IS suspect told to target ‘white people’ in Srinagar

Security officials said though ‘westerners’ have been IS’ target, India has not been on its priority list

Days after the U.S. and the U.K. issued travel advisories for its citizens visiting India, asking them to be cautious and alert in the wake of reports that they could be targeted by Islamic State terrorists, Indian security officials said ‘westerners’ have always been the target of the IS but India was definitely not on the priority list of the terrorist outfit.

An intelligence official said during the interrogations of an IS suspect from West Bengal and a group of six men affiliated to the terrorist outfit arrested from Kerala recently, it had come to light that they were told specifically to target “white people” in Srinagar and Jews in Kodaikanal respectively.

Apart from this, more than 60 IS suspects who have been arrested in India so far, have said that they were asked by their handler to target government/police officials, temples, leaders of the BJP/RSS family and high value defence establishments. A senior government official told The Hindu that the concerned agencies will ask both the countries to share necessary information on the issue.

“If you look at the IS, their immediate targets are the western European countries and the U.S.A. The interrogation of at least two suspects has suggested that they were tasked to carry out attacks on Jews and westerners here in India as well. May be this is the reason the Americans and the British issued advisories or they have a specific information on this,” said a senior Home Ministry official.

Possible attacks

Recent media reports indicate the IS’s desire to attack targets in India. “The U.S. Embassy warns of an increased threat to places in India frequented by Westerners such as religious sites, market venues and festival sites,” said an advisory issued on November 1. A day later, the U.K. High Commission also issued a similar advisory.

The NIA had arrested a Tamil Nadu resident, Subahani Haja Moideen (31), who fought for the IS in Mosul and considered to be a mine house of information on the terrorist group’s activities in India.

Moideen reportedly told the NIA that India was not the immediate target of the IS and it preferred sending militants posing as refugees to European countries.

He left India in April 2015 to join the IS but came back in September 2015. He claims to have chickened out from the war zone after he saw two of his friends getting charred in a shelling.