Bengaluru: The United Nations (UN) report warning of “significant numbers of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists” in Kerala and Karnataka is not new information but will be taken into consideration and analysed, top police officers in both states told ThePrint.
The 26th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team concerning ISIS, al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities also said that the al Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has between 150 and 200 members from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Pakistan.
ThePrint spoke to senior police officers in Karnataka and Kerala who emphasised that their departments have done detailed investigations and are closely monitoring suspected modules.
“It’s nothing new,” Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera told ThePrint. “We have information of those who left to join the IS. Some have been intercepted, others are under close watch.”
“It is known that there has been IS radicalisation in Kerala and detailed investigations have been conducted by the NIA (National Investigation Agency ) as well as the state agencies,” he added. “We have registered cases and busted modules as and when we have had credible information.”
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‘Such reports rely on local police inputs’
A senior Karnataka Police officer, who did not wish to be named, explained that reports such as the one released by the UN are compiled after taking inputs from the local police departments.
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He said police teams in the state have been closely monitoring movements of various suspects and would analyse the UN report for additional inputs.
“The intelligence department is closely monitoring, tracking and busting terror modules. Police have also been working closely with the NIA and other states,” the senior police officer said. “What has been published can only be considered a report and not an intelligence input. One should not confuse the two.”
The UN report had claimed that the AQIS is planning attacks in the region to avenge the death of its leader Asim Umar alias Sana-ul-Haq, who was from Uttar Pradesh.
The UN report comes close on the heels of the chargesheet that the NIA filed on 14 July against 17 alleged ISIS suspects who were allegedly part of a Karnataka terror module. According to NIA sources, the suspects had formed a group initiated by two suspected IS-trained terrorists — Mehboob Pasha of Bengaluru and Khaja Moideen of Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu — to carry out terror-related activities in southern India.
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