Bringing home the threat posed by the terror outfit Islamic State (IS) to India, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that "ISIS-led attacks were possible in India" and an advisory had been sent to all states of India to look out for people with potential links to the organisation.
On the heels of the terror attacks in Paris last week, which left atleast 129 dead, Singh also emphasised that the threat of ISIS wasn't targeted at a particular set of nations but a global challenge.
"India is aware of the looming threat by the ISIS and is taking precautionary steps. The world needs to come together as one to combat ISIS," Singh said on the sidelines of the Asia Leaders’ Meeting and 2nd ISDR Asia Partnership Meeting, said, “ISIS-led attacks in India are possible. India needs high alert across the country.”
Threat of ISIS is a global challenge, all nations must come together to fight against it: HM Rajnath Singh pic.twitter.com/x4ULItU44V
— ANI (@ANI_news) November 17, 2015
Major cities including London, Rome and Washington D.C. have taken extreme steps in taking precautions and heavy security has keep spread across the nations, even as the ISIS released a new chilling video where they have warned the American capital of a 'Paris-style' attack.
French President Francois Holland declared that France "is at war," on Monday, following Friday’s attacks in Paris. As of Tuesday, France had already launched two rounds of airstrikes on ISIS' capital city of Raqqa in Syria. Speaking to a rare joint sitting of both houses of parliament in Versailles, Hollande said a bill to extend the state of emergency for three months would be tabled this week, while promising he was committed to "not just containing, but destroying" the Islamic State group that claimed responsibility for last week’s massacre.
The coordinated attacks on bars, restaurants, a concert hall and a stadium in the French capital left 129 people dead and hundreds injured.
India too has had it agencies interrogating and apprehending suspects who may have spent some time in Syria or Iraq under the aegis of the Islamic State.
Areeb Majeed, the Mumbai youth, who's being quizzed by Indian investigators, and who'd spent five months in the Islamic State territories last year, has disclosed that the IS is not only training hardcore terrorists but also building a highly militarised modern state.
Majeed went to Iraq in May 2014, along with three other friends, and returned to India on November 27, 2014.
The interrogation details show the IS is building up a caliphate where every one seems to be receiving basic arms training, but then is deployed to different departments of the government, based on their qualifications. Only those who are good enough to fight are sent to the military arm.
On the other hand, intelligence officials also say that the ideological fervour that IS inspires in several countries is relatively "weak" in India. Not one, including Areeb Majeed, convinces you that there is widespread sympathy for IS in India, nor do they have any kind of an environment to flourish here,” an officer told the Hindu.
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