ISIS fidayeen plotting to avenge Prophet barb held
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a suicide bomber, a member of the ISIS, who was plotting a terrorist attack against an Indian leader for avenging the alleged insult to Prophet Muhammad, Sputnik News reported on Monday.
The FSB is the top intelligence agency of Russia. It did not identify the detained terrorist, however, it said he underwent special training in a Central Asian country for carrying out the planned hit in India.
Reports suggested the radical is of Uzbek origin.
The announcement of the detention comes days after National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visited Moscow.
Assessments suggest the detained suicide bomber could be a member of the ISIS faction led by Gulmurad Alimof based in southern Afghanistan and that the ISIS has developed a significant network of sleeper cells in India.
“Russia’s FSB identified and detained a member of the Islamic State international terrorist organisation banned in Russia, a native of a country in the Central Asian region, who planned to commit a terrorist act by blowing himself up against one of the representatives of the ruling circles of India,” the authority said in a statement.
The FSB posted an interrogation video showing the suspect confessing that he was supposed to commit a terrorist act for blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.
“In 2022… I flew to Russia, and from there I was to leave for India. In India I was to be met and given all the necessary things to commit an act of terrorism at the behest of the Islamic State for insulting Prophet Muhammad,” he said.
In Turkey, the would-be-terrorist was conditioned both online on Telegram and during in-person meetings in Istanbul over a span of several months from April to June, the FSB said in its statement.
The foreign national was recruited by one of the Islamic State’s ringleaders as a suicide bomber sometime between April and June 2022 while in Turkey, the Russian state-owned TASS news agency reported.
“The Federal Security Service has identified and apprehended in Russia a member of the outlawed (by the Russian Federation) Islamic State international terrorist organisation. The detainee is a native of a Central Asian country, who planned to commit a terrorist attack against a member of India’s ruling circles by blowing himself up,” the FSB said.
The terrorist’s “ideological indoctrination was conducted remotely via Telegram messenger accounts and during personal meetings in Istanbul with an IS representative,” the Russian Federal Security Service’s Centre for Public Relations (CPR) said.
The detained suicide bomber swore allegiance to the IS Emir (chief), after which he was instructed to leave for Russia, draw up the necessary documents and fly to India to commit this act of terrorism, the report said.
In June, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma was suspended and the party’s Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal was expelled by the party after their controversial remarks against Prophet Muhammad sparked protests in the Islamic world.
The ISIS has an avowed agenda to change Central Asia to Darul Islam (Dominion of Islam).
Germany-based counter-terrorism expert and geopolitical security analyst of Afghan descent Dr Ajmal Sohail said, “The detained terrorist could be a member of ISIS leader Gulmurad Alimof who has a significant base in southern Afghanistan. Alimof controls about 500 fighters of the ISIS, most of Kazakh, Tajik, Uzbek and Chechen origin.”
Alimof is himself from Tajikistan and was earlier the ISIS commander in Syria and Iraq and moved his assets to Central Asia and West Asia in 2014-15 after reverses at the behest of US forces. Post the withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, he moved his bases to Afghanistan. Alimof lost a number of his fighters in the Syrian war and he could be aiming to avenge the losses through attacks in Russia and its allies. He is also against Chinese projects in Afghanistan, he said.
Indian assets outside the country remain vulnerable to the ISIS threat and the terror group has recruitment agenda within the country in the short run. In the long-term, the outfit could be aiming at creating an Islamic state by overthrowing the secular Indian government, he added.
The notorious terror group ISIS and all its affiliate organisations, responsible for a series of savage attacks and killings in Iraq and Syria, have been banned in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Recruitment of youths to the outfit from India and their radicalisation is a matter of serious concern for the country especially with regard to its likely impact on national security when such youth return to India, the Home Ministry has said while banning the terrorist group.
The Islamic State/Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/ Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Daesh and all its manifestations have been declared outlawed in India under UAPA, a notification issued by the Ministry said last year.
Source: Daily Pioneer
