Islamic terror groups using sophisticated apps: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: Islamic terror groups might have shifted from end-to-end encrypted chat apps like Telegram, Threema, Signal to unknown chat apps, which provide peer-to-peer encryption and are considered to be more secure.
When Assam Police busted five modules of al-Qaida's affiliate, Ansarullah Bangla Team, between April and July, they were left baffled by the chat apps found in the mobile phones seized from the arrested persons.
"They do not use mobile calls but use chat apps to communicate. Not Telegram, but these chat apps found are unheard of. They are peer-to-peer encrypted chat apps and are more sophisticated and beyond the end-to-end chat apps," Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The names of these apps have not been disclosed due to security reasons.
Assam Police additional director general (special branch) Hiren Nath said, "These P chat apps are more secure apps. We have found that they use the apps for communicating messages which are in code language."
One of the arrested Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) member, Dewan Hamidul Islam of Barpeta, had gone to Bangladesh in 2020 and when he returned after one and half months, he came back with a Bangladeshi SIM. He was also trained there on the usage of these chat apps.
Another ABT member Amiruddin Ansari alias Hujur of the state, who was arrested in Howrah, was provided with such chat apps on his mobile and he was also trained on using them.
Unlike end-to-end encryption, peer-to-peer encryption is a direct encryption and is more secure because it does not involve any servers in between.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), while probing the Kerala Islamic State (IS) module last year, found that the terror group's operatives in India were using much more secure messaging applications like Hoop and Rocket Chat for communicating.
The NIA also found that the terrorists were using desktop version of Threema chat app, which is known to leave minimal digital footprint.