Spotlight

New Delhi, 23 January 2016

IS Threat In India

GROWING RADICALISATION?

                                                               By Vinod Sharma

The arrest of four youths in Uttarakhand, who were reportedly in touch with members of the IS group in Syria and were planning to execute attacks in the country’s capital and the Ardh Kumbh mela in Haridwar, should send alarm bells ringing. There is no room for complacency.

The grave threat of radicalization is looming large over India despite Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s repeated assurances that “family values of the country teach tolerance to the people. The values also teach not to discriminate on the basis of caste, religion and sect.” The Home Minister says that while all countries are facing the threat of Islamic State, the organization could not dominate in India due to the country’s ‘’life values’’ and “family values’’.

This after, three young persons were arrested earlier, two of them the second time, while trying to join the IS. Singh also has stated that India is the only country where Muslim families stop their children when they get deviated from the right path. He said only Indian Muslim families can do this. Citing an example to show why the IS could not flourish in India, the Home Minister noted: “a Muslim youth got caught in radicalization in Mumbai and his parents came to me with the request to save him. Such are the values of our country. I have full faith that the IS can never have supremacy in India”.

To further prove his point, the Home Minister also pointed out that thousands of Indian Imams had recently taken out a procession against the Islamic State. “If this culture of the country can be saved, no one can stop India from becoming the most powerful nation with maximum knowledge in the world”, he added.

Despite these strong assurances and conviction from the Government, India remains vulnerable for Islamic State tentacles due to various reasons including docility of Indian youths to IS allurements, lack of job opportunities in our country, prospect of easy money and rewards, fear of alienation, powerful social media techniques and propaganda machinery of the Islamic State and mistakenly understanding IS fighters as ‘jehadists of a good cause’.

It is a fact that many Indian youths may not even understand the Islamic State ideology but will see this in purely mercenary terms. For instance, many terror outfits active in Kashmir, have succeeded in luring ‘foreign mercenaries’ showcasing their terror acts as a ‘noble cause’ in the name of so called jehad.

Therefore, the urgent need of the hour is not to underestimate the threat of radicalization in India. Concerted efforts need to be made to identify the vulnerable places and sections of population and also make realize the suspected youths the perils of joining such a dreaded international organization. Like any other Indian terrorist organization, Islamic State is not an aberration in getting the recruits killed in furtherance of their own vested interests. As of now, the mercenaries recruited by the Islamic State from across the world, are being brutally killed in air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq. But this is just a small step towards containing the IS threat.

Recently, the United Nations Security Council has approved a peace resolution that supports international efforts to seek a political solution in Syria, reeling under a civil war for the past nearly five years and the jihadist group, which has fighters from across the world, adamant to the establishment of a “caliphate’’—an Islamic State—stretching from Aleppo in Syria to the province of Diyala in Iraq. US Secretary of State John Kerry is hopeful that the UN process should end the nation’s civil war and provide a new government by holding free elections in Syria within 18 months.

Russia and the US—who are supporting government forces against the ISIS fighters---have both approved the plan even though it does not address the major issue of what will happen to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. While Russia supports Assad, the US wants he be removed. Still the accord was hailed as a major step in the international community towards bringing peace to Syria, where lakhs of people have been killed and millions of others--refugees fleeing into other nations, mainly Turkey.

Recall, the US-led coalition has launched over 5000 air strikes against IS targets in the neighbouring Iraq since its campaign began in August 2014 on the request of President Assad. In Syria, the US along with Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is also carrying out air strikes on IS-held areas, but there seems to be no end to the conflict.

As far as financial resources of the militant group is concerned, ISIS is said to be the best funded terror organization in the world, which is perhaps the main reason of their being able to take on the pro-government forces for such a long period successfully. According to reports, Islamic State has consolidated its grip on oil supplies in Iraq and now presides over a sophisticated smuggling empire with illegal exports going to Turkey, Jordan and Iran.

Six months after it grabbed vast swathes of territory, the radical militant group is earning millions of dollars from its Iraqi oil operations. The militants control around half a dozen oil producing oilfields. They were also quickly able to make them operational and then tapped into established trading networks across the northern Iraq, where smuggling rules the roost for years. The funds obviously would be used to lure young minds to join their cause.  

Again the UN Security Council has to come out with another resolution deciding to cut off funds for the IS in a firmer move by the international community to fight terrorism. The resolution was adopted by the 15-nation UN body at an open meeting chaired by US Treasury Secretary. However, the resolution doesn’t seem to cut much ice keeping in view the staggering oil resources of the terror group.

Interestingly, to prove its horrific acts of terror in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State is extensively using social media like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, internet memes and other channels of communication. Amateur videos and images are also being uploaded by its footsoldiers, which are then globally disseminated, both by ordinary users and mainstream news organizations, hungry for images of a conflict their own cameras cannot access! Adding teeth to its growing internet and social media presence, the IS has reportedly launched an app that features news and videos showing executions and battlefield victories and propagate its agenda. ISIS’s global media operation appears to have two key objectives. First to provoke the US and its allies and the second is to recruit from outside the Middle East.

After parting ways with Al-Qaida in February 2014, the IS claims to have a presence, besides its strongholds of Syria and Iraq, in Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and North Caucasus. It has been eyeing India, but as of now hasn’t been able to establish its ‘strong foothold’. However, recent arrests are an ominous sign, which India can ill-afford to ignore. It needs to lead the battle against the IS vigourously to wipe out the misleading impact of its pernicious propaganda from the hearts and minds of young Muslims. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)