Terror group ISIS to be banned in India

New Delhi/Washington: The dreaded terror group ISIS and all its affiliate organisations will be banned by India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act soon.

A notification declaring ISIS and its affiliates ISIL and IS as proscribed organisations will be issued very soon, official sources said today.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said in Parliament on December 16, 2014 that the Middle-East group had been declared banned in India under a United Nations Schedule.

Mr Singh had said the group has been proscribed under the provisions related to organisations listed in the Schedule to the UN Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (Implementation of Security Council Resolutions) Order, 2007 made under section two of the United Nations (Security Council) Act, 1947.

Four men from Mumbai had gone to Iraq-Syria in May 2014 to join ISIS. One of them returned late last year while the whereabouts of the remaining three are yet to be known.

A Bangalore-based executive of a multi-national company was arrested in December last year for allegedly running a pro-ISIS Twitter handle.

Last month, another person from Hyderabad was barred from travelling to Syria, ostensibly to join ISIS.

Recently, retired Intelligence Bureau chief Asif Ibrahim had said there was an imminent danger of Indian youths moving to the conflict zone (Iraq-Syria), emerging as a role model, and such developments may directly or indirectly pose a threat to the country.

"The threat potential is accentuated with some lower rung elements returning from conflict zone," he had said.

The United States welcomed India's move to ban dreaded militant outfit ISIS and designate it as a terrorist organisation.

"I think we believe they are a terrorist organisation. We welcome others who also believe they are," the State Department Spokesperson, Jen Psaki told reporters when asked about India's decision on this issue.