ISIS planning guerrilla attacks in various parts of country, confirms NIA

Hyderabad: The declaration by the head of the Bangladesh unit of the ISIS, Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, in the ISIS propaganda magazine Dabiq in April 2016, that the terror outfit was contemplating guerrilla attacks in India like those of the CPI (Maoists), seems to be confirmed by the National Investigation Agency probing into the pipe bomb conspiracy.

The NIA’s Mumbai unit, following the pipe bomb conspiracy case, had arrested the alleged masterminds in January 2016. It had also filed the charge sheet against the accused.

In a chargesheet filed against city-based ISIS terror suspect Mohammed Nafees Khan (Accussed No. 2) of Tolichowki and others, the NIA has said: “In September 11, 2015, during the coordination meeting in Sharanpur in Uttar Pradesh regarding expansion of base of the ISIS in India, one of the accused Md Azhar Khan alias Ikrama (Accused 16) of Madhya Pradesh had suggested that, since their fight was against the security forces, they should adopt the guerrilla tactics as was being done by the Maoists. In the said meeting, it was discussed that they should purchase a piece of land in a remote area to operate in clandestine manner”.

Maharashtra-based ISIS suspect Mudbabir Shaik (Accused 3) also took part in the meeting, the chargesheet says. Around 17 persons were named as being part of the module, including four Hyderabadis.

To train themselves in guerrilla warfare, the terror suspects led by Nafees Khan visited Vikarabad and Naraspur forest areas in Telangana state, according to the chargesheet.

ISIS decides to focus on West Bengal
ISIS’s mouthpiece Dabiq, in its 14th issue, had also said: “Bengal is an important region for the caliphate and the global jihad due to its strategic geographic position. Bengal is located on the eastern side of India, whereas Khurasan province of South Asia is located on its western side. Thus, 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) in India along with the help of the existing local mujahideen there, until the soldiers of the caliphate are able to enter with a conventional army and completely liberate the region... Also, jihad in Bengal is a stepping-stone for jihad in Burma as already mentioned”.

The ISIS was also speaking about expanding with the help of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba
A senior police officer of TS said, “Urban guerrilla warfare and lone wolf attacks like in Paris can’t be ruled out here too. There has been an alert on it. However, our forces are prepared. We have TS Octopus commandos well trained to tackle urban guerrilla warfare like National Security Guards at the national level who are based in Hyderabad too.”

ISIS suspects were found using newer Internet social platform networks for communication, like Signal, to avoid the scrutiny of Indian security agencies.