After Sri Lanka blasts, Indian agencies boost surveillance of 50 absconding Islamic State suspects

Indian security agencies are closely monitoring the activities of over 50 Islamic State (IS) suspects who have absconded from India and are currently hiding in Afghanistan, Syria and other countries. The security agencies decided to boost the surveillance following the deadly terror attacks that hit the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo on Sunday.

The security agencies believe that the absconding suspects are currently involved in recruiting new members and are conspiring to carry out major attacks in India. After the attacks in Sri Lanka, Indian agencies are leaving nothing to chance and are keeping a close eye on the activities of these suspects.

As per the report, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has already arrested nearly 105 Islamic State suspects in the last six years. The NIA has also registered 26 Islamic State related cases so far.

A group of 14 Islamic State suspects from India are currently believed to be staying in Afghanistan. These suspects from Kerala had left India between mid-May and early-July 2016 before travelling to Afghanistan, where they all decided to join the Islamic State. Several others who are in Syria and Iraq are trying to recruit Indians through the internet.

In December 2018, NIA had busted an Islamic State-inspired module, called Harkat-ul-Harb-e-Islam and had claimed that the module was planning to carry out a series of blasts at many places in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

It is to be noted that the Islamic State has not been able to execute any terror attack on Indian soil so far. This has become largely possible because our investigative agencies have been able to bust these modules before they succeeded in executed their attacks.

''Indian investigating agencies have arrested nearly 105 ISIS suspects in India in the last six years. Many states are also running de-radicalisation camps which have become a great success to curtail IS threat in India," said a senior intelligence officer.

Out of the 105 IS suspects arrested in India so far, 53 are from North India. The NIA has arrested 26 people from Uttar Pradesh and 16 from Kerala for their alleged connection with IS. 

The IS had claimed responsibility for Sunday's serial bomb blasts in Colombo that killed hundreds and left around 450 injured. The terror group later released a picture of eight terrorists, who carried out the deadly attacks, on 'Amaq' news agency. Besides releasing the pictures of the suicide bombers, IS also revealed their names.  

According to IS, the attacks were carried out by Abu Ubaida, Abu al-Mukhtar, Abu Khalil, Abu Hamza, Abu al-Barra, Abu Muhammad and Abu Abdullah.