By Yatish yadav
Published: 06th Jul 2014
Source Link
NEW DELHI: Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist offensive in northern Iraq, about 2,049 miles away from Delhi, has sent alarm bells ringing among Indian intelligence and security agencies here.
According to sources, a meeting of the intelligence top brass was convened in Delhi last week after inputs warned of a possibility of Shia-Sunni polarisation and potential clashes during Ramadan.
“A series of underground meeting of Shia and Sunni groups was held in Lucknow in the last week of June. There are reliable inputs that SIMI, a terror outfit drawn mostly from a particular sect may try to take advantage of the situation. It is getting dangerous,” a source said.
On June 19, Shia and Sunni groups clashed in Old Lucknow’s Shahadatganj area following a war of words between the two sects over ISIL activities in Iraq. Intelligence agencies keeping a watch over the developments had informed that “sympathy has been voiced for Shias in Iraq, triggering intensive counter propaganda by Sunni groups extending support to terrorists claiming that ISIL was not a terrorist outfit but a group of freedom fighters.”
Intelligence alert had further added that a “group of youngsters also announced support for ISIL commander and terrorist Abu Bakar Al-Baghadadi, which was a dangerous sign of self- indoctrination.”
Although clerics from both the sects have appealed to people to remain calm, the youth are said to be distributing several minute-long video clips through the Whatsapp social networking application in mobile phones.
“ISIL capability is questionable but the online propaganda has the potential to trigger sectarian violence in certain sensitive pockets. There is no mechanism to monitor Whatsapp communication. Although, one suspicious URL which hosted hundreds of jihadi videos, including ISIL execution, etc., for download was blocked,” said the source.
Indian agencies have also warned of Al-Qaeda al-Hind (AQAH) penetration and its alleged tie-up with SIMI and Indian Mujahideen (IM) to carry out terror activities in India. An offshoot of Al-Qaeda, AQAH is said to be involved in recruiting terror cells in IM’s fertile ground in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to carry out jihad in Syria and Iraq.
“It is getting dangerous. We are keeping a watch on what Indian groups are doing, but we need to have more intelligence inputs from Syria and Iraq to connect the dots,” the source said.
He added that the R&AW needs to reactivate its assets in the Gulf countries to monitor the situation as the flow of information from the region has been surprisingly very disappointing.
A Delhi-based Shia group Anjuman-e-Haideri has also added to the woes of intelligence agencies here. It has called for volunteers to go fight in Iraq against ISIL to protect the Shia population in the war-torn country.
To further its propaganda, the little-known group has also floated a tender inviting Indian airlines to carry 25,000 volunteers to Iraq.
Intelligence Bureau officials monitoring activities of such groups said they are adding fuel to fire through such activities which may have grave consequences for peace in the subcontinent.
Published: 06th Jul 2014
Source Link
NEW DELHI: Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist offensive in northern Iraq, about 2,049 miles away from Delhi, has sent alarm bells ringing among Indian intelligence and security agencies here.
According to sources, a meeting of the intelligence top brass was convened in Delhi last week after inputs warned of a possibility of Shia-Sunni polarisation and potential clashes during Ramadan.“A series of underground meeting of Shia and Sunni groups was held in Lucknow in the last week of June. There are reliable inputs that SIMI, a terror outfit drawn mostly from a particular sect may try to take advantage of the situation. It is getting dangerous,” a source said.
On June 19, Shia and Sunni groups clashed in Old Lucknow’s Shahadatganj area following a war of words between the two sects over ISIL activities in Iraq. Intelligence agencies keeping a watch over the developments had informed that “sympathy has been voiced for Shias in Iraq, triggering intensive counter propaganda by Sunni groups extending support to terrorists claiming that ISIL was not a terrorist outfit but a group of freedom fighters.”
Intelligence alert had further added that a “group of youngsters also announced support for ISIL commander and terrorist Abu Bakar Al-Baghadadi, which was a dangerous sign of self- indoctrination.”
Although clerics from both the sects have appealed to people to remain calm, the youth are said to be distributing several minute-long video clips through the Whatsapp social networking application in mobile phones.
“ISIL capability is questionable but the online propaganda has the potential to trigger sectarian violence in certain sensitive pockets. There is no mechanism to monitor Whatsapp communication. Although, one suspicious URL which hosted hundreds of jihadi videos, including ISIL execution, etc., for download was blocked,” said the source.
Indian agencies have also warned of Al-Qaeda al-Hind (AQAH) penetration and its alleged tie-up with SIMI and Indian Mujahideen (IM) to carry out terror activities in India. An offshoot of Al-Qaeda, AQAH is said to be involved in recruiting terror cells in IM’s fertile ground in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to carry out jihad in Syria and Iraq.
“It is getting dangerous. We are keeping a watch on what Indian groups are doing, but we need to have more intelligence inputs from Syria and Iraq to connect the dots,” the source said.
He added that the R&AW needs to reactivate its assets in the Gulf countries to monitor the situation as the flow of information from the region has been surprisingly very disappointing.
A Delhi-based Shia group Anjuman-e-Haideri has also added to the woes of intelligence agencies here. It has called for volunteers to go fight in Iraq against ISIL to protect the Shia population in the war-torn country.
To further its propaganda, the little-known group has also floated a tender inviting Indian airlines to carry 25,000 volunteers to Iraq.
Intelligence Bureau officials monitoring activities of such groups said they are adding fuel to fire through such activities which may have grave consequences for peace in the subcontinent.
No comments:
Post a Comment