India aware and alert of looming threat from ISIS

The Home Ministry said though the ISIS has not been able to establish any significant presence in India, its success in radicalising a few youths, attracting certain sections of local population or Indian diaspora to participate in its activities or the possibility of piggy backing on terrorist groups operating in India, have opened up the possibility of ISIS sponsored terrorist action on Indian territory.

“India is alert about ISIS”, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said Tuesday, days after he reviewed the security situation and the ISIS threat in India at a high-level meeting after the gruesome attacks in France.

The Home Ministry has issued a counseling saying that “Accessible inputs about ISIS exercises ought to be instantly inspected to distinguish arrangements, targets zones defenseless against assault by ISIS and proper move is made to kill potential threat if any”.

As per the assessment of the Indian security establishment, around 20-odd Indians are now engaged in fighting for ISIS in Iraq-Syria. “ISIS is not a risk for a specific nation but rather for the whole world”.

On September 15, the UAE deported four Indians suspected of having links with ISIS.

India has adopted is focusing on the strategy of counter radicalisaiton to combat the threat and many of those who were intercepted from travelling to Iraq and Syria were not arrested, instead they were made to go through counselling sessions.

The home minister’s statement came in the wake of Friday’s terror attacks in Paris in which 129 people were killed and over 350 injured. The Home Ministry, in an advisory to the states, asked the security esablishment to be on high alert and also further tightened security at foreign missions in the Capital and consulates in State capitals, inclding those of the USA, France, Britain, Germany, Russia, Australia, Turkey and Israel. After the attacks, Hollande declared a state of emergency and announced that he was closing the country’s borders.