Dreaded terrorist group ISIS does not consider South Asian Muslims, including Indians, good enough to fight in conflict zone of Iraq and Syria and treated as inferior than Arab fighters but often tricks them and push into suicide attacks.

According to an intelligence report prepared by foreign agencies and shared with Indian agencies, fighters from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh as well as certain countries like Nigeria and Sudan are considered inferior to Arab fighters.

There appears to be clear hierarchy wherein the Arab fighters are preferred as officer cadre and provided better arms and ammunition, equipment, accommodation and salaries. “The fighters from South Asia are usually housed in groups in small barracks and are paid less than the Arab fighters and are provided inferior equipment,” the input says.

There are reports that the so-called inferior fighters are also, at times, tricked into suicide attacks. Usually they are given a vehicle loaded with explosives and asked to go near a targeted destination and call a certain number, who would purportedly come and meet them to explain the mission. However, as soon as the number is dialled, the car explodes due to a pre-set mechanism aimed at destroying a specific target.

A total of 23 Indians have so far joined the ISIS of which six reportedly killed in different incidents. The dead are: Athif Vaseem Mohammad (Adilabad, Telangana), Mohammad Umar Subhan (Bangalore, Karnataka), Maulana Abdul Kadir Sultan Armar (Bhatkal, Karnataka), Saheem Farooque Tanki (Thane, Maharashtra), Faiz Masood (Bangalore, Karnataka) and Mohammad Sajid alias Bada Sajid (Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh).

The intelligence report suggests that there is a disproportionately high level of casualty among the South Asian and African foreign terrorist fighters since they are forced to the frontlines of battle as foot soldiers.

The Arab fighters with better battle experience are mostly positioned behind these fighters and hence their casualties are proportionally less in terms of their total numbers. This explains why so many Indians from a small Indian contingent have died, it says.

The intelligence report says there is information that foreign fighters of Chinese, Indian, Nigerian and Pakistani origin are housed together and are monitored closely by the ISIS Police.

Incidentally, only Tunisian, Palestinian, Saudi Arabian, Iraqi and Syrian are allowed to be in the ISIS Police force, which is barred for fighters of all other nationalities.

Hence, there is a clear trust deficit between the dominant Arab fighters from other nationalities, who are mostly attracted to ISIS through its sophisticated propaganda techniques on the Internet.

There is also information, the intelligence input suggests, that the ISIS considers Islam, as it is practised in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, as apostate and a departure from the original teachings of Quran and Hadith, which makes them less motivated towards Salafist Jihad.

Hence, there are authentic reports of brain washing of fresh recruits from South Asia and certain other countries by invoking the fear of ‘Jinn’, which are considered supernatural creatures in Islamic mythology, the intelligence input says.

The fear of ‘Jinn’ is invoked to ensure that the recruits from these countries do not return to their countries of origin on the premise that the ‘Jinn’ will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives if they do so.

Further, passports of foreign terrorist fighters from South Asia and certain African countries are usually burnt upon their arrival in Iraq-Syria to prevent them going back to their countries.

deccanchronicle.com

Adviser to Bangladesh’s Prime Minister on International Crimes, Wali-ur Rahman, today said Pakistan is an epicentre of terrorism and not only India, but his country has also been a victim of its terror activities.

“Pakistan and ISI have been the biggest threat to us as they keep sending their operatives to India and Bangladesh… ISI is still an epicentre of terror…Not only in these two countries, but they also dispatch their operatives to Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and all over the SAARC countries,” Rahman told PTI, on the sidelines of two-day ‘Megacity Security Conference’ that began here today.

“They are a destabilising force. They tried to destabilise us too, but failed. They set up 101 training camps on our soil to train Indians to fight against Indians. But we pushed them back with the active support of India. We cannot think that Pakistan should use our land for anti-India activities,” Rahman, a former Secretary in Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.

The conference is being attended by policy makers, law enforcement officials, security experts and leading thinkers representing eight different countries. They will share first- hand experience about dealing with security policy in some of world’s megacities such as Mumbai, New York, Istanbul, Chicago, Manila, Dhaka, Nairobi and Mexico.

Terming India a friend in true sense, Rahman, an expert on national security and counter-terrorism, said, “Bengalis are very emotional people. Every Bengali is with us, except two political outfits Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who supported ISI in our country.”

“But when Sheikh Hasina took over as the Prime Minister of the country in 1996, she got rid of ISI and sent me to Delhi to meet the then Home Secretary Padmanabhan. I followed his advice, made a list of ISI training centres and successfully eliminated them,” Rahman said, adding, there may be a few ISI elements active in the country as of now.

Pointing to the helplessness of Pakistan government, Rahman said, “The main plotter of Mumbai attacks is walking freely and we can easily think what kind of position Nawaz Sharif has as Prime Minister there.”

deccanherald.com

A court in Jakarta has sentenced a man to five and a half years in prison for recruiting and funding the passage of Indonesians to the Middle East to join the Sunni militant group Islamic State.

The West Jakarta District Court found Muhammad Aminudin Mude, arrested in March, guilty of aiding and abetting at least 28 Indonesians trying to reach Syria via Turkey to join the terrorist organization.

Sixteen people whose passage Aminuddin helped finance were intercepted and later deported by Turkish authorities, while another 12 were intercepted while still in Indonesia.

beritasatu.com

At least 72 Taliban insurgents were killed in two separate military operations in southern Helmand province, the provincial police said in a statement Monday.

According to police, the first military operation was launched in Sangin district of the province with the support of foreign troops. In this operation 45 Taliban insurgents were killed and a number of them were injured.

The second operation conducted by 215 Maiwand Military Corp in Greshk district of the province resulted in the death of 27 Taliban insurgents.

There were no civilians casualties, according to the statement.

The statement did not provide more details about the operations nor on casualties sustained by Afghan security forces.

Helmand has experienced years of war despite ongoing military action. In 2010 a massive military operation was carried out by U.S and Afghan troops in Marja district but after clearing the district insurgents returned.

tolonews.com

The discomfiture of jihadi groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with the Islamic State (IS) lies in the latter’s contemptuous dismissal of them as al-Qaida allies who are puppets in the hands of the Pakistan army which itself is an “apostate”, and therefore, an illegitimate force.

In its online magazine `Dabiq’, the IS runs down LeT and some other anti-India groups active in J&K for a stop-start war. “In India, they (al-Qaida) are the allies of the nationalist Kashmir factions whose advances and withdrawals are only by the order of the apostate Pakistani army . In North Africa, they are the allies of Libyan factions who partook in the religion of democracy in the name of Islam,” says the IS post.

Chinese police have killed twenty eight members of a terrorist group responsible for a deadly attack on a coal mine that killed 16 people in restive Xinjiang province, authorities said today. The militants were killed in a 56-day operation by police in the province, publicity department of Xinjiang said in a statement.

The hunt for the terrorists followed attack by “group of armed mobsters” on a coal mine in Baicheng county of Aksu prefecture on September 18 in which 11 civilians, three policemen and two para-police members were killed and 18 others injured, the statement said

After the attacks on the mine the militants escaped into the mountains, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. After the attack, police began a daily manhunt that involved more than 10,000 citizens and police searching an area of 1,300 square kms, the report said. “By November 12, 28 members of the group had been killed during back and forth gun fights with police. One surrendered,” it said.

The terrorist group was directly guided by an overseas extremists group and led by two local Xinjiang men named Musa Tohniyaz and Mamat Aysa, the statement said, adding the name of the organisation cannot be disclosed as investigations are still underway. “In 2008, members of the group began watching videos containing messages of religious extremism, gradually reinforcing their extreme beliefs,” the statement said.

Before they committed the killing, the group contacted overseas extremist organisations six times. They contacted them again for guidance while on the run, it said. “The overseas extremists gave orders and demanded they pledge allegiance,” the statement said. China says it is fighting terrorists in Xinjiang – hundreds have died in attacks over the past three years.

Xinjiang is home to the mostly Muslim Uyghurs who complain of heavy-handed rule and ethnic discrimination under Chinese rule. China alleges that separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an al-Qaeda affiliated outfit has become active in the province bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Afghanistan and carrying out violent attacks in Xinjiang and other parts of the country in which scores killed and injured.

China also alleges that ETIM fighters from Xinjiang also joined the Islamic State (IS) in Syria which also recently executed a Chinese national Fan Jinghui along the Norwegian national.

indianexpress.com

At least 12 Islamic State (IS) or Daesh fighters have been killed and five others wounded by Afghan forces in eastern Nangarhar province, an official said Friday.

Governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told Pajhwok Afghan News that the rebels were killed during a retaliatory attack of Afghan forces in Achin district of the province on Thursday night.

Three Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers also wounded during the fight, he said, adding the bodies of Daesh fighters along with their weapons were still laid on the incident area.

Daesh fighters did not comment on the incident yet.

pajhwok.com

According to a report prepared by the intelligence agencies, nearly 150 Indian youths, mostly from South India, are believed to be attracted to the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) and sympathetic to the group’s activities, reports First Post on November 19.

“Most of them are in regular contact with some ISIS activists through online. Hence, we have kept all them under surveillance of security forces,” an unnamed official said. Among those who are currently fighting for ISIS include two youth from Kalyan in the outskirts of Mumbai (Maharashtra), an Australia-based Kashmiri, one youth from Telangana, one from Karnataka, one Oman-based Indian and another Singapore-based Indian.

Among the six Indians, who fought alongside ISIS and got killed were three Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists, including Sultan Ajmer Shah and Bada Sajid, who had joined its ranks after being in Pakistan, two from Maharashtra and one from Telangana, the report said.

satp.org

Pakistan has categorically stated that there is no footprint of Islamic State (IS) militant group – Daish – on its soil and the shadow of the outfit will not be tolerated.

At his weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah said that the country is fully aware of the threat posed by the outfit and the security forces are alert to it. He said that our military and security forces have also made it clear that the terrorist outfit will not be tolerated on the land.

The spokesperson said that Pakistan is cooperating with the international community in combating terrorism. “We support a coordinated approach against terrorism for complete eradication of the menace” he said. About the Paris attacks, Khalilullah said that Pakistan condemned the attacks at different levels and the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the adviser on foreign affairs also visited the French embassy to record their condolence.

When asked about the rise of Islamophobia following the Paris attacks, the spokesperson said terrorism cannot be associated with any religion. Islam is a religion of peace and harmony and the international community also recognises this fact. He said that Pakistan condemns Islamophobia.

To a question, the spokesperson urged the international community not to pursue discriminatory policy on nuclear issue in South Asia saying this will have impact on the strategic stability of the region. He termed the New York Times editorial on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals as mistaken and based on prejudice.

He said that the editorial attempted to portray Pakistan as a country irresponsibly building the nuclear arsenals. He said that Pakistan was not the first to introduce nuclear weapons in South Asia. He said recent reports suggest that India is rapidly building its nuclear arsenal program. Special waiver for India on nuclear trade is a destabilising factor.

He said Pakistan repeatedly offered to India the strategic restraint regime including conflict resolution and conventional balance. He pointed out that Prime Minister Nawaz also in his address to the United Nations made fresh proposals for peace in South Asia but India refused to adopt that path.

He said that the international community should focus on India’s lack of response to Pakistan’s constructive peace proposals as well as its aggressive posture. As regards Pakistan-India dialogue process, the spokesperson said that Pakistan is ready for talks with India on all outstanding issues but the other side should not attach strings to it.

To a question, Khalilullah said that a two-day meeting of joint Pakistan-Afghanistan economic commission begins in Islamabad on Monday. The meeting will consider ways and means to further expand economic cooperation between the two neighboring countries. He said that Pakistan has supported an afghan led and afghan owned peace process and will continue to do so in future.

dailytimes.com.pk