The Islamic State, the Indian Sub-Continent & its Neighbourhood

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Re: The Islamic State in the Indian Sub-Continent

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Islamic State’s Pakistan attack highlights changing tactics - DT
The second deadly attack in Pakistan claimed by Islamic State's leadership in a month shows a swift rise of the movement by partnering with local sectarian groups, analysts say, even as an official on Sunday denied IS has a Pakistan presence.

Islamic State's Arabic-language news service in the Middle East claimed responsibility for the bombing of a shrine on Saturday, which killed 52 people and wounded scores more in Balochistan.

The blast at Shah Noorani shrine, in a remote area about 100 km north of the port city of Karachi, happened while hundreds of people were inside. It followed an attack on a police academy on Oct 24 in the same province that was jointly claimed by IS and a sectarian faction, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami.

The Al Alami faction did not claim direct involvement in the latest attack, but a spokesman repeated that the group cooperates with IS's leadership and other jihadi movements.

"Right now, in Pakistan, and especially in the cities, wherever there are attacks taking place, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami is cooperating with them either directly or indirectly," spokesman Ali bin Sufyan said.

The use of local proxies among established militants has been a singular aspect of Islamic State's entry into Pakistan. In neighboring Afghanistan, by contrast, members of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban have switched allegiances and rebranded themselves as IS fighters.

In Pakistan, however, Islamic State appears happy to let their local allies operate under their own identities in exchange for allowing IS to claim responsibility for high-profile attacks.

"IS may not have a formal structure in Pakistan, but certainly they have support among some of the banned militant groups, particularly Sunni sectarian groups" like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami (LeJ-AA), said Zahid Hussain, a Pakistani security analyst. "It's a kind of nexus that we are seeing between global jihadi groups and local sectarian groups."

Pakistani officials, however, continue to deny Islamic State has developed any meaningful operations in the country, which is home to a host of other militants including the Taliban, LeJ, Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda. "There is no presence of (Islamic State) in Balochistan. The claim IS made is false," Baluchistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said on Sunday.

Bugti said that recent attacks claimed by IS were carried out by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami, but the group gave information to IS on the attackers in order to harm Pakistan's reputation.

"Claims through IS are a conspiracy to isolate Pakistan in the international community," he said.

He added that he believes the LeJ Al Alami faction was acting on orders of Pakistan's arch-foe and neighbor, India, though he did not explain how India would facilitate contact with Islamic State.
Pakistan officials often say India is connected to militant attacks in Balochistan.

The Balochistan attacks came mere months after Pakistan's chief military spokesman told a press briefing that Islamic State's plans to expand into the country had been thwarted.

Analyst Hussain, however, said there are now clear signs that Pakistani militants are in direct contact with Islamic State's central leadership and with the movement's hundreds of loyalist fighters in eastern Afghanistan. "Absolutely, there is a connection," he said. "This is not just a banner as publicity. There is some connection, and contacts."

Amir Rana, another Pakistani security analyst, agreed that Islamic State's growing influence "cannot be denied". "It seems that IS has found an ally in Pakistan, which is probably LeJ Al Alami," Rana said. That would help explain why the attacks claimed by IS took place in Balochistan, he said, because that is where LeJ has some of its strongest operations.


The Islamic State's Pakistan push also resembles the IS-inspired strikes in the West - hitting soft targets instead of attempting to take territory, as the movement has done in Afghanistan and the Middle East. That is partly because Pakistan's strong military makes it more difficult to seize territory.
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Re: The Islamic State in the Indian Sub-Continent

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The Shadow of Daesh - Tushar Ranjan Mohanty, South Asia Terrorism Portal
At least 52 persons were killed and more than hundred were injured when a teenage suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the midst of devotees at the shrine of Sufi saint Shah Noorani in the Khuzdar District of Balochistan in the evening of November 12, 2016. The explosion took place at the spot where the dhamaal (Sufi ritual of devotional dance) was being performed, within the premises of the shrine. “The bomber appeared to be 14 to 16 years old,” said Muhammad Hashim Ghalzai, the Commissioner of Kalat Division, of which Khuzdar is a District. Nawaz Ali, the shrine's custodian, added, "Every day, around sunset, there is a dhamaal here, and there are large numbers of people who come for this." According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jafar Khan, at the time of the blast, around 1,000 devotees were present in the shrine to view the performance. The Daesh (Islamic State, IS, previously Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack via Amaq, its affiliated news agency.

Daesh, along with Al Alami (international) faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), also claimed the October 24 attack on the Quetta Police Training College (PTC) at New Sariab, in which 61 Security Force (SF) personnel were killed, and another 164 were injured. Three terrorists entered into the PTC and headed straight for the hostel, where around 700 Police recruits were sleeping. The attack began at around 11:10 pm, with gunfire continuing to ring out at the site for several hours. Major causalities were inflicted when two suicide bombers blew themselves up. One of the terrorists, wearing a suicide vest, was killed by SFs. Though the Pakistani establishment claimed that the terrorists belonged to the LeJ-Al Alami, Daesh claimed responsibility and released photographs of the fighters involved, one of whom bore a strong resemblance to an attacker who was killed by SFs in the assault.

On the same day, Daesh also allegedly orchestrated another killing, when two motorcycle borne terrorists shot dead Intelligence Sub-Inspector Akbar Ali at a bus stop near his home in the Sardaryab area of Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), when he was on his way to work in Peshawar, the provincial capital. In a short statement posted on Amaq, its affiliated news agency, Daesh claimed that "Islamic State fighters have killed a Pakistan intelligence agent in the Sardaryab region... of Pakistan".

The most significant claim from Daesh came on August 8, 2016, for the suicide attacks on Quetta’s Civil Hospital in which at least 74 persons, including 55 lawyers, were killed and over 100 were wounded, when scores of people had gathered to mourn the death of BBA President Bilal Anwar Kasi in a gun attack earlier in the day. Law enforcement officials stated that the two attacks were connected and the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber. The 55 slain lawyers include BBA’s former President Baz Muhammad Kakar; former Supreme Court Bar Association Vice-President Syed Qahir Shah; Advocate Sangat Jamaldani, son of Jahanzeb Jamaldani, Secretary General, Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M); and Advocate Dawood Kasi, son of Former Federal Minister Dr. Abdul Malik Kasi. Reuters quoted Daesh’s Amaq news agency as stating, “A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in...Quetta.” The Amaq report was released from Cairo, Egypt.

A succession of deadly attacks in Pakistan claimed by Daesh suggests a rising partnership with local terrorist formations, even though the Pakistan establishment continues to deny Daesh presence in Balochistan. Thus, Baluchistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti stated, on November 13, 2016, "There is no presence of (Islamic State) in Balochistan. The claim IS made is false." Bugti claimed that the recent attacks claimed by Daesh were carried out by LeJ-Al Alami, but this group gave information to Daesh relating to the attackers in order to harm Pakistan's reputation: "Claims through IS are a conspiracy to isolate Pakistan in the international community." Similarly, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, on November 15, 2015, had ruled out any Daesh ‘footprint’ in the country and declared that no citizen would be allowed to have links with the terrorist organisation, adding, “Pakistan has the capability to thwart threats by any terrorist organisation, including the Islamic State.” Similarly, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah on November 23, 2015, claimed that the Islamic State did not exist in Pakistan and that some proscribed organisations within the country were using its name.

Daesh appears happy to let its local allies in Pakistan operate under their own identities in exchange for allowing Daesh to claim responsibility for high-profile attacks. Zahid Hussain, a Pakistani security analyst, noted, on November 13, 2016, "IS may not have a formal structure in Pakistan, but certainly they have support among some of the banned terrorist groups, particularly Sunni sectarian groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami (LeJ-AA)… It's a kind of nexus that we are seeing between global jihadi groups and local sectarian groups."

US commander General John W Nicholson, who commands the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, while briefing Washington-based journalists at the Pentagon, on August 1, 2016, said that almost 70 per cent of Daesh fighters in Afghanistan are Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists. Nicholson claimed, a "significant proportion, a majority of fighters" with Daesh in Afghanistan come from Pakistan's Orakzai Agency, over the border from Nangarhar, and are former members of TTP. He further stated that many of the fighters were Pakistani Pashtun from Orakzai Agency and had been forced out of Pakistan by the ongoing military offensive, Operation Zarb-e-Azb: "In the case of the IS fighters in southern Nangarhar, we see that many of them come from the Orakzai Agency, which is south of Nangarhar – actually, south of the Khyber Agency. And they were former members of the TTP, complete with their leadership, who wholesale joined Islamic State, pledged baya (allegiance) to Islamic State and joined them earlier this year."

Seeing Daesh as a major threat in the region, the US, on January 14, 2016, declared Daesh’s Afghanistan-Pakistan wing a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO). A statement issued in Washington declared, “The US Department of State has announced the designation of ISIL-K (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan) as a FTO under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.” The Department of State took this action in consultation with the Departments of Justice and the Treasury, the statement added.

On July 26, 2016, the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan were able to eliminate the then Daesh chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed, who was killed in a drone strike in the Kot District of Nangarhar province. Saeed’s death represents a major setback for Daesh-K (Daesh in the imagined ‘Khorasan’ wilayat),
as it tries to establish itself as a serious force in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hafiz Saeed Khan was a former commander of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA, Assembly of Freedom), the break-away fraction of TTP, who pledged allegiance to Daesh. After Hakimullah Mehsud, then head of TTP, was killed in a US drone strike on November 1, 2013, the al Qaeda-linked group had been plagued by leadership disputes, infighting, and defections. Mullah Fazlullah, Mehsud’s successor, proved incapable of holding the coalition of jihadists together. On August 26, 2014, a group of TTP ‘commanders’, led by Maulana Qasim Omar Khorasani, broke away from the parent organization and formed a new outfit called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA, Assembly of Freedom). JuA included TTP factions from the tribal areas – Bajaur, Khyber, Mohmand, and Orakzai Agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA); and Charsadda, Peshawar, and Swat Districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). While announcing the split, Khorasani claimed, "The leadership of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan [TTP] is a victim of narrow, personal objectives. A separate group was announced after the efforts to keep TTP united ended in failure.”

In June 2014, while announcing the formation of the Islamic State, Daesh had released a map purportedly showing areas that it planned to bring under its control within five years. These areas included all of Pakistan within the projected ‘Islamic Caliphate’. Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, who was detained at Guantanamo for three years, had defected from the Afghan Taliban on July 1, 2014, and joined Daesh and was pronounced Amir of Islamic State Khorasan province just two days after Abu Bakr al Baghdadi named himself “Caliph Ibrahim I” and declared that his Islamic State was now a “caliphate.” However, in April 2016, several members of the ‘Islamic State Khorasan province’ “central council” as well as other senior and mid-level leaders based in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar broke their oath to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and rejoined the Afghan Taliban. Dost claim that the ‘Khorasan Province’ had become a tool of “regional intelligence agencies and started torturing innocent people.” He described Hafiz Saeed Khan, the succeeding ‘emir’ of the ‘Khorasan province’, as “illiterate” for approving attacks on civilians.

Purportedly the first of its major attacks on Pakistan soil came on May 14, 2015, when Daesh claimed responsibility for the May 13, 2015, bus attack that killed 43 Ismaili Shias in the Safoora Chowrangi area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh. A blood-stained Daesh pamphlet was recovered from the scene, according to a Police official. A subsequent statement in Arabic declared: "Thanks be to Allah, 43 apostates were killed and around 30 were wounded in an attack carried out by Islamic State soldiers on a bus transporting Shia Ismaili infidels in the city of Karachi."

It is unlikely that Daesh can extend its direct operational outreach into the AfPak region at a time when it is under increasing pressure in its Syrian and Iraqi heartlands, but the audacity of the attacks executed by its regional affiliates suggests a rising danger and an infusion of a greater lethality into the enduring trends in terrorism and sectarian strife afflicting both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Crucially, fragments of groups that have long flourished under state protection or neglect in Pakistan, are now coalescing into the Daesh identity and finding a unity of purpose with an increasingly globalized movement of jihad, outside the control of the Pakistani state. This can only reinforce the instability of the AfPak region, and project increasing risks beyond.
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Re: The Islamic State in the Indian Sub-Continent

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IS recruitment cell busted in Lahore - ToI
A nine-member Islamic State cell that was recruiting and transporting people to Syria and Afghanistan has been busted here [Lahore], police said.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab said it busted a cell of the militant Islamic State (IS) group operating in Lahore and arrested nine people.

The cell was recruiting and transporting new members to Syria and Afghanistan. The cell had already managed to send nine recruits to Syria.

After the arrest of these nine people, the total number of IS group members who have been arrested in different parts of Punjab in recent months reached 45.

According to the Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab Police, the nine members of the IS group were arrested in a raid in Cantonment area last week.

Those arrested, included Lahore IS chief Nabil Ahmed alias Abu Abdullah.

"The cell was not only recruiting militants but also radicalising youths and transporting them, along with their families, to Syria or Afghanistan. It was also allegedly working to develop its capacity to establish organisational structure of IS in Pakistan," the CTD said.

The group was also working on a plan to accelerate its activities in Pakistan after announcing a 'caliphate' in the country.

According to a CTD official, those arrested were also involved in robbing banks and looting shrines and houses of the Shia and Ahmadi community members to raise funds for militant activities.

"The CTD has identified some IS recruits, including some families based in Lahore and their handlers in Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey," the official said, adding that the recruits, who were planning to leave for Syria and Afghanistan, had already sold their property to bear the transportation expenses.

During the raid on IS Lahore chief Nabil's house, the CTD team recovered IS literature, video clips, pamphlets and stickers containing content against the Pakistan Army, besides laptops and mobile phones used by the cell's members.

The official said Qari Abid, Nabeel's uncle, has been living in Syria for more than a year where he joined the IS.

"The Pakistanis contacting the IS leadership in Syria for joining the group were referred to Qari Abid. Later, Abid directed them to contact his nephew, Nabil in Lahore," he said.

The CTD said the recruits had to take the oath of allegiance to self-proclaimed 'caliphate' of Abu Bakar Al- Baghdadi. Then they would be given a choice to either go to Afghanistan or Syria.

It said Nabil was responsible for preparation of the recruits' travel documents.

Those willing to go to Syria were first taken to Iran and then to Turkey. They were later moved to Syria from Turkey.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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India treating soldiers from Mosul - The Hindu
Iraq has thanked India for medical support to its forces fighting the Islamic State in Mosul. Iraqi ambassador Fakhri Hassan Mahdi Al-Issa told The Hindu that Iraq’s Defence Ministry has been sending its injured soldiers and volunteers of National Mobilisation from the battlefield to India for treatment.

“As of now we are sending soldiers to a major hospital in the National Capital Region as the Iraqi Defence Ministry has entered into an agreement with the hospital. We also have other hospitals in the network and have sent cadre of Popular Mobilisation in the recent past”, said Mr. Al-Issa. He also disclosed that Iraq has flown Indian doctors to Baghdad and Karbala to handle patients who needed emergency treatment.

The campaign to free Mosul was launched in January to free the city from the control of the Islamic State. One of the biggest cities of Iraq, Mosul fell to the IS in June 2014.

The envoy clarified that injured soldiers have been arriving in Delhi for several months now as the campaign intensified. Iraqi forces and the Popular Mobilisation have now entered the city where street-fighting is raging.

“We shall continue to require medical support from Indian establishments as the coming weeks are going to be difficult,” he said.

Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon, one of the major destinations where the soldiers are being treated said they have treated 450 Iraqi soldiers so far, including those from the National Mobilisation which was constituted to fight the IS. {This hospital must now improve its security}

“We entered into an agreement with the Defence Ministry of Iraq in 2014 and ever since have been treating the soldiers,” said a representative of the hospital.

Better ties

The envoy said ties with India have been ramped up after the Iraqi forces launched the offensive against the IS.

Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar visited Iraq in September to hold discussion with the leadership in Baghdad. Reciprocating Mr. Akbar’s visit, Iraq will be sending Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari and Petroleum Minister Jabbar Ali Al-Luaibi to India shortly, the envoy said.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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Zakir Naik’s NGO gave ‘scholarship’ to IS man - ToI
In what could be the first evidence of a direct link between controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and his NGO Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) with the Islamic State's Indian recruits, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found that IS operative Abu Anas received Rs 80,000 as scholarship from the IRF.

The funds were transferred around the time Anas was planning to travel to Syria to join the IS
, sources said. He had applied for the IRF scholarship on its website and he was called for an interview in Mumbai. Anas was arrested in Rajasthan in January. The link will add teeth to the government's investigation of Naik under anti-terror laws while the IRF has already been banned and is being probed.

The payment emerges as an alleged link between the IRF and the IS, with sources suspecting that Naik's aides could not have been unaware of Anas's plans and extended him financial assistance by disguising it as a "scholarship". Anas, 24, was in regular touch with IRF office bearers and the money was transferred to his ICICI Bank account in Tonk in Rajasthan, sources said.

The IRF and Naik have been under the scanner of Indian agencies since the preacher's name surfaced as a "motivator" in the Dhaka Gulshan terror attack case. Several Indian recruits of the IS have since acknowledged to have been inspired by Naik' preachings to join the organisation and travel to West Asia to fight for the so-called caliphate.

Naik has denied that he is "terrorist influencer" and said his preachings reached 150 countries.

Anas, a former information security analyst with TWG International at Abids at Hyderabad, was arrested by NIA as part of a multi-city IS module in January-February.

In the ongoing crackdown on Naik and his NGOs, fresh raids on Tuesday saw agencies claiming recovery of video tapes and DVDs of Naik's public speeches, documents related to property and investment, financial transactions and foreign and domestic funding of IRF and associated companies.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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Musa planned ISIS-style killing of foreigners in Kolkata: NIA - Neeraj Chauhan, ToI
In the chargesheet filed against first lone wolf attacker+ of ISIS in India - Mohammad Mosiuddin alias Abu Musa, the National Investigation Agency has claimed that he was watching videos of slain al-Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who was also the preacher of 9/11 US attacks plane hijackers.

Anwar al-Awlaki, who was also the first US national to have been killed in drone strikes in September 2011, was one of the biggest motivators and a recruiter for al-Qaida for a very long time. His name had also figured in a dozen other bombings including London 2005 attacks, Times Square bombing and others.

A team of Federal Bureau of Investigation+ (FBI) was in India earlier this month to question Musa more about his radicalisation through the videos of Awlaki and also whether ISIS's principal recruiter in India - Shafi Armar, who sent him Awlaki's speeches, was in touch with any other aide of al-Qaida.

The NIA chargesheet also says that Abu Musa was radicalised by Shafi Armar who sent him links of jihadi sites like Jihadology.net, Al-Shabab media and Just-Paste-it links, etc., apart from videos released by the Ansar Ut Tawid (AuT) and the footages of war between the cadres of the ISIS and the Iraqi forces.

Musa, as first reported by Times of India, was also in touch with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leaders, who were involved in July 1 Holey Artisan bakery terror attack in Dhaka.

He met JMB leader Abu Suleiman, who owed allegiance to ISIS, several times including during latter's trip to India - first in March 2015 and then in May 2016, a month before the Holey Artisan attack. While Shafi Armar remained in touch with Musa for a long time, Abu Suleiman asked him to attack foreigners in India as " lone wolf+ " and also encouraged him to use secured encrypted chat applications, like Telegram, Surespot, Threema, Chatsecure, to communicate with him and with other ISIS operatives.

NIA says, "forensic analysis of the electronic gadgets seized from Musa and the telegram chat contents retrieved during investigation shows that they contain many incriminating facts implicating the accused and reveal his jihadi mindset and his association with members of proscribed terrorist organisations, JMB / ISIS. The chat contents include many pdf files like "How to survive in the West- Mujahideen", "Explosives Handbook" (The Mujahideen Explosives Handbook by Abdel-Aziz) which clearly show the dangerous intent of the accused."

It adds, ".....On the instructions of his handler, Abu Suleiman, Abu Musa went to Srinagar in May, 2016, to carry out lone wolf attack on foreign tourists. He also participated in a Friday congregation at the Jama Masjid and waved the ISIS flag there."

Musa, NIA says, had also planned to attack and kill foreigners near the Mother Teresa House at the Ripon Street in Kolkata.

NIA chargesheet adds that "Musa entered into a criminal conspiracy to carry out terrorist activities by way of robbing/raping/killing/beheading members and servants of one influential and well to do family, to publicize the presence of the ISIS in India and to spread terror among the people in India."

The family which he had planned to attack in Labhpur, West Bengal near his house, was identified by agencies and its name has been kept secret to save them from any attack.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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A flood of muslims from Burma crossing the border into India.
India needs to urgently discuss with Burma how these folks can be peacefully repatriated back to their lands in Burma.
However Burma considers these folks to be Bangladeshis or something.

Thousands of Rohingya leave Myanmar for India

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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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When Hindus are driven out of their own state, and asshole Hurriyats protest the Pakistani Hindus who are refugees from across the border being housed in J&K, how the hell do muslims from Burma/Bangladesh get residency in Jammu?

Can anyone explain?

How long before these folks start jihad?

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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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IS recruit from India killed - Vijaita Singh, The Hindu
Security agencies have confirmed that one of the four Maharashtra men who left India in 2014 to join the Islamic State in Syria had been killed while fighting for the terrorist outfit in Al-Raqqah.

The death of Kalyan resident Aman Tandel, who was renamed Abu Umar Al Hindi in the IS-controlled territory, was reported by various IS-linked websites.

On November 28, an anonymous caller informed Tandel’s family that he had been killed.
However, a member of Terrormonitor.org, a Europe-based non-profit watchdog which tracks the online activities of terror groups such as the IS, told The Hindu that the outfit confirmed the death on December 26. The member said Tandel was killed on December 25.

On Wednesday, speaking to The Hindu , at least two officials in the security establishment confirmed Tandel’s death, hours after the IS’s official media wing paid tributes to him in a statement on Telegram, a social networking application.

The Telegram message said Tandel had been killed in Al-Raqqah during clashes with Syrian democratic forces.

“We cannot say when and how it happened, but on the basis of accounts provided by the family and other foreign agencies, it is confirmed that Tandel died in clashes in Syria,” an official said.

The Telegram message said Tandel fought briefly for the group.

“During his brief jihad in Syria, Tandel participated in several clashes with Syrian democratic forces west of Al-Raqqah city. Tandel was killed when these forces attacked the IS’s positions west of the Tabaqa dam in the Al-Raqqah Governorate,” the IS message on Telegram said.

Second death

Tandel, an electrical engineer, left India with three other Kalyan men — Areeb Majeed, Fahad Sheikh and Saheem Tanki — on the pretext of going on a pilgrimage to Iraq in June 2014. While Areeb Majeed returned and was arrested by the NIA, it was learnt that Sheikh was running a pro-IS Twitter handle, @magnetgas, which was suspended by the microblogging site on India’s request. Saheem Tanki is said to have been killed in August 2015.

The three men had featured in a 22-minute propaganda video released by the IS in May this year. The video shot along Lake Homs in Syria shows groups of militants on board small motorised boats brandishing Kalashnikovs with an IS black flag in the background. The Arabic-subtitled video, The Land of Hind Between Pain and Hope , was distributed on Web-based applications such as Telegram and Twitter on May 19.

The men called on Indian Muslims to travel to IS-held territories in its “Caliphate” and vowed to return to avenge killings of Muslims.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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Intelligence: IS men pose ‘lone wolf’ threat upon India return - Bharti Jain, ToI
As Islamic State's (IS) hold over swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria weakens due to international military efforts and the likelihood of its battle-hardened foreign fighters returning to their respective homeland increases, agencies here have warned of a "grave" terror threat from the Indian returnees.

Sources in the intelligence agencies estimate that number of Indians battling it out as foreign fighters in IS territory is between 40 and 50. "As the IS territory shrinks due to pressure from the coalition forces, there is a possibility that these Indian youth may be forced to head back home. Given that these cadres are battletrained, highly-radicalised and willing to go to any lengths to realise the IS goal of a 'borderless Caliphate', they will pose a direct terror threat," said an intelligence officer.

The agencies fear that the "disengaged" foreign fighters hailing from India may, upon returning home, plan "lone wolf" attacks here and also radicalise other Indian youth using pro-IS propaganda.

This, they feel, is far more serious than the current trend of online radicalisation by Syria and Afghanistan-based IS recruiters and handlers, as a direct, personal indoctrination would have far more impact and outreach.

IS propaganda gives its followers two options to wage jihad and realise its ultimate aim of creating a global Caliphate. They can either travel to Iraq, Syria or areas under IS hold in Afghanistan, or indulge in lone-wolf attacks anywhere in the world.
"With the IS territory in Iraq and Syria now shrinking, there is an apprehension that its foreign fighters may head back to their respective countries. They are seen as a potential threat by all these countries, which include India," an intelligence officer pointed out.

Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, the outgoing commander of the US-led coalition fighting IS, had in August this year told a Pentagon press briefing that the number of IS fighters had fallen as a result of international military efforts against the group, also known as "Daesh".

"We estimate that over the past 11 months we've killed about 25,000 enemy fighters. When you add that to the 20,000 estimated killed prior to our arrival, that's 45,000 enemy taken off the battlefield," MacFarland was quoted as saying.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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'IS pamphlets' row: Kasargod duo found innocent - The Hindu
Two persons arrested on suspicion of distributing pro-Islamic State pamphlets in Goa, were released on Tuesday after the police found out that they were innocent.

Abdul Nazir and Iliyas Ismail, both from Kasargod in Kerala, were arrested on Monday after they were found distributing pamphlets written in Kannada mentioning Islamic State. It was later found that the writing were actually against the banned terror outfit.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), North Goa, Pundalik Khorjuvenkar, on Tuesday released them on a personal bond of Rs.10,000 each.

Superintendent of Police (SP), north Umesh Gaonkar told The Hindu, on Tuesday afternoon, that after police verified that there was nothing suspicious about the duo, they were produced before the SDM requesting for their release. The police concluded that they were innocent and informed the Kasargod SP.

The police said Ilhias U. (34) and Abdul Nazir (24), are brothers-in-law. The men, from Kasargod, Kerala, were about to distribute leaflets of a Salafi conclave, at Dona Paula beach near Panaji. The police found “Saitaan ISIS” scribbled in Kannada on their leaflet parcel. A senior police official said they were detained under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC. They were supposed to distribute leaflets of a conference of Husain Salafi in Mangalore from January 9 to 16. {They might have criticized ISIS but salafis are in general very dangerous. Hope the police keeps a close watch on their activities}

The Special Branch, Intelligence Bureau official and local police collectively interrogated the duo. “We had to verify activities. So they were detained. Margao police were informed to verify activities at the Salafi masjid. Mangaluru police were contacted about the Salafi conclave,” said Mr. Gaonkar.

According to Mr Gaonkar, Karnataka Ministers are supposed to be guests at the convention, which is to take place from January 9 to 15 at Nehru Maidan in Mangaluru.

“We were told that they have also involved Catholics, Jains and people from other religions. After verification, we realise they are innocent,” said Mr. Gaonkar.

They were later taken to the SDM for release. Intelligence Bureau sources told The Hindu that they did not get anything of suspicion and that they had all identity cards.

“We have found no link of terror. They are closely involved in Salafi activities.”

They believe in true Islam, :evil: ” said a senior official of IB requesting anonymity and added that “the pamphlet in Kannada condemned ISIS. The local police did not realise this immediately because it was written in Kannada. We verified it with a Kannada translator.”
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From tippler to terrorist — IS fighter recounts journey to Syria - Vijaita Singh, The Hindu
This is the story of Subahani Haja Moideen (31) from Kerala, who fought for the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq and escaped to return home and work quietly in his father’s cloth shop in Thodupuzha for a year before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) caught up with him in October last year.

Moideen’s is only the second known case of an Indian coming back from the IS war front. The first was that of Areeb Majeed from Maharashtra, who escaped after being injured in the leg.

Arrested the minute he landed in Mumbai, Areeb continues to be in jail. Between 40 and 50 Indians are estimated to be in IS-held territory.

The NIA stumbled upon Moideen while investigating another case in which six men from Kerala, inspired by the IS ideology, were allegedly planning attacks against BJP and RSS leaders and High Court judges.

Explosives from Sivakasi

On October 6, he was arrested for trying to arrange explosives from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. The Hindu has accessed his interrogation report which details his journey.

Moideen initially studied at Saraswathi Vidhya Bhavan and then moved to Vimala School in Thodupuzha. He enrolled for a B.Com. degree but discontinued the course in the second year. He then completed a Red Hat-certified engineering course at Lynx Academy and subsequently, in 2010, worked in tech. support at Infotech in Chennai for six months.

Between 2011 and 2015, he worked in his family’s cloth shop in Thodupuzha. Moideen had by then turned into an alcoholic. But after marriage, his wife helped him quit drinking.

During the interrogation, Moideen claims he was never interested in religious matters but after giving up alcohol, he became a Tablighi — a member of a Sunni Islamic movement — in 2013. He searched for the hadees (a collection of sayings of Prophet Mohammad) and the Koran on the Internet and discovered a site called kalamullah.com. It contained lectures of one Imam Anwar Al Awlaki (an Al Qaeda preacher), who preached jihad.

He also came across IS activities in Iraq and Syria.

On Twitter, he came across the Facebook profile of a Moroccan, Abu Naseeha Al Magribi, and a Swede, whom he contacted on the site and started chatting on Telgram and Kik, both Web-based applications. The Swede suggested that Moideen reach Turkey to do the hijra. He found a travel agency that would arrange a ticket, got a no-objection certificate from his father who consented when Moideen told him he was going for Umrah.

He got his visa in March and took a Saudi Airlines flight on April 7 from Chennai airport for Jeddah and from there boarded another flight for Istanbul in Turkey. All he took with him was a small backpack which contained kurta-pyjamas and the Quran.

He checked into a hotel at Afcilar. His local handler Imitiyaz asked him to send a selfie with the words “La Ila La Illalha” written on it. He said he would arrange the necesssary taskiya (reference) for Moindeen to join the IS. That night Moideen called his wife and told her he was going to Mecca. She asked him for a photograph of the Mecca masjid which he downloaded from the internet and sent to her.

The next day Moideen was asked to go to Urfa. On April 14, he got a call from someone in Raqqa, Syria, who asked him to come to the Meccom Ibrahim Masjid. He was taken to a dilapidated house from there where he found women and children besides men of Pakistani origin from the United Kingdom. Two days later, the group left in a van to cross the border. A young boy guided them and after walking for three kilometres they found a boundary demarcated by barbed wires. They cut open the barbed wire and crossed over into Syria.

After running for a kilometre they saw a man in military uniform who shook hands, called for a vehicle on his wireless set, which arrived in five minutes. They were taken to a single storeyed house in Tell Abiad where 10 to 15 people were present, of which about five or six were IS officials. They asked for their references and confiscated their passports.

After five days, they were shifted to Mosul where Moideen shared a room with five people, including a Pakistani. The group was not allowed outside and they attended religious classes in the evenings on how to establish Khilafath.

Later three persons came to take baith (oath) from all of them to pledge allegiance to Baghdadi,the IS leader.

Mosul camp

They were then shifted to a training camp with high walls in Mosul. Each was given an AK-47, Bushka medium mortar guns and grenades for training. The trainer was from Iraq. But they were not allowed to practise firing as American drones constantly hovered above.

After 21 days, Moideen was attached to an existing military group — Ummar Ibnu Khattab Khatiban, led by a French national who claimed he knew the Paris attackers.

Moideen was then moved to another location, paid a ‘salary’ of $ 100, given a phone and allowed to go to a market which had a “wi-fi” zone. It was here that Moideen started chatting with a Swedish woman, who told him of an Indian who was helping people to come to the IS stronghold. He also got to know of a person from Kerala who came to Syria before December 2014. Moideen contacted him and was asked to come to Raqqah where many Indians who had joined IS were.

In the second week of June, Moideen received his war call-up and a kit — two uniforms, a cap, a towel, two pairs of underwear and a belt bag. Videos were taken of Moideen. Then he was ferried to Baiji by truck. All the recruits performed the namaz standing and since Moideen had hurt his knee during training he couldn’t stand. The in-charge returned him to a hospital and after a month was shifted to another house in Mosul.
More Indian recruits

It was here Moideen met an Indian-origin couple. The man, around 35, was from Mumbai. He and his wife had been working in a middle eastern country before they had come to Mosul. The man wore eye glasses, was fair complexioned, bald and lean.

In the third week of July, Moideen and others got a call for an “emergency war” and were again taken to Baiji. Moideen was in the last group, tasked to secure the captured area. They were fighting the Iraqi Army, the Irani Shia groups, Kurdish groups and Jabat Al Nusra. A week later, Moideen heard a loud noise and rushed out of the safe house to see the charred bodies of two men from his group. That did it. Moideen ran to escape the war zone, forced his way into a bus headed to a hospital in Mosul. The hospital staff tipped off Moideen’s superiors and he was sent back to the house he had been kept earlier.

Then he was produced before a judge and jailed. He told the judge that he’d developed fear of war and wanted to go back to India. A week later he was shifted to Al Raqqa jail. The next day we were taken to an office, where he found 30-40 persons who intended to go back and escape the war.

Moideen says that it was at this office in Raqqah that he saw an Indian family of six- mother, father, three sons (included twins in their early twenties) and a daughter.

After a month in jail, Moideen was again sent for training. According to him, “The in-charge tried to motivate us by using religious doctrine and even threatened us. When they failed to harass and coerce me to fight for them, one day I was taken out of the jail and asked to check my belongings. I was told that from now I and Al Dawla (Arabic for IS) were not having any relationship.{His story that the IS allowed him to go because he was not motivated enought is absolute cr@p. The IS kills deserters. The fact that he was arrested for arranging explosives to kill certain leaders and blast courts shows that he was planted with a purpose either for 'lone wolf attacks' or larger operations or both}
They took five of us in a vehicle and dropped us one by one on the way. A Turkish national helped me and we went to Al Bab ut Ilam in Syria and travelled for two hours. We rented a house where an Australian came and we left for Al Rai in a taxi. We crossed the border by cutting through barbed wires. On September 6, I reached Gaziantep [in Turkey]. For the night we stayed at a hotel at Fatih in Istanbul. A Moroccan man accompanying me did not want to go back and he asked me to come with him to a European country, which I refused. I then reached the Indian embassy and contacted my brother. I told them I had come with Sufi people and had lost my passport and identification card. I showed them pictures of my original documents stored in my phone. I lodged a complaint at the local police station and the Indian Embassy then gave me an emergency travel certificate to return to India,” said Moideen.

He reached India on September 22. The NIA had moved an application in a local court last week to conduct a lie detector test on Moideen.
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‘IS suspects had formal schooling’ - The Hindu
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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Thursday that 80% of the persons arrested for alleged links to the Islamic State (IS) went to formal schools and only 20% had studied at madrasas (Islamic seminaries). {This is in line with similar findings from the greatest incubator of terrorism on Planet Earth, Pakistan}

In one of the biggest crackdown in 2016, NIA arrested 52 persons for allegedly plotting terror attacks and being part of the banned outfit.

NIA said nearly half of the suspects were followers of Ahle Hadith (or Salafis/Wahabis who follow the puritan form of Islam promoted by Saudi Arabia) and 30% followed Tablighi Jamaat (Sunni Islamic movement). Only 20% were Deobandis (Islamic school based in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh) and none of them was from the Barelvi sect.

The NIA also said that 47 of the accused were from the Sunni sect of Islam and five had converted from Hinduism and Christianity.

Elaborating, an NIA official said four persons converted from Christianity to Islam and one converted from Hinduism to join the Islamic State.

All the five accused belong to Kochi in Kerala.

Twenty-eight of the 52 arrested persons were aged between 18 and 25, twenty were in the 25-40 age bracket and four were aged 40 and above.

An analysis of their educational qualification indicated that 20 were graduates and had professional degrees, 12 were diploma holders, 13 had done their matriculation, four studied till the senior secondary level and three were post graduates.

Thirty were from the middle income group, nine from upper middle income group and 13 from the lower income group. {This is also in confirmity with the findings from Pakistan and elsewhere. 'Poverty' is *NOT* the cause for Islamist terrorism}


The highest number — twelve each — belonged to Maharashtra and Telangana. Eleven were from Kerala, five from Karnataka, four from Uttar Pradesh, two from Rajasthan, three from Tamil Nadu and one each from Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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If anyone recalls the Salman Khurshid's wife screamed that they belong to Ahle Hadees!
Also Kasab in his confession said that he was converted to Ahle hadiths as part of the terrorist camp training.
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ISIS posters appear in Subathu cantonment - The Hindu
The residents of Subathu, an Army cantonment area in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, on Tuesday morning saw handwritten posters threatening bomb attacks over the next few days by extremist outfit ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).

The posters were glued by unknown people in the market, a boys’ school, some parks and on the toll tax barrier.

The posters claimed ISIS will plant bombs with the help of TVs, computers and washing machines from Subathu to Nepal. The blasts would occur around the coming Vidhan Sabha elections in the hill State, they said.
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How Hyderabad techie was puppeteered by Islamic State - Rukmini Callimachi | NYT News Service
When the terror group Islamic State (IS) identified a promising young recruit willing to carry out an attack in one of India's major tech hubs — Hyderabad, the group made sure to arrange everything down to the bullets he needed to kill victims.

For 17 months, terrorist operatives guided the recruit, a young engineer named Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, through every step of what they planned to be the IS's first strike on Indian soil. Until just moments before the arrest of the members of the Hyderabad cell last June, the IS's cyberplanners kept in near-constant touch with the men
, according to the interrogation records of three of the eight suspects. Cases like Yazdani's offer troubling examples of what counterterrorism experts are calling enabled or remote-controlled attacks: violence conceived and guided by operatives in areas controlled by the IS whose only connection to the would-be attacker is the internet.

For the most part, the operatives who are conceiving and guiding such attacks are doing so from behind a wall of anonymity. When the Hyderabad plotters were arrested last summer, they could not so much as confirm the nationality of their interlocutors inside the IS, let alone describe what they looked like. Because the recruits are instructed to use encrypted messaging applications, the guiding role played by the terrorist group often remains obscured. As a result, remotely guided plots in Europe, Asia and the US in recent years, were initially labeled the work of "lone wolves," and only later was communication with the group discovered.

One of the IS's most influential recruiters and virtual plotters was known by the nom de guerre Abu Issa al-Amriki. Among those who sought him out was Yazdani. Yazdani, 30, grew up in a cramped apartment in the slum of Aman Nagar in Hyderabad's Old City. He beat the odds, earning an engineering degree and landing a job in Saudi Arabia for nearly four years, before returning to India. While abroad, he began watching the IS's online propaganda, and soon he became consumed by a desire to leave it all for the caliphate.

"I created a Telegram ID and sought his (Amriki's) guidance to reach Syria," Yazdani told investigators from NIA according to the record of his interrogation. After months of frustrating and failed attempts to help Yazdani get a visa, Amriki's directions changed course: "He asked me to work for IS by staying in India itself." Just before his death last April, Amriki handed off Yazdani to a different handler, known only by his Telegram screen name, "WindsofVictory." The new handler guided the eight-member cell as it took shape, exchanging messages with Yazdani as he recruited his family and friends.

The handler guiding the men in Hyderabad insisted on using a kaleidoscope of encrypted messaging applications, with Yazdani instructed to hop between apps so that even if one message were discovered and cracked, it would reveal only a portion of their handiwork.Though the Hyderabad case is among the most detailed in showing how Syria-based handlers directly facilitated attacks abroad, it is neither the first, nor the only one. Examination of both successful and unsuccessful plots carried out in the IS's name over the past three years indicates that such enabled attacks are making up a growing share of the operations of the group. This style of attack has allowed the IS's reach into countries such as the US, France, Germany, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Australia. "I fear this is the future of IS," an analyst said.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

Post by sureshhh »

Forget about ISIS. Our country is so corrupt that any two-bit terror outfit can cause damage simply by bribing politicians, cops, etc. Even the IB is corrupt and have many times detained innocent Muslims on false charges (instead of doing some real work and catching real terrorists).

Many officials and politicians were bribed even during 1993 bombay blasts to look the other way.

So the problem is not isis but corruption on all levels in our country.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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sureshhh, this thread is for discussing ISIS. Don't try to derail it. You may take it as a warning.
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Missing IS backers active on social media: NIA - Vijaita Singh, The Hindu
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A probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has furnished details of the exit of 14 persons from Kerala, who are suspected to have joined the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

The group, reported missing last year, includes infants and children.

At least two men — Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal (25), and Murshid Mohammed T.K.J. (24), both residents of Kasaragod in Kerala — left India as early as 2015. While Sajid left on March 31, 2015 for Dubai from the Mumbai airport, Murshid flew to Abu Dhabi on November 10, 2015 on a Jet Airways flight.

The next batch exited the country between May 24 and July 5 to Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat and Abu Dhabi.

All of them then travelled to Iran before going off the radar. The NIA has said they could have crossed over to Afghanistan illegally, bypassing any border checkpoint.

An NIA charge sheet said, “The accused are with the IS and they are instigating others to join them.”

Well-planned conspiracy

“It was a well-thought-out conspiracy to leave India on different travel dates to avoid being caught. Their relatives said they had received messages from them [group members] that they had reached their final destination — the ‘Caliphate’ that the IS projects to establish,” said an NIA official.

Mainly comprising defectors from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Wilayat Khorasan of Islamic State in Afghanistan came into existence in 2015. “The mobile communication made by the absconding accused with their relatives, over Internet-based social media platforms, have been recovered during investigation and the same establish that the absconding accused Sajid and Murshid were staying at the same place in Afghanistan,” said the NIA charge sheet.

The details were mentioned in a charge sheet filed by the NIA against Abdul Rashid, a resident of Kasaragod district, and Yasmeen Mohammad Zahid (29), a resident of Delhi.

The investigation agency has said that Rashid was the mastermind of the entire episode and that he brainwashed Yasmeen to divorce her husband and fly to the IS-controlled territory.

Ms. Yasmeen was intercepted at the New Delhi airport on July 30, 2016 while she was trying to leave India for Kabul, along with her child. During her interrogation, several details surfaced about the missing Kerala youth.

Traced to Nangarhar

“Preliminary investigation in the above cases revealed that the missing persons have left India and joined the terrorist organisation IS in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. The accused are continuing their anti-national activities by propagating the ideology of and inviting support for IS, through various means including, but not limited to, Internet-based social media platforms,” the NIA charge sheet said.

Rashid, a teacher, with his first wife, Sonia Sebastian, left India on May 31 from the Mumbai airport, the NIA said.

“The couple held secret classes in support of the IS and jihad, as propagated by it, during the last part of Ramzan, sometime in the month of July2015.

Yasmeen also participated in these classes and subsequently developed an interest to perform hijra (migration) to the Islamic State. Mr. Rashid took classes on Islamic studies at Al-Quma Arabic college at Colombo in Sri Lanka. He, along with like-minded associates, were prematurely expelled from the college, for advocating jihad,” the National Investigation Agency charge sheet said.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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The Malayalam news paper Mathrubhumi reports - ഐ.എസ്. ക്യാമ്പില്‍ നൂറിലേറെ ഇന്ത്യക്കാര്‍...... (More than 100 Indians suspected to be in ISIS Camp)
The camp is said to be in a part of Afghanistan where the reach of the government is minimum. NIA suspected that 30 people in the camp were from Kerala, but now suspect more Keralites to be there :evil:. The camp is said to be at Namgharhar. This news paper has an English edition as well, but they conveniently do not provide such kind of news in that edition.
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I am posting the following translated news item from the Tamil daily, Dinamalar
The Rajasthan State Anti Terrorism Squad have decided to conduct invetigations with a person from Talilnadu who had contacts with the ISIS.

Speaking to the reporters, the S.P. of the Rajasthan State Anti Terrorism Squad, Vikas Kumar, said, "Jameel Ahmed, a terrorist who garnered support in India for the ISIS was arrested last November. In enquiries conducted with him, it came to light that Mohammed Iqbal (35) of Thiruvallur Distt. of Tamilnadu had close contacts with the ISIS. Twenty gold buiscuits worth about Rs 1 Crore have been seized from Iqbal. The Directorate of Revenure Intelligence (DRI) has registered a case against him. Following this, it has been decided to bring Iqbal to Jaipur and conduct further enquiries"
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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Afghan official: NATO drones kill 11 IS fighters - AP

An Afghan official says NATO drone strikes killed 11 Islamic State (IS) militants, including two senior commanders, in the eastern Nangarhar province. {That's where our Kerala IS terrorists are there}

Mohammad Hussain Mashraqiwal, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, identified the two commanders killed in Wednesday’s strikes as Mohammed Omar Sadiq and Omar Farooq, adding that another six people were wounded.

U.S. Navy Cpt. Bill Salvin, a military spokesman, confirmed that American forces conducted counterterrorism strikes in Nangarhar on Wednesday, without providing further details.

IS affiliate

An IS affiliate has emerged in eastern Afghanistan as a rival to the much larger Taliban, and has carried out attacks targeting the country’s Shiite minority and security forces.
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‘Business model’ of IS nearing collapse - AP
The Islamic State (IS) group is haemorrhaging money with every piece of territory it loses, according to a new analysis that found that the group’s “business model” is on the path to failure.

The analysis released on Saturday by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence and the accounting firm EY found that the self-proclaimed caliphate’s financial resources have been drained substantially since the days beginning in mid-2014 when it captured banks, oil wells and entire warehouses of weapons as it amassed land.

The report found that the IS’s revenue has declined from up to $1.9 billion in 2014 to at most $870 million in 2016.

Self-financed attacks

Most of the recent attacks in Europe and the U.S. were self—financed by the people that carried them out, with little input or money from the IS leadership in the war zone of Syria and Iraq.

Among the top sources of revenue for the Islamic State group were taxes and fees, oil, ransoms, and looting or other extortion.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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IS funding is drying up, so more and more attacks will be done by splinter groups, particularly in places like Pakistan. An assessment of their revenue by icsr,
http://icsr.info/2017/02/icsrey-report- ... -fortunes/
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Two youths missing after going for Iraq ‘pilgrimage’ - Mateen Hafeez, ToI
Mumbai: Two youths, who went on a pilgrimage to Baghdad last month, went missing after reaching Iraq and have yet to return to the city. A state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) team is probing their mysterious disappearance and said it was in touch with the government to collect information about the youths.

A tour operator took several batches of tourists on a 'ziyaarat' (pilgrimage) visa, which generally requires fewer documents. The pilgrims went to offer prayers to the tomb of a sufi saint, Abdul Qadir Jilani, in Baghdad in January. "The two youths went missing from there and there is no information about their whereabouts," said a source. A senior officer said the state ATS was probing the case as the youths left from Mumbai airport and the tour operator is based in South Mumbai. "We are collecting information and can't say anything at this juncture," the officer added. The two boys are said to be originally from West Bengal but it is not known if they were staying in Mumbai.

The case of the missing youths suspiciously resembles that of the four Kalyan youths who went ostensibly on a pilgrimage in May 2014 and reached Syria, allegedly to join the proscribed outfit, Islamic State (IS). However, Mehmood Daryabadi, a scholar, said, "There is a possibility the youths might have gone to some other shrine for which they didn't have documents and have been arrested by the Iraqi security forces. It will be too early to jump to conclusions." City tour operators normally charge Rs 60,000 onwards for ziyarat visits to Iraq.

In 2014, four youths, Areeb Majeed, Aman Tandel, Fahad Shaikh and Shaheem Tanki, aged between 19 and 26, left India on a pilgrimage tour to Iraq and later crossed the border to reach Syria. They allegedly joined the IS. While Majeed returned to India in November 2014, the three others are still there. Majeed, on his arrival, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency. He told police he participated in battles alongside the IS and was injured on two occasions. He is currently in jail.
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Mylapore resident has IS links - The Hindu
A resident of Mylapore [Chennai], who was arrested by intelligence agencies in Rajasthan last month, has revealed during interrogation that he had links with the Islamic State.

A senior officer of the city police said Mohammed Iqbal (32), a resident of Bazaar Street, was arrested based on a tip-off obtained from the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorist Squad.
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More on the Mylapore [Chennai] resident posted above . . .

ISIS suspect: Cops hunt for 3 businessmen aides - ToI
Investigators from the Rajasthan police anti-terror squad and Tamil Nadu police has launched a hunt for three businessmen including the owner of a jewellery outlet who they believe were accomplices of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) suspect Mohammed Iqbal.

Police arrested Iqbal, 32, of Mylapore, for collecting and transferring funds to ISIS via Mumbai-based Jameel Ahmed.


The Rajasthan police interrogated Iqbal, who investigators have now detained at the Kotturpuram police station. They arrested Iqbal based on the confession of Jameel Ahmed and produced him before a magistrate's court in Jaipur.

During questioning, Iqbal told investigators that he also sent cash to ISIS in Chinese currency - a total of 5,000 renminbi or the equivalent of almost 50,000 - through Tausif, 30, who runs a cellphone business in Triplicane.

"Iqbal claimed that he transferred the money on the instructions of senior ISIS leader Abu Saad al-Karbouli, who Iraqi officials believe they killed last year in an attack targeting the chief of the militant group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," an investigating officer said.

"Iqbal approached an agent in the city with a plan to travel to Iran last year and paid him a sum in euros from his account in a Karur Vysya Bank branch for the trip,"
he said. "He later put off the journey due to health problems and did visit the consulate general of Iran in Hyderabad as he planned. He used the email ID iqb1984@yahoo.com."

Iqbal told police that he sent money to Jameel Ahmed through his associates Karimullah and Riay of Mannadi, Chennai. Ahmed transferred the cash to ISIS headquarters in Syria. The suspects Iqbal fingered have gone missing from their homes and their places of work, investigators said.

Intelligence Bureau (IB) sleuths nabbed Iqbal with 30-year-old Jameel (an associate not linked to the ISIS cash transactions), Jahabuddin, 55, and Nizamuddin, 45, while they were smuggling gold bars by bus from Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh to Chennai at 7am on February 4.

The IB seized 20 gold bars weighing 3.360kg and cash worth 1 crore from them
and handed them over to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.

The IB officers intercepted the bus near Arambakkam in Tiruvallur district on a specific tip.They examined the four men and, checking their baggage, found the gold bars. The suspects said they smuggled the gold to Tamil Nadu from the northeast.
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Police take Iqbal on hunt for local‘ISIS module’ - Daniel P George, ToI
Investigators of the Rajasthan police anti-terror squad on Thursday took terror suspect Mohamed Iqbal to the Big Mosque in Triplicane and to Mannnady in connection with the probe of his reported funding of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group.

Mohammed Iqbal, 32, of Mylapore, who police arrested on charges of collecting and transferring funds to ISIS through Mumbai-based Jameel Ahmed is currently in custody at the Kotturpuram police station.

An officer said an armed escort took Iqbal, with his face covered, to various spots in the city where investigators believe he carried out illegal activities and met his accomplices while living a double life as a salesman of used laptops and cellphones.

A joint team of the Rajasthan police anti-terror squad and Tamil Nadu police are probing his links to ISIS. Police arrested Iqbal after Jameel Ahmed, his contact in Mumbai, gave him up to investigators.

Police are searching for three businessmen in the city who acted as Iqbal's accomplices and were part of a Chennai module of ISIS sympathisers and agents. Investigators are also looking for four college students in the city who they suspect were Iqbal's associates. Iqbal himself is in solitary confinement, with Rajasthan police officers guarding him round the clock.

"Based on Iqbal's admission that at least 14 men were involved in the Chennai module, we are taking him around the city to arrest other members," an investigating officer said. "Iqbal was making plans to fly to Syria to fight for ISIS."


He said Iqbal reported to Abu Saad al Sudani, who acted as his handler, and was looking to radicalise young men with a "call to jihad".
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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The above is turning out to be the biggest single module in a city in India.
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Drone strike kills IS ‘recruit’ from Kerala - C.S.Narayanan Kutty, The Hindu
Hafeezuddin T.K., who was among the 17 persons from Kasaragod district suspected to have joined the Islamic State (IS) in June last, has been killed in a drone attack, his family said on Sunday.

A Telegram app message received by Hafeezuddin’s mother Khadeeja, and B.C.A. Rahman, a close relative of the youth, both residents of the coastal hamlet of Padanna near Cheruvathur, said that Hafeezuddin was killed on Saturday and that his mortal remains were buried later in the day.

While there was no confirmation of the whereabouts of Hafeezuddin, 25, an NIA charge sheet had alleged that the group had been located in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.

The message, purportedly sent by Ashfak Majeed, 27, also a native of Padanna, reached Hafeezuddin’s mother at 7 a.m. and Mr. Rahman one-and-a-half hours later, P.V. Muhammed Aslam, Padanna grama panchayat welfare standing committee chairman, who resides in the neighbourhood, told The Hindu . Aslam communicated the information to the media on behalf of the family.

The message sent by Ashfak, who till recently used to share information with the youth’s family, said, “Haffeez was killed by a drone strike yesterday and we consider him to be a Shaheed (martyr)… We are waiting for our turn”
. Hafeezuddin’s father Abdul Hakeem, away in Abu Dhabi, has left for home to be with his wife and daughter. He had been nurturing a slim hope of their son remaining safe and returning home some day.

Neither the Central agencies nor the State police has confirmed the development. The police are now investigating the disappearance of persons from Padanna and Thrikkarippur areas based on complaints filed by seven relatives of the 17 missing persons, including four women and three children.
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Computer science graduate brothers held in Gujarat for IS plot - Sarfaraz Shaikh, ToI
The Gujarat anti-terrorist squad (ATS) on Saturday night arrested two brothers— Waseem Ramodiya and Naeem Ramodiya— alleged to have links with Islamic State. The brothers belong to Rajkot. Sources in the Gujarat ATS claimed that they had been under surveillance for nearly two years. Senior ATS officials alleged that the Ramodiya brothers were planning a terror attack on the famous Goddess Chamunda temple at Chotila near Rajkot.

Naeem was arrested from Bhavnagar and his brother, Waseem, from Rajkot city in separate operations. This is the first instance of IS suspects being held in Gujarat. The ATS also recovered chemical powder used in firecrackers, batteries, IS literature and several audio clips. Audio clips recovered from the brothers indicated that they were in touch with IS 'handlers' in Iraq and Syria through social media platforms.

Both Waseem and Naeem have computer science degrees.
While Waseem has an MCA degree, his brother Naeem completed BCA recently. Both were in the scrap business in Rajkot and Bhavnagar. ATS officials said that the Ramodiya family was in a state of shock.

ATS SP Himanshu Shukla alleged that Waseem and Naeem were in touch with IS suspect Mufti Abdus Sami Qasmi of Rampur in UP. Qasmi was arrested by the National Investigation Agency from Hardoi in February last year. "We have phone call records showing Mufti Qasmi was in touch with Waseem," Shukla said.

Qasmi had visited Gujarat twice to deliver sermons at Ahmedabad and Bharuch. There is a YouTube video of Qasmi addressing a meeting at Kalupur tower on May 2, 2012. ATS officials suspect that the Ramodiya brothers may be behind the crude bombs recovered in Rajkot recently. "We are questioning them. Both will be produced in court on Monday.

Meanwhile, ATS officials recovered audio call records from Waseem's cellphone where he is heard talking to his wife Shehjeen. "In one audio clip, Shehjeen is heard encouraging Waseem not to abandon his task. Hence, Shehjeen is also on our radar," said an ATS official.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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SSridhar wrote:The above is turning out to be the biggest single module in a city in India.
We started a hash tag #ISISinTNandKerala

to track news reports on Twitter.
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Gujarat IS brothers give cops names of 40 operatives - Sarfaraz Sheikh, ToI
The two Islamic State terror group suspects arrested from Rajkot and Bhavnagar on Sunday have confessed to their plans of planting bombs in the thickly populated Trikon Baug and Gundawadi areas of Rajkot this week. On Monday, the suspects Waseem Ramodiya and his brother Naeem were remanded to the custody of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) till March 10.

Investigators have got names of at least 40 other persons from across Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, who were engaged with the brothers regarding IS activities across the globe. "We are conducting verification of these persons to know the extent of their indoctrination," an official said.

During questioning, Waseem told the ATS that his wife Shahzeen used to frequently taunt him as "impotent" for not being able to execute the "tasks" given to him by their handlers who operated with the names "Big Cat" and "onegoal1aim" through the username @katakat313. The handlers, suspected to be Indians, were communicating with Waseem through a social media platform in an end-to-end encrypted code.

ATS officials told TOI that Shahzeen's taunts got on to Waseem's nerves and he finally went to Chotila on January 15. However, he stopped 10km away from the town, fearing that he would be caught. The brothers then decided to torch vehicles in Bhavnagar. "However, they again feared getting caught and did not set the vehicles ablaze," said an investigator.

Then, as per the handlers' instructions, the duo gathered fire crackers from Rajkot's Sadar Bazaar and a nine-volt battery to assemble IEDs. The IEDs were to be planted at Trikon Baug and Gundawadi on the week ending March 4.
"We are verifying the evidence against Shahzeen before taking any action," the official said.

Officials also said the PDF files the brothers downloaded had details about lone wolf attack at a Bangalore-based restaurant by Alamzeb Afridi, an Indian Mujahideen suspect. Meanwhile, the Rajkot Bar Association adopted a resolution not to defend Waseem and Naeem.
The IS operations & base within India have reached alarming proportions even as they are getting decimated in Syria & Iraq. So far, NIA has done a remarkable job but the situation is fraught and widespread now that the NIA might be overwhelmed if the torrent of the last few weeks continues.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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Why does everyone say "Indian Muslims are not in any kind of terrorism"?
From what we see, there are many IMs in ISIS and even Al-Qaeda and different versions.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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KJo wrote:Why does everyone say "Indian Muslims are not in any kind of terrorism"?
From what we see, there are many IMs in ISIS and even Al-Qaeda and different versions.
Damage control?
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ATS probes IS operatives’ family - PTI
The Gujarat ATS on Tuesday recorded the statements of the family members of two suspected ISIS operatives, Waseem Ramodiya and his brother Naeem, who were arrested on Sunday.

“We interrogated Waseem’s wife Shajin and his parents and recorded their statements,” ATS DYSP Ramesh Faldu said. However, he did not reveal the contents of the statements.

The ATS had taken the Ramodiya brothers to a religious place in Chotila, near Rajkot, which was allegedly on their radar for carrying out blasts, officials said.

The ATS also took the duo to various places, including a cracker shop from where they had bought gunpowder and a bangle shop which they had tried to set ablaze in the past :?: , they added. “We have identified the shop from where the duo had bought gunpowder,” Mr. Faldu said.
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ISIS operative's handler could be Indian: Gujarat ATS - PTI
Waseem Ramodiya, arrested along with his brother in Gujarat for suspected ISIS links, was being guided by an unknown handler, possibly an Indian, as they used to communicate in Hindi through an online messaging service, the Gujarat ATS has revealed.

Waseem and his younger brother Naeem were arrested from Rajkot and Bhavnagar respectively during an early morning operation on Sunday.

The FIR filed by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) says the duo was to carry out lone-wolf attacks after which they had planned to escape to Syria.

"Analysis of the call details of the mobile phone being used by (ISIS' controversial preacher) Mufti Abdus Sami Qasmi before his arrest, showed connectivity with the mobile registered in the name of Waseem Ramodiya at the address of Nehru Nagar, Street 2, Raiya Road, Rajkot, Gujarat," the FIR read.

"In view of the same, technical and physical surveillances were kept on the bearer of the number. The surveillance had revealed that Waseem was initiated into ultra-radical Jihadi ideology as preached by the ISIS," it added.

Mufti Qasmi was arrested by the NIA in February, 2016 and was labelled as one of the main ISIS operatives in India.

"Technical surveillance on Waseem Ramodiya revealed that he was in regular contact with his brother Naeem and they discussed various developments pertaining to the ISIS. The tone and tenor of the telephonic talks between the brothers clearly indicate that they were highly influenced by the ISIS' call of establishing a caliphate and wished to be part of the so-called Jihad against non-believers," the FIR read.

The ATS has also quoted from transcripts of phone calls between the two brothers and their wives in the FIR.

The FIR said, "The surveillance further revealed that Waseem was being guided by unknown handler(s).

It listed 'Big Cat', an online profile ID, as one of Waseem's unknown handlers and also listed the messages between 'Big Cat' and Waseem, who was using a proxy profile ID, 'Ninja Fox', on end-to-end encrypted online messaging service Telegram.

The messages exchanged between them were in Hindi, which has led the ATS to conclude that the handler was a South Asian, probably an Indian.

"The ISIS handler was communicating with Waseem in Hindi. However, it needs to be probed if he is an Indian and was based in India or abroad," ATS SP Himanshu Shukla told PTI.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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Rishi Verma wrote:Encounter under way in Lucknow... of all places. The headline says "terrorist" for a change, instead of "militant" or "ultra" or "gangster"

http://m.timesofindia.com/city/lucknow/ ... 517500.cms
Sicanta wrote:Daljit chowdhry (ADG) - input from outside state, one terrorist caught in kanpur who told about the one in Lucknow (thakurganj,Chowk) - Muslim area. Ujjain train blast in morning related. IS module. 3 more arrested in Madhya pradesh.
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Re: The Islamic State and the Indian Sub-Continent

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Now that UP elections are almost over, the Police have got enough courage to go after the ISI/ISIS modules in UP.

The mohalla in Lucknow has an illegal mosque structure in it.
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The one holed up in lko killed. 2 more are reported to be hiding in lucknow.
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