ISIS' India strategy: Join forces with Maoists and target kaafirs

The enemyrsquos enemy is a friend mdash so believes the ISIS Investigations by several antiterrorism agencies into the conspiracy hatched by suspected ISIS members in India have revealed that to pull off its sinister plan of waging a fullfledged attack against the country the terror group had allegedly planned to join forces with Maoist groups The plan was to approach Maoists for arms and ammunition procurement as well as arms trainingISIS handlers in Syria and Iraq also asked their Indian counterparts to build a force of lsquolone wolvesrsquo to carry out fidayeen attacks File picAFPNearly 20 suspected members of ISISrsquo Indian wing mdash Ansarut Tawhid fi Bilal alHind mdash have been arrested by various agencies including the National Investigation Agency NIA and the antiterrorism squads ATSs of several states in the last few months Cases of most of the states including one of the Maharashtra ATS mdash lodged in December 2015 after four youths from Malwani fled their homes to join the ISIS in Iraq and Syria mdash were taken over by the NIACrucial meetingInvestigations by the Intelligence Bureau the NIA and the Maharashtra ATS into the plans of Mudabbir Sheikh the chief of Ansarut Tawhid fi Bilal alHind who was arrested on January 21 and Khalid Ahmed Ali alias Rizwan the secondin command mdash arrested the day after mdash have blown the lid off a significant secret meeting convened in Lucknow late in December last yearBesides discussing strategies for carrying out attacks the idea of taking Maoistsrsquo help was also mooted by one of the top members of the group at the meeting said sources in the Maharashtra ATSThe meeting was attended by eight members of the terror outfit including Sheikh and Ali AkhlaqurRehman Mohammed Mehraj and Mohammed Azim mdash who were later arrested for planning a terror strike during the Ardh Kumbh Mela at Haridwar in January mdash as well as Mohammed OsamaldquoAt the meeting the suspects discussed joining hands with Maoist groups operating in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to procure arms and ammunition and also for arms training Since the Maoists too have an antination ideology the idea of joining hands with them was strongly contemplated by ISIS membersrdquo said an ATS official A few top members of the terror outfit had even explored options and identified jungles in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to train radicalized youths said sourcesLone wolvesThe arrested suspected ISIS members also revealed that they had received instructions from their ISIS handlers in Iraq and Syria on building a force of lsquolone wolvesrsquo who could individually carry out fidayeen attacks in various parts of the country It was planned that once an attack was carried out the ISIS from Iraq and Syria would take responsibility for itldquoISIS members were instructed to not only attack foreigners for global impact but also lsquokaafirsrsquo who donrsquot follow ISISrsquo ideologyrdquo said another ATS officialMazgaon bizman chickened outOne of the key suspected members of the ISIS Mohamed Hussain Jamil Khan revealed that he had refused to become a fidayeen The 36yearold businessman from Mazgaon had been under the scanner of the Intelligence Bureau for over oneandahalf years before his arrest on January 22 ldquoWhen one of the senior members in the terror group asked him why he didnrsquot want to become a fidayeen despite taking the lsquobaitrsquo oath taken on joining the ISIS he said he had taken the oath to work towards ISISrsquo aims and would do it by contributing to its fundsrdquo said a source Khan allegedly generated Rs 120 lakh for ISISrsquo activities and accepted a delivery of explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate PETN in Delhi to make IEDs Scared of getting caught he however flushed the explosives in a masjidrsquos toilet in Delhi said sources