New Delhi: Islamic State (IS) recruits in India allegedly wanted to infiltrate the Kanhaiya Kumar-led protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and other universities in the country, in order to further agitate the students and create disorder.
According to a report, on February 19, when Kanhaiya Kumar was in Tihar jail on sedition charges and students of several universities were holding demonstrations demanding his release, ISIS's Ahmad Ali asked Ashiq Ahmad alias Raja of Hooghly, to infiltrate the movement and burn vehicles and oil tankers.
Three recruits of India's ISIS wing — Junud al Khalifa-e-Hind (JKH) – have provided this information to the NIA. The names of the recruits are Ashiq Ahmad alias Raja, Mohammad Abdul Ahad and Mohammad Afzal. Their statements reveal that JKH was created as ISIS’ India wing and held meetings in Bengaluru, West Bengal and Punjab, says the report.
Ahmed Ali, who was the boss of Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilad al-Hind (AuT), called up 19-year-old Ashiq Ahmad and asked him to set vehicles on fire. He warned him however that the security agencies were after both of them. Ahmed Ali is none other than Shafi Armar, the head of ISIS in India who is learnt to have died in a recent US drone attack.
AuT was responsible for the formation of JKH in India and planned to eliminate ‘Shias’ meaning Shia Muslims whom ISIS considers heretics, as well as free former Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal from jail.
"When I asked Ali for a pistol and sent him a picture of a temple near my place in Hooghly where we could have carried out a blast to impress him, he told me that we will not do anything small," Ashiq is quoted as saying. He said that he was attracted to jihad after breaking up with his Hindu girlfriend who wouldn’t change her religion for him.
On the other hand, Mohammad Abdul Ahad claimed that he was not interested in jihad and wanted to help poor Muslims, which was not JKH’s intention. A science graduate from the US, Ahad worked in Singapore, Saudi Arabia and UAE before he came in touch with ISIS members. He claimed he wanted to set up an NGO in Syria but was caught and deported to India.
