The spread of ISIS in India, which at one time had reached alarming proportions, has come down drastically in the last one year due to the counter-terror operations and preventive arrests made by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is the nodal agency for dealing with ISIS in India.
In the last one year, the NIA has arrested 52 people for their involvement with the ISIS and are on the lookout for 35 more who are absconding.
Alok Mittal, Inspector General, NIA, who is considered to be one of the top-most authorities dealing with ISIS in India and has also been awarded the President’s police medal for his work towards dismantling ISIS modules, told The Sunday Guardian that the spread of ISIS in India was decreasing.
“It is not possible to give a numerical figure to substantiate that the spread of ISIS in India has decreased, but it has definitely come down. The incidents of youths being radicalised by the ISIS’ ideology have decreased,” Mittal said.
According to NIA officials, the interrogation of the 52 people who have been arrested for their alleged links with the ISIS has unearthed a lot of information that helped in preventing any untoward actions by the ISIS inspired individuals and also understand the way the ISIS handlers recruit people for their group. The interrogation of these youths, who are mostly from Maharashtra, Telangana and Kerala, has revealed that that they were highly radicalised and were proficient in using the internet to reach out to their handlers and their group members to convey information and seek directions. Most of them were born and brought up in a middle income and higher income group home and had had formal schooling.
“They are highly efficient in using online messaging apps like Trillian, Wickr, Kik to stay in touch with their handler to seek information on how to use weapons and explosives. It took us a lot of effort to unlock their apps and to dig out information, which they had deleted to avoid detection,” an official said. Unlike the other anti-terror agencies and the state police, the NIA focuses more on gathering irrefutable evidence that can withstand judicial scrutiny. “In most of these cases we have taken a lot of time and put in a lot of painstaking effort to gather irrefutable evidence that in itself shows and links the accused with the ISIS. Every arrest and every conviction helps as a major deterrent effect from stopping gullible people from falling into the hands of such terror groups,” the official said.