Intel agencies step up online vigil on ISIS India links

After initially downplaying the threat posed by the extremist militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the government has made a tacit shift in its approach towards the biggest global terror outfit. The shift in approach may not be visible, but is significant enough to sit up and take note. After initially believing that India's sympathetic approach towards killings in Palestine and Syria does not bring it in the direct line of fire of the terror group, sleuths now believe that ISIS has launched itself onto the global platform where boundaries have blurred and there may be no region left from the ISIS onslaught as ''terror has no boundaries.''

Moreover, when ISIS inspired strikes first began surfacing in Australia and U.S in 2014, New Delhi was cautious in its approach with counter terrorism officials maintaining they don't want to give ISIS ''recognition'' as it would only bolster the outfit's image.  It may be recalled that 18-year-old Abdul Numan Haider was shot dead after he stabbed two counterterrorism officers outside a Melbourne police station. Haider's family had moved to Australia from Afghanistan. The attack is believed to have been inspired by ISIS. In America, the killing of American journalist James Foley brought ISIS into focus. The beheading of the American reporter was seen as revenge killing by the ISIS for the then ongoing US air strikes in Iraq.

Scores of killings, lone wolf attacks and bombings have followed across countries, the latest being the suicide bombings at Brussels. While the ISIS threat has visibly increased across the globe, for New Delhi's regional and domestic concerns the threat has become ''alive''.  A case in point is that the ISIS has redrawn its map of influence with the latest showing Middle East, North Africa, most of the Indian subcontinent and parts of Europe, to be brought under ISIS control within the next five years, to complete its caliphate. By 2020, the outfit plans to take over the world.

For India, while the biggest threat still remains ''lone wolf attacks'' that may be carried out by ISIS radicalised elements, what has become a matter of great concern is that the ISIS sympathisers have multiplied over months within the country and the figure is only swelling.

If the ISIS social media penetration and influence was initially limited to southern states, the demography has changed. Now, among the states being senstisied by the Union home ministry against the raging ISIS threat are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan besides Telangana, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Kerala.

While 25 Indians were identified by the various security agencies, including the NIA, as having returned to India or been killed in the ISIS hotbeds in Syria, the danger lurks back home where 150 persons are those who remain under the scanner for being sympathetic towards ISIS. Still, many remain undetected and uncounted for.

The counter-radicalisation policy has been revamped by the Ministry to have a pan-India spread, involve Muslim outfits, spread awareness through regular Friday sermons, involve Councillors and ask law enforcement agencies not to register cases against ISIS sympathisers rather ''de-radicalise'' them and quietly bring them into the mainstream once again.

Will the strategy work? Has it worked so far? It is too early to get a clear answer as agencies believe that the process has just begun and for each person who is being weaned off, there is a bigger number which is going online each day and tracking ISIS jihad and becoming victims of its ''online radicalisation''.

What is known so far is that nearly 40 youth have been de-radicalised over the last one year or so, with the help of their families and senior community leaders. A constant watch is being kept over them and all others who are being monitored on social media platforms by Intelligence sleuths. It is also for the first time such online tracking by the Intelligence Bureau has also helped bust ISIS modules in the country.

"Intelligence agencies can’t be allowed to count their successes till an ISIS inspired strike does not occur in the country," said a government official adopting a cautious approach. The case of the Indian Oil Corporation executive from Jaipur, Mohammad Sirazudin, explains how close the ISIS threat has come home. Sirazudin, who hails from Gulbarga in Karnataka, was on the verge of turning into a long-wolf attacker. Contrary to available media reports, it was not Sirazudin who came under the scanner of agencies directly. He was hidden and may have remained hidden till an ISIS attack happened had it not been for ''online surveillance'' launched by the Indian agencies.

It was a girl, in her mid-20s, from Hyderabad who was being tracked by the agencies first for her activities on WhatsApp and Twitter. While regularly tracking her and checking her contacts, it dawned upon the agencies that she was a small pawn in a big ISIS network that led the chain to Jaipur. On tracing her Jaipur contact, the agencies realised that Sirazudin was already radicalised and posed ''grave danger'' operating as a recruiter for the global terror outfit spreading ISIS tentacles through online activities. Before he could carry out his nefarious designs, he was arrested. The girl's identity was kept hidden and central and state agencies began efforts to de-radicalise her with the help of family and community leaders.