South Asia Terrorism Portal

INDIA

Islamist Terrorism: Low Grade Threat
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management

The global terror outfit Islamic State (IS, Daesh) has been relentless in its efforts to make some inroads into India. In 2020, it has already made at least five clarion calls to carry out attacks in India:

The IS online media outlet Al Qitaal Media Center launched this new online magazine in February 2020.

Similarly, another global terror outfit, Al Qaeda, has already made two separate calls for jihad in the current year,

There were at least five similar calls by these two global terror outfits – three by Al Qaeda and two by IS – through 2019. Moreover, the IS on two separate occasions called for attacks on Indian interests in Indonesia and the Arabian Peninsula.

These calls, however, failed to have any noticeable impact on Muslims in India. Since 2014, when the IS announced its ‘interest’ in India and the Al Qaeda followed, announcing the opening of its regional chapter, the AQIS, these two outfits have succeeded in ‘inspiring’ a minuscule number of supporters. Indeed, (Al Qaeda has been making attempts to establish some sort of influence in India since 1996, when Osama bin Laden first referred to India as a legitimate target of jihad.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a total of 99 persons from India are confirmed to have joined Daesh in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Of these, 48 are already confirmed dead and 35 have returned to the country. In October 2019, the National Investigation Agency disclosed that 127 Daesh sympathisers had been arrested across India for criminal conspiracies or criminal activities linked to Daesh; and 70 others were ‘detained’, counselled and released. Thus, a total of 296 individuals have been ‘inspired’ by the IS ‘ideology’ to engage in some sort of associated activity. There are roughly 207 million Muslims in India.

Meanwhile, as in the past, some activities associated with these two terrorist formations were recorded in India through 2019. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered three cases against these global terror outfits in 2019. These include:

NIA has already registered two such cases in 2020. The first case was registered on January 19, 2020, while the second was registered on January 21, 2020. 

Apart from these two global terror formations, the Bangladesh-based transnational terror group Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) also attempted to create trouble in India. The NIA registered two cases against the outfit in 2019: on July 29, 2019 and December 21, 2019. The first of these related to “seizure of 05 improvised hand grenades, 03 fabricated grenade caps, 03 circuits of IEDs, 01 timer device, 02 rocket bends, one body of rocket, one 09 mm bullet, one air-gun, suspected explosive powders and various other incriminating materials used in fabrication of hand grenades/IEDs, from the place rented by members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), in Chikkabanawara, Bengaluru on 07.07.2019”. The second case related “to arrest of a Member of Proscribed terrorist organization of Bangladesh, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) namely Najir Sheikh @ Patla Anans, son of Lalu Sheikh of Dighir Pahar, Murshidabad, West Bengal, on Charges of conspiracy to commit terrorist act”.

It is useful to recall that another Bangladesh based terror outfit, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), had been a potent threat for a long period.  Its role was under investigation in the July 13, 2011, Mumbai blasts (13/7) which killed 26 people, among several other cases. Indian agencies believe that the suspected mastermind of the blasts, Abdullah Khan of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), was hiding in Bangladesh, under protection of HuJI-B.

In the meantime, Islamist terrorist groups operating out of Pakistan, primarily the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), continued with their activities in Jammu & Kashmir, as well as their efforts to carry out attacks in the Indian hinterland through 2019. On March 15, 2019, the NIA registered a case against the JeM:

Later, on September 16, 2019, the NIA filed a charge sheet which reads,

Despite these sustained efforts, the intelligence and enforcement apparatus in India has successfully thwarted all attempts by these Islamist terror formations – global, transnational, Pakistan based – to carry out any attack in India’s hinterland through 2019. The Pakistan-based terror formations, however, continued to carry out attacks in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) through 2019 and into 2020. The last terror attack by an Islamist terrorist formation outside J&K took place March 7, 2017, when nine persons were injured in a blast in a train near Jabdi Railway Station in Shajapur District of Madhya Pradesh. The next day, a terrorist involved in the blast was killed by SFs in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.  The last major attack (involving more than three fatalities) by Islamist terrorists (outside J&K) was recorded on January 2, 2016, when 14 persons, including the six attackers, died in an attack on the Pathankot Airbase in Punjab.

However, the threats from these terror outfits persists. On March 31, 2020, Delhi Police issued an advisory stating,

Significantly, the current year has already witnessed a killing by a suspected Daesh terrorists. In the night of January 8, a special Sub-Inspector of Police, Y. Wilson, was shot dead by two suspected IS terrorists at Padanthaalumoodu Checkpost in the Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu. The killers were identified as A. Abdul Shameem of Thiruvithaancode (Kanyakumari District) and M. Thoufique of Malik Dinar Nagar in Kottar (Kanyakumari). The killers were also reportedly involved in the murder of Hindu Munnani activist, KP Suresh Kumar, in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) on June 21, 2014. Reports indicate that Wilson’s killers were old associates of three IS terrorists arrested in Delhi on January 9, 2020. The duo, along with Khaja Moideen, Syed Ali Nawaz, Abdul Samad and Jaffar Ali, fled to different places after killing the Hindu Munnani activist KP Suresh Kumar.

Further, there has also been a spurt of activities of radical Islamist terrorist formations like the Popular Front of India (PFI). The NIA registered a case against the outfit for its involvement in the killing of V. Ramalingam, a Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK, Working People’s Party) functionary in Kumbakonam, in Thanjavur District of Tamil Nadu on February 5, 2019.

In 2019 the NIA also registered five other cases against individuals inspired by radical Islamism, engaged in disruptive activities. The last of these cases in 2019 was registered on December 29, 2019 and recorded, that Adnan@ Razak and others were engaged in “anti-national activities” and transfer of money through legal and illegal channels “for the purpose of recruiting agents for collection and communication of secret information pertaining to sensitive and vital installations such as defence establishments, space research stations etc. across the country.”

Islamist terrorist and extremist organisations, including global terrorist formations such as Daesh and al Qaeda, as well as the Pakistan sponsored groupings such as LeT, JeM and HM, continue to target India in their campaigns for jihad. They have, nevertheless, found mobilization among the Indian Muslim population extraordinarily difficult, with just a minuscule fringe outside J&K responding to their incitement and their blandishments. Nevertheless, given the patterns of politically engineered communal polarization, particularly by majoritarian political formations, that have enormously escalated over the past years, the risks of Islamist terrorist and extremist mobilization remain real. Extreme vigilance, as well as an urgent review of the mainstreaming of communal incitement by Right Wing nationalist political formations and their captive media outlets, is an urgent imperative if the simmering resentment in the Muslim extremist fringe is to be effectively contained.

MALDIVES

Daesh Surge
Giriraj Bhattacharjee
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On April 21, 2020, unidentified attackers set ablaze a sewerage pump station operated by state owned utilities firm, Fenaka Corporation, on the Hithadhoo Island of Addu City. Though the fire was extinguished and no one was hurt in the incident, Mayor Abdulla Sodiq in a Tweet alleged that it was an attempt to halt services on the island.

Though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, the Islamic State, in an article published on April 21, 2020, in its magazine Voice of Hind, stated,

The article referred to a similar attack of arson on April 15.

On April 15, 2020, five speedboats, including a sea ambulance, a police vessel and the atoll council's speed boat, were damaged in a fire at Mahibadhoo Harbour on the Alifu Dhaalu Atoll. Two other speed boats and two dinghies were also affected by the fire.

The same evening, Maldives Police Service (MPS) classified the incident as a deliberate act of arson to retaliate against the ongoing investigations against religious extremism and drug trafficking.

On April 17, 2020, the Islamic State (IS, Daesh), via its weekly newsletter Al Naba, claimed responsibility for setting ablaze five “Naval boats” at Mahibadhoo in Alifu Dhaalu Atoll on April 15. The IS release further claimed that the boats, which belonged to "Murtad (Apostate) Maldivian Government and sponsors of Kufr (infidel) Democracy” were destroyed using "incendiary bombs”.

On March 22, 2020, unidentified attackers set ablaze a Police boat docked at the harbour of Gan island in Laamu Atoll. On April 17, 2020, disclosing the contents of Al Naba, Rita Katz, Director of SITE Intelligence Group, tweeted,

In an uncanny coincidence, on March 23, 2020, SITE INTELLIGENCE Group, an organisation that monitors online activities of extremist groups, disclosed that an IS aligned Maldivian channel had urged followers to engineer attacks during the COVID-19 crisis.

The recent IS-linked incidents are the product of the toxic brew with key components of puritanical Salafism (replacing the heterodox religious tradition of the island nation) and religion-based political mobilisation, combined with increasing digital connectivity. The Maldives contributed the highest IS fighters per capita in the Syrian civil war. On December 16, 2019, Commissioner of Police (CP) Mohamed Hameed disclosed that there were approximately 1,400 extremists in Maldives, who followed the Daesh ideology and who would not hesitate to kill their fellow men to defend their beliefs. Hameed further stated that 432 Maldivians from across the island nation sought to take part in the Syrian conflict and attempted to travel or travelled to the warzone.

Since January 1, 2018, when the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) stared compiling data on terrorism in Maldives, the IS or individuals inspired by the IS have carried out a total of six attacks (data till April 24, 2020). The first incident was recorded in December 2019 (date not known). In the incident, unidentified assailants attacked a Turkish tourist. No other incident was recorded in 2019. Five incidents have already occurred in 2020 (data till April 26).  

These six attacks include two incidents of attack on foreign nationals by locals inspired by IS:

The April 22 article in Voice of Hind noted

The claim by IS uncovered another attack in the island nation. On March 21, 2020, an unexplained arson incident occurred at Villa number 47 in Cheval Blanc Randheli, a luxury hotel located in Noonu Atoll.

Daesh had planned to carry out its first attack in the Maldives in 2017. The plot to blow up an airline mid-air using an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) through an unnamed Maldivian operative was, however, foiled by Maldivian SFs along with the “five biggest countries in the world” (names not mentioned.

Meanwhile, SFs have arrested a total of 13 terrorists/radicals since January 2018, three in 2019, and 10 in 2020. The most prominent arrest was made by the Police on October 23, 2019, when they detained IS recruiter Mohamed Ameen. Ameen was also on the US Department of the Treasuries Office of Foreign Affairs Control (OFAC)’s published list of terrorists.

The extensive spread of COVID-19 has paralysed the functioning of nation states across the world, including the Maldives. In such a situation, where all the agencies of the government are busy fighting the pandemic, extremist groups like IS are trying to exploit underlying vulnerabilities. In the March 19, 2020, edition of Al Naba, an editorial titled “The Crusaders’ Worst Nightmare” exhorts supporters to show no mercy to the “infidels” and “apostates” in their moment of crisis, and instead to attack and weaken them, rendering them less able to harm Muslims; and to bear in mind that the calamity befalling the West and its allies “will substantially undercut their ability to wage war on the mujahideen in the coming period”.

Indeed, on April 15, 2020, Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed warned that the Security Forces (SFs) would not allow such groups to take advantage of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown. Earlier, in the first week of April 2020, the Maldives National Defence Forces (MNDF) had also warned the extremists that the SFs could tackle both COVID-19 related responsibilities and security issues at the same time.  

Nevertheless, there is a fear that the COVID-19 pandemic will give the cornered extremists present in the island nation same opportunities to exploit, as had the Tsunami in 2004. In a March 2020 National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Newsletter column, Lieutenant Colonel Ibrahim Naeem had thus observed,

If the Islamist extremists inspired by Daesh are able to consolidate their foothold in the Maldives, this would add to the miseries of the island nation, severely denting its image as an exotic tourist destination. With tourism the country’s major earner, this would undermine the potential for economic recovery once the COVID-19 risk is gradually diluted. There is also a need for greater regional cooperation to deal with transnational terror groups like Daesh.