New Delhi, April 24 The Islamic State, which has managed to capture a large audience in the country, especially in South India, has been urging its recruits online to set trains on fire. In addition to burning down trains filled with passengers, it has also been urging its supporters to carry out knife attacks on busy streets.
An official said that this plan was in fact set in motion in 2023. In the March 2023 edition of the Islamic State’s magazine, Voice of Khorasan, an article appeared with the title, ‘A Message to the Inhabitants in the land occupied by Cow and Mice Worshipping Filth.’
This article was targeted only to the Islamic State’s followers in South India. Since then the Islamic State has been nudging its followers to start carrying out attacks in large numbers.
However, the plans have fallen flat on numerous occasions as the Indian agencies such as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have been extremely alert to the threat of this outfit.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that the Islamic State is however hell-bent on implementing this plan. They have begun pushing harder so that the plan can go through, the official said.
The Islamic State was bound to start major operations with South India being the primary focus. This is to do with the fact that in its all-India push, it has got the maximum traction from the Southern States such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Another official said that capturing the Southern audience is much easier for the Islamic State. For years outfits such as the Al-Ummah and Popular Front of India (PFI) have operated. The patronage that some of these outfits received helped them go about radicalising the youth freely.
With a large number of youth already radicalised, the Islamic State found it easier to penetrate this market, when compared to the rest of India.
In some of the recent messages that the group has been sending out to its followers, the outfit states it is their duty and obligation to carry out killings of Kafirs (non-believers).
There has been a lot of chatter about targeting trains full of passengers. In the instructions that the Islamic State handed out, it said that the followers must try and enter a railway station carrying cans with petrol. They should then just set the train ablaze when passengers are present in large numbers.
The Islamic State has specifically asked its followers to target trains as the impact is much higher. It is the most used form of transport in the country and hence targeting a train will have a very high impact on the minds of the people.
Further, given the crowd in trains and at railway stations, the casualties, too, would be high, the Islamic State feels.
The outfit wants to combine train strikes with knife attacks on the streets.
“Take a knife stab a kafir in the throat,” is what the outfit has been telling its followers. Further it also speaks about poisoning food and burning the homes of non-believers.
Officials say that the plan that the outfit has set in motion is a very ambition one. At first the Islamic State only focussed on radicalisation. It did not set up camps in the open, but focussed heavily on online radicalisation.
This has worked for the group to a large extent. Now it wants to execute the next phase of the plan that involves terror attacks. It wants this campaign to be sustained and hence it has been urging its followers to strike at regular intervals so that the fear and panic in the minds of the people remain longer.
The agencies are keeping close tabs on online activity, including social media messages to ensure that the outfit is not successful in its plans.
Another official said that more de-radicalisation camps are the need of the hour. The Islamic State is looking to capitalise on its success of radicalising a larger number of youth in South India and this needs to be stopped, the official also added.
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