Home Ministry calls high-level meet to tackle IS threat

New Delhi: Attraction to radical ideologies such as those propagated by the Islamic State (IS) terror group and ways to prevent Indian youth from coming under the sway of extremist doctrines are on the agenda of a high-level meeting convened by the Home Ministry on Saturday.

The meeting, to be chaired by Union Home Secretary LC Goyal, will formalise a strategy for aiding the government’s efforts to neutralise extremist ideologies such as that espoused by IS, also sometimes referred to as ISIS or ISIL.

“Attraction towards radical ideology of any religion is a matter of concern. We will have to put in place a system as there are inputs that the Indian youth are attracted to different extremist ideologies, including the ‘Caliphate’ promoted by ISIS,” a Home Ministry official said.

“Counter-radicalisation efforts would include counseling of youth, convincing community elders to persuade the younger generation to not get influenced by any extremist ideology, monitoring of social media sites and taking preventive steps.”

“The focus would also be on how to quickly respond to any report of the younger generation planning to join terror groups like ISIS,” the official said.

Home Secretaries and police chiefs of a dozen states – Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam, Punjab, West Bengal and Delhi are to take part in the meeting, the official added.

According to an official estimate, around 25 youngsters have been identified across the country as having been attracted to the idea of IS and wanting to join the group.

In Telangana, 17 people have been prevented from traveling to Syria and, recently, four from Maharashtra were also stopped from traveling to the Middle-East.

Sources said that although none of them were arrested, they were kept under surveillance. They went through counseling and are living normal lives.

Maharashtra and Telangana have already put in place a model for dealing with IS-related cases. While there have been arrests in some cases, agencies realised that arrest should not be the first option.

Monitoring of social media has already begun, sources, meanwhile, said, adding that efforts would be made to gain the confidence of the Muslim community.

Till now, 11 Indians who have joined IS have been identified, of whom five are reportedly dead.