NIA has arrested 160 ISIS suspects from across country so far: Home Ministry
Acting tough against terrorism, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and different state police departments have so far arrested at least 160 suspects, who are associated with dreaded terrorist group ISIS. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the arrests were made from across several states, including some from southern part of the country.
The ISIS had been notified as a terrorist organisation by the central government and included in the first schedule of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
According to reports of intelligence agencies, the group has been using different social media platforms to propagate its ideology and radicalise youth. Security and intelligence agencies have been keeping a constant watch on the cyber world to check this modus operandi of the outfit. Actions have also been taken by the agencies in this regard on a few occasions.
The NIA has so far registered 27 ISIS-related cases and arrested 110 suspects in connection with them. Of these, as many as 18 cases have been registered and 56 arrests have been made in southern states.
In June, the NIA had conducted training sessions for senior officials of police departments and intelligence agencies to train them to check use of internet by such terror groups to radicalise youth in India.
According to an official who was part of the training programme, the NIA taught them about how they could foil the conspiracies hatched by ISIS-like terrorist groups using WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and secret chat services. They were also informed about means to monitor such groups and how to use chats etc as evidence in the court of law.
A report sent to the Union Home Ministry recently claimed that some radical groups, associated with outfits like ISIS, with bases in southern state of Kerala were making attempts to radicalise youth living near the India-Nepal border. Such groups were also targeting Bangladeshi Muslims who reside in northeastern states like Assam.
