India’s security agencies on high alert as Uzbek bomber grilling throws up new terror links

National security agencies have gone on a high alert to tackle a new threat that has emerged with foreign Islamic terrorist outfits such as Islamic State and Al Qaida trying to recruit radical Muslims within and outside India to carry out terror attacks in the country to avenge the alleged “insult to the Prophet.”

The Indian security agencies are also receiving information about these nefarious activities from their counterparts in other friendly countries like the US, Jordan, Russia, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.

Interrogation of Islamic State’s Uzbek suicide bomber Mashrabkon Azamov by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), has revealed that there was another Kyrgyzstan national who was trained to target India by terrorist outfits in Turkey.

However, the Kyrgyz national went back to his country from Moscow, the Hindustan Times report states.

While the Indian security agencies are still awaiting the interrogation report of 30-year-old Azamov, they have sent a list of specific questions to their Russian counterparts for information required to track his Indian connections. Indian security agencies are also in touch with their Uzbek and Kyrgyz counterparts to seek permission to join investigations.

The Jordanian intelligence had alerted Indian counterparts about the online radicalization by the Islamic State of engineering student Meer Anaas Ali, a resident of Ambur in Tamil Nadu.

The engineering student was being mobilised by the Islamic State online handlers to punish India for the insult to the Prophet. The student was arrested on July 31 by the Tamil Nadu police and is currently in judicial custody.

According to local police, Anaas had links with the ultra-conservative banned Wahhabi group and was communicating with his online handlers using social media platforms like Telegram and Instagram. He was tasked by his Islamic State handlers to target non-Muslims and kill an important personality to instill fear among the communities and polarize them on religious lines.

Pakistan’s notorious ISI and organizations like Muslim Brotherhood, which has a strong presence in Turkey, Kuwait, and Qatar deep state are playing an active role in creating more trouble for India.

While Pakistani cadres within the Islamic State of Khorasan Province are being used by Rawalpindi to target India through local recruits in the Wahabbi outfit, the Muslim Brotherhood is using its links with Islamist organizations in India to engineer violence in the name of religion.