Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence radicalised West Bengal student: NIA

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against a college student from West Bengal, who was allegedly radicalised online by the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The NIA said the accused, Tania Parvin, a resident of North 24 Parganas, was tasked by officials of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to “open fake Facebook profile and befriend armed force members in India to obtain sensitive information”.

Parvin was first arrested by the West Bengal Police on March 18. Later, the case was transferred to the NIA. “Investigation revealed that accused got radicalised in cyberspace by Pakistan-based cadres of LeT,” the NIA said.

“Tania Parvin gradually became part of about 70 jihadi groups on social media, which propagated terrorist ideology advocating skewed version of Islamic Jihad with an aim to further radicalise and recruit impressionable Muslim youth. The accused was also active in various Palestinian and Syrian Jihadi social media groups,” the agency said in a statement.

According to the agency, LeT cadres based in Lahore, Pakistan had introduced the accused to officials of Pakistani ISI, who tasked her to open fake Facebook profile and befriend armed force members in India to obtain sensitive strategic information, NIA added.