J&K a training hub for ISIS probables

Jammu and Kashmir is fast becoming a terror training ground for Indian youth who want to join the global jihadi outfit ISIS. Two ISIS sympathisers detained in Nagpur recently, who are now facing imminent arrest by the Telangana police, were going to J&K for training to hone their skills to be able to join the ISIS, according to the latest reports with the Central security agencies.

The revelation comes at a time when several Indian youth arrested by the security agencies recently for alleged ISIS linkages have confessed that the global terror outfit does not treat Indians as “good fighters” as they are seen as “inferior to Arabs”, only fit to be used as “foot soldiers” and “tricked into being used as suicide squads”.

Top sources revealed that two of the three youth from Hyderabad who were intercepted in Nagpur by the agencies were supposed to fly to Srinagar with the sole purpose of joining terror outfits like the Hizbul Mujahideen to be able to acquire some experience before they proceed to the ISIS hotbed in Syria. The issue comes as a fresh matter of concern for the Central intelligence agencies who are regularly keeping ISIS suspects under watch and rolling out the government’s de-radicalisation policy with the help of the state governments.

The youth, identified as 21-year-old Syed Umar Farooq Hussaini, 22-year-old Mohammed Abdullah Wasim Basith and 22-year-old Mazhussain Farooqui, were detained by the Telangana police and Maharashtra ATS at Nagpur airport on Saturday morning on suspicion that they were on their way to Syria to join the ISIS.

Two of them, who may face arrest now, had been intercepted once earlier by the Indian agencies, in September 2014, when they were planning to go to Iraq-Syria but were let off with a warning. The third youth, however, may not face arrest this time with top government sources revealing that he appears to have been led astray and is keen to dissociate himself from jihadi influence through counselling. With the fresh detentions, the Union home ministry feels the de-radicalisation policy of the NDA government is picking up well since surveillance of suspects is helping the agencies deter more youth from leaning towards ISIS even as others are being physically prevented from travelling to ISIS hotbeds.

A total of 24 Indians have so far joined the ISIS of which six were reportedly killed in different incidents.