ISIS network was flourishing in; poor vigilance of police was instrumental in the growing of this network. The truth is that Indian agencies have no clue of the IS tentacles spread in India and they need foreign intelligence to inform them about the same. These slipstreams of jihad have so far taken so many young Indian Muslim youth to their fold. They all are attracted towards Iraq and Syria, to the Islamic State frontline, all the way to the inseparable ones of Allah. Moreover, Jihadists don’t fall from the sky; they are formed. Apart from tangible geographical distance, India and Syria are also distant in terms of faith and identity.
The Internet is an arena that allows undetected, at least for some time (that could be as long as a few years, as in this case) many clandestine interactions that may pose national and international threat to security. Authorities all over the world are working on redeeming this “security” problem but yet a lot needs to be done in matters pertaining to technical and security related co-operations amongst nations. There is a need to go deeper into this problem. The youngster in question is a youth from West Bengal, and although he comes from a lower middle class family, his education has helped him to enjoy a relatively high quality living, when compared to the other 650 million youth in this country. Why then is he getting “disillusioned” and working on the concept of Islam Jihad? There is a dire need to understand his psychology and get to the bottom to correctly understand the problem and reach an appropriate solution. This is now an international problem and should be solved in coordination.
Muslim youth are conditioned day night in the name of Islam and service to Allah. There are many forums and cables on line doing this job uninterruptedly. These Islamic groups catch hold of individuals having ordinary jobs, living ordinary lives and having little criminal history. Then they are made to undergo the process of “jihadisation” after which they “accept their individual duty to participate in jihad and self-designate themselves as holy warriors or Mujahideen”. In India, there is a serious need of discussions on Muslim community and their issues that reach beyond Halal meat and hijabs. Unfortunately, our nation has witnessed several terror attacks but no prominent measures are taken to prevent those.
A globally coordinated effort of British and Indian intelligence agencies resulted in the arrest of 24-year-old Mehdi Masroor Biswas, the alleged owner of the pro-IS Twitter account @ShamiWitness. Mehdi Masroor Biswas, handler of pro-Islamic State Twitter account @ShamiWitness, used to live in a single room. Mehdi was a “quiet” man who was always on his mobile phone and carried a laptop bag. Biswas, an engineering graduate from Kolkata and working as a manufacturing executive at ITC Foods in the city since 2012, was picked up from his one-room flat at Jalahalli in the city’s north-eastern part. The arrest came just hours after he established contact on his mobile phone with Channel 4 representatives for the second time. Sources say all telephone call traffic between Bengaluru and London was being monitored, after Channel 4 broadcasted the first interview that unmasked his identity. Officials said the operation had MI6, the British intelligence agency, passing information to their Indian counterparts. The fact remains that he did not travel outside, he did not recruit anyone personally nor been in touch with any person for the purpose of terrorism.
Few days ago, an ISIS recruit from Kalyan, Areeb Majeed, was trained as a suicide bomber who made as many as three attempts on security forces at different vital installations in Syria without any success, it has now emerged. He sustained bullet injuries in one of the many battles, including the August offensive on Mosul dam in Iraq, he participated in as an ISIS man against Iraqi and US forces. These are some of the revelations Majeed made during interrogation, confirming the worst fears of security agencies that the engineering student from Mumbai’s suburb is more than a boy gone astray. Until now, Majeed had maintained that he had not participated in any ISIS battle. He had also said that the two bullet injuries he sustained were during practice firing and that ISIS made him work as a mason. Majeed has been interrogated for over one week by NIA and Intelligence Bureau. The development has diminished the chances of agencies taking any lenient view of Majeed’s ISIS indulgence given that he is remorseless and deeply radicalised. It had been earlier discussed within the home ministry that Majeed could be looked at with compassion if he was not found to be involved in any attack, cooperated with investigations and desired to reform.
Mehdi Masroor Biswas and Areeb Majeed, are just two examples; they got caught that’s why police could reach to the facts, there must be many such guys who are operating from India for ISIS or Jihadi groups and still are untraceable by intelligence authorities, they can be the probable threat to this country in future and mankind.
