Foiled attempts of an IS terrorist to attack an Indian politician from the Russian soil
In a sensational disclosure, Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSB) recently claimed that it had detained an Islamic State (IS) suicide bomber who was planning to fly to India to target a key Indian politician from the ruling party over the alleged insults to Prophet Mohammad. The man is believed to be a national of a Central Asian country, who was inducted in Turkey before entering into Russia. According to FSB, the man was recruited as a suicide bomber by one of the IS leaders between April and June this year. FSB further revealed that his indoctrination was carried out remotely through Telegram accounts and personal meetings in Istanbul by a representative of the terrorist organisation. The terrorist swore an allegiance to the Amir of the ISIS. Later, he was assigned to leave for Russia after completing necessary documentation, and then fly to India to perpetrate the terrorist act. Russian news agency, TASS, claimed that the FSB has also released a video in which the suspected terrorist confessed that he was preparing an act of terror against a member of India’s ruling party for “insulting” Prophet Muhammad.
The reason cited by the suspected suicide bomber to travel to India to commit a terrorist act insinuated to BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s allegedly objectionable remarks against the Prophet during a TV debate.
Meanwhile, a news bulletin by Al Azaim Foundation — the mouthpiece of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) — said that an IS arm was operating in the Indian subcontinent, and India was the target of the organisation for Nupur Sharma’s “blasphemy” act. Also, according to Khorasan Diary — the IS news handle — the video criticised the Taliban for diplomatically engaging with India. It also criticised Mullah Omar’s son — Mullah Yaqoob, acting defence minister in the Islamic Emirate’s caretaker cabinet — for his interview with an Indian news channel; and Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign affairs minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, for his meeting with the Indian Charge d’ affaires in Afghanistan to begin a new cooperation. Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) recently issued a warning of carrying out ‘suicide bombings’ in Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat in a bid to avenge the alleged insult to the Prophet.
It is a matter of disquiet that of all the countries, Russia had found an ISIS-backed terrorist on its’ soil — despite all the anti-terror safeguards adopted by the country’s security and intelligence establishment. Detection of an IS terrorist who had entered the Russian soil after indoctrination and training from Turkey does indicate the extent of desperation the Islamic terrorists are going through; they even chose to use Russia to launch a terror attack in faraway India. This also shows that CIS’ countries are not completely devoid of terrorists who have started using Russia as their New Haven and a launching pad. It is believed that India and Russia have a formidable security cooperation mechanism and that’s how India got the whiff of this terrorist who planned to harm a ruling party functionary. Here, it is equally important to find out from Russian authorities about who all are hiding in Russian locations. Or, are there any IS sleeper cells in Russia? If the case is so, then that needs to be probed through a thorough investigation.
In the meantime, in an unrelated happening, on August 20 in Moscow, 29-year-old Darya Dugina — a nationalist and outspoken daughter of a conservative Russian ideologue, Alexandar Dugin who is a supporter of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — died in a car bomb explosion under mysterious circumstances. Russian state security services have already released details of a suspect — a woman who, they claim, had arrived from Ukraine, rented an apartment and escaped to Europe through Estonia.
Judging by these developments, its’ imperative to ask: Is Russia becoming a hotbed of terrorists at a time when the country has been engaged in a military conflict with Ukraine for over seven months? Russia was credited for exhibiting solid professional acumen when it deftly handled Chechen Islamic terrorists and put an end to the problem. Russia needs to display same form of resolve to reach at the bottom of the IS terrorists trying to use Russian land for furtherance of their terror-related activities. Also, it would be important for Indian security agencies to extract additional details from the IS individual to chart out a holistic picture and then join the dots to trace any larger blueprint of a terror attack that may be in the offing.
Source: Millenniumpost
