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Deradicalisation of IS followers in State, a failure: Officials
While police arrest ‘deradicalised’ youth again for suspected terror activities, officials say there are more than 200 strong IS sympathisers in Tamil Nadu and the number is only growing.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
The modules of the Islamic State in Tamil Nadu, which are allegedly working strongly among youngsters from the Muslim community, are now beyond deradicalisation, claimed officials monitoring the influence of the international terror outfit in the State.
A policy note tabled by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami during the last budget session had claimed that deradicalisation of 29 Muslim youth, who were found to be having leniency towards the organisation, was in progress. However, officials say, the efforts do not seem to be working any more.
Last week, Coimbatore police arrested a youth identified as A Shajahan. Though he was deradicalised by the police six months ago, he was arrested again after the police suspected him of continuing the links with the terror organisation and also for his pro-Islamic State posts on social media.
According to an officer, they must have taken efforts to deradicalise 35 to 40 IS sympathisers so far. “There is no guarantee that they will not return that ideology. It is possible that more than 200 strong such IS sympathisers are there in Tamil Nadu. And the number is only growing,”noted the officer.
“The ideology of IS is attracting a good number of youth – we don’t know how many of them are falling for it. The kind of likes and shares received by the pro-IS speakers indicates the popularity of the ideology among netizens,” noted another officer.
While the government recommends deradicalisation of IS supporters as its policy, many officers are in favour of handling them with kids gloves.
“Until National Investigation Agency started arresting the sympathisers, the Tamil Nadu police was mum on the subject. Only after NIA’s action did the local police in Coimbatore began raids and arrests. The local police were aware of the activities of IS supporters even before the general election. Maybe they were waiting for the election to get over,” the officer noted.
The serial blasts that rocked Sri Lanka, which left more than 250 people dead, could not be stopped by the security agencies there despite a detailed alert being by Tamil Nadu police through the Intelligence Bureau.
The police officers here are positive about pre-empting possible terror strikes in south India, particularly after what happened in Sri Lanka. “We can always act on inputs, but there is no guarantee that we will get timely alert every time,” a senior police officer noted.
IS presence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities
A week after National Investigation Agency and Coimbatore police busted two suspected IS modules in Tamil Nadu, police here confirmed the possible existence of more such modules – well networked through social media – across Tamil Nadu, especially in several tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
The NIA believes that members of IS modules had discussed launching attacks using trucks, possibly inspired by similar attacks a few years ago in France and Germany, to eliminate non-believers. NIA also suspects that the arrested persons had plans to use suicide bombers to target places of worship and public places in Tamil Nadu. Sources claimed that TN police had even thwarted such a plan a few months ago but refused to divulge details of the incident.
“Underground activities, secret meetings, interaction through WhatsApp, Telegram and FB are happening in places like Madurai, Nagapatinam, Tiruchy and Tirunelveli,” noted asenior official.
Speeches available on social media by certain leaders who believe in IS ideology are spitting venom on non-believers. “They don’t believe in democracy and believe in eradication of all kafirs (non-believers),” the official noted.
Fear keeps Muslim scholars away: Police
The State police and government have been in a denial mode when it comes to the presence of IS sympathisers in Tamil Nadu because they were positive about bringing back such followers to the mainstream by giving counselling to them and their family members.
The Tamil Nadu police used to get help from Muslim scholars to talk to the identified sympathiser to return them to the mainstream. But now these Maulavis are reportedly not keen in participating in the deradicalisation programme because they do not want to get exposed, said a senior officer.
As Tamil Nadu was hesitating in taking action, NIA had registered an FIR in 2017 covering ISIS linked activities in Tamil Nadu from 2013 to 2016.
It was the NIA that booked Haja Fakrudin (40) from Parnagipettai in Cuddalore, who was working in Singapore when he got attracted to IS and went to Syria in 2014. He was the first person of Indian origin known to the security agencies to have gone to Syria to fight for the Islamic Caliphate.
TN has been opting not to take it seriously and had been downplaying the presence of its followers, alleged sources. Later, the government decided to take efforts to deradicalise those who get attracted to IS.
NIA questions suspects lodged in Puzhal prison
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials on Monday questioned Muslim fundamentalists Bilal Malik, Panna Ismail and ‘Police’ Fakrudeen lodged in Puzhal Central prison to ascertain if they had any links with the two members of an IS module arrested in Coimbatore last week.
The militants lodged in Puzhal were accused of executing a series of saffron killings in Tamil Nadu a few years ago.
NIA said that the arrested IS module members and their associates were in touch with Zahran Hashim and his associates through social media, with the intention of carrying out attacks in India. On June 12, NIA had conducted raids at seven locations in Coimbatore and incriminating materials, including books and documents, were seized from the houses and workplaces of the accused and arrested IS module head Mohamed Azaruddin and Hidayathullah, a former activist of SIMI, a banned outfit. The next day, the Coimbatore police busted another IS module and arrested three persons.
IS supporters get manual for suicide attacks
The police, during recent operations, found that instruction manuals and diagrams in Tamil on steps to be followed during suicide attacks — running trucks into a crowd and use of lethal weapons — were made available to IS supporters in the state. The instruction manual talks about taking or hijacking a truck, possibly from non-believers, and fitting it with explosives and running the same into the crowds. Another pictorial illustration talks about the lethal use of various knives. It talks about various stabbing points on the human body and how such attacks can kill victims instantly.
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