Week after NIA's Bhatkal op, ISIS propaganda magazine resurfaces online

NEW DELHI: A week after the NIA arrested an alleged ISIS recruiter from Bhatkal, Karnataka, and claimed that he was radicalizing Indian youths through the ISIS propaganda vehicle, Voice of Hind, a new issue of the magazine has surfaced, displaying news clips related to NIA's searches last month in the ‘ISIS Voice of Hind’ case and announcing the editors’ defiant resolve to promote the magazine “all the more”.
A counter-terror official however told TOI, the fact that NIA raids in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, find a mention in the 'Voice of Hind' indicates that those behind its content creation and circulation are rattled by the crackdown.
An editorial in the latest issue of Voice of Hind circulated on Telegram channels carried anti-India propaganda and vowed attacks on Indian forces.
Stating that Voice of Hind was about to complete two years of its continuous publication, the editors claimed the circle of its readers encompasses thousands of people from all walks of life. Claiming that each of its articles was being commented upon in the media and there were attempts to even copy the magazine and create fake issues so as to distort its form and block its Dawah, the magazine’s latest issue claimed that all this had only made its reach wider.
Alleging that the agencies have since started attacking common Muslims to stop the magazine and arrested them on the charges of being responsible for the magazine, the editors insisted that none of them were actually linked to the magazine.
On August 6, the NIA had carried out raids in Bhatkal and arrested a highly radicalised terror recruiter and motivator, Jufri Jawhar Damudi, claiming that he was using multiple pseudo identities on encrypted chats to recruit impressionable Indian youths with Islamic State propaganda and motivating them to wage ‘jihad’ against the Indian State.
Jufri Jawhar Damudi alias Abu Hajir al Badri was under the radar of Central intelligence agencies since his link to content related to 2020 Delhi riots, published in ‘Voice of Hind” and another IS-linked media, cropped up. Online surveillance revealed that a man by the pseudonym Al Badri was operating a Twitter handle, where he would catch like-minded persons and persuade them to shift to encrypted Telegram channels on which he would not only circulate ‘Voice of India’ magazine but also seek content for the magazine. He was also translating Voice of India into South Indian languages for a wider reach.
Sources said Al Badri was found to be in touch with top leader of ISJK/IS Khorasan Qasim Khorasani alias Umar Nisar, arrested earlier in the same case with two others from Anantnag, Jammu & Kashmir.