The Islamic State has been spreading its wings faster than we imagined, staking claim for several of the most atrocious killings that have happened in the recent past. Be it executions, be it acts of pointless vengeance, the Islamic State is perhaps one of the most dreaded and deadliest outfits in the world today.
While the West has already begun bearing the brunt of the brutal acts of the Islamic State, looks like there is one place in India that’s fast becoming the factory churning out products for them. Young men are being exported from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India to fill in the shoes of terror; to train and sustain; and then finally to attack and die.
There have been quite a few instances in the recent past when Hyderabad has had its name being drawn into a terror net. In September 2014, for instance, 15 engineering students, including a girl suddenly went missing. As panic-stricken parents approached the police for help, little did they know what they would find out. Plotted by a lad from Karimnagar district, this group was formed by him as he lured them with Jihad-glorifying messages.
Paid in the range of Rs 3.5 lakhs, their passports had arrived and they were about to take off, when the whole group was nabbed from West Bengal. And that was the end of that story, but the beginning of many others.
In 2014, the Hyderabad Police had foiled attempts by six youths from the city, including a former Google employee, who were allegedly plotting to join the Islamic State ranks after getting attracted to ISIS propaganda on social networking sites.
In fact, the connection between the city and the terror outfit ran deeper than we thought. Earlier this year, a Hyderabadi woman residing in Qatar was deeply influenced by the group. She was so moved that she took her first step towards joining them by moving to Turkey. But the news of their atrocities made her change her mind and she backed out.
Another city engineer was arrested enroute to Syria va Dubai and during his interrogations, he had confessed that he had planned to come back to India to carry out IS related activities here. 32-year-old Salman Mohiuddin wasn’t just planning to join IS, but he was also planning to lure other people in the city via social networking sites.
In February this year, Mohd Haneef Waseem, 27, had reportedly joined the ISIS in Syria. But, he couldn’t make it back. Reports suggest that he died ‘while fighting for IS’. He had finished his engineering and had shifted to London to pursue his masters, from where he is believed to have flown to Syria.
In September, the name Afsha Jabeen alias ‘Niclole’ or Nicky Joseph, aged 37 became a big deal for the police. She was deported from UAE for being a recruiter for the dreaded ISIS after nine months of surveillance.
An Indian Oil Corporation executive, Mohammad Sirazudin was arrested and this led to the shocking revelation that he had been forming groups to recruit people for the IS. Among them was a 20-year-old woman from Hyderabad, who was deeply influenced by the thinking of the IS. Under surveillance, attempts are being made to radicalise her.
As the year ends, three students — Syed Umar Farooq Hussaini, 21, Mohammed Abdullah Wasim Basith, 22, and Mazhussain Farooqui, 2 – were detained from boarding a flight to Srinagar to join the IS. The trio confessed to have jihadi ideology and in this regard they entered into criminal conspiracy and tried to go to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine via Kashmir for furtherance of unlawful activities and in order to join hands with jihadi forces of ISIS/ISIL to wage war against states.
With several such instances of students from Hyderabad all set to jump into the Islamic State fold, it is clear that there is something fundamentally wrong. Social media playing its part is also scary.