‘ Rather, we let our actions do the talking.  And, our soldiers
are presently sharpening their knives to slaughter the atheists, the
mockers of the Prophet, and every other apostate in the region, bi
idnillah [by Allah’s will].” 
Despite this, for political and economic reasons, Bangladesh has
staunchly denied the presence of Daesh in the country, and continues to
insist that the recent spate of attacks are the handiwork of the
Opposition and domestic Islamic outfits. 
The fact that Daesh appears to have co-opted the cadres of many of
these local Bangladeshi outfits like the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
(JMB), Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and the youth wing of the local
Al-Mujahideen, further complicates the threat perception in India. 
The JMB, which wants Sharia law in Bangladesh, has a fairly large
network in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Assam.  And Hyderabad, with its
young, tech savvy population, has been a rich hunting ground for the
Daesh.  India has always boasted that despite having the second
largest Muslim population in the world, estimated at 170 million, no
Muslim from the country took part in the Jihad in Afghanistan, or joined
the Al Qaeda. 
As for the Islamic State, a tacit understanding with Turkey ensures
that ‘misguided’ young Indians who arrive there in the hope of joining
the Daesh in neighbouring Syria are quickly identified and sent back to
India. 
“At best, there are no more than 30 Indians who have actually joined
the Islamic State in Syria,” an intelligence official told me recently. 
He, however, declined comment when asked about IS modules within India. 
“The IS is known for its aggressive digital campaign,” said another
senior counter-intelligence official. “ Today, when almost every
youngster in the country has access to a cellphone, it is very easy to
reach out and subvert impressionable young minds through social media,
as well as WhatsApp, Instagram, and a host of other such platforms.” 
The situation is further compounded by venal Indian politicians who
fear that arresting known Muslim radicals or hate mongers would disturb
their vote banks.  This, despite the fact that many senior leaders of the
community have repeatedly denounced the Daesh and Al Qaeda as
un-Islamic. 
The long, porous border with Bangladesh, and the influx of illegal
immigrants blatantly facilitated and encouraged by ruling political
parties in West Bengal Tripura for padding up their voters’ lists, gives
the Daesh easy access to India. 
So, as we brace for the next terrorist strike, perhaps we should let
the late Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the Intelligence
Bureau and the author of several explosive books, have the last word. 
“This is not a war by Muslims against Hindus,” he told me more than a
decade ago. “ It is a war against India by foreign-based jihadist forces
headed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and International Islamist Inc. Every
Indian —regardless of religion, ethnicity, caste, creed, or gender — is
required to unitedly fight these enemies. ”—The author is foreign and strategic affairs analyst, and a Consultant Editor of Indian Defence Review