THREAT TO CAPITAL FROM JEM, SPLINTER GROUP

Threat to capital from JeM, splinter group

Lone Wolf Attacks By Qaida Wing, ISIS Likely Too

At a time when the Indian security agencies say they have reasons to believe that the fear of a strike looms large over Delhi, TOI looks at terrorist outfits which, according to the agencies, are capable of pulling off a strike in the national capital today .

Delhi has not witnessed a blast since September 7, 2011.The last “terror strike“ was the precise attack on an Israeli diplomat in Chanakyapuri, using a diary-shaped IED in February 2012.

Cops say chances of a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) or Hizbul Mujahideen attack in Delhi is minimal. The capital faces maximum threat from the two cadres of JeM led by Masood Azhar and Maulana Abdur Rehman (codenamed MAR).

While Azhar's group, based in Pakistan, focuses on Kashmir and Punjab, MAR's outfit is India-centric and headquartered in Afghanistan. MAR, which had played a key role in the Kandahar hijack of IC-814, parted ways with Azhar years ago and formed a new outfit, Jaishul-Haq Tanzeem.

Under pressure from Pakistani spy agency ISI to outshine JeM, this group is now carrying out a massive recruitment drive and running training camps in some pockets of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Two of these recruits -Ahmed Khan Durrani and Ahmed Qadri--had sneaked into the capital from Kabul last November, stayed in Lajpat Nagar, assembled six IEDs, recced six places but had to flee after an accidental blast. However, nobody had an inkling even after they fled.

They were caught by chance in Kabul by the local police when they spilled the beans.MAR had established a control room in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and was passing on instructions. Azhar's group is indulging in radicalisation through Whatsapp groups and Facebook. Recently , the special cell had busted three of their trainees who were in the end stage of carrying out a terror strike and assembled the IEDs. Al-Qaida's Indian wing, AQIS, and ISIS's India-focused unit, Ansar-Ud-Tawhid, are the second and third potent threats. These two specialise in lone wolf attacks and online radicalisation.

While AQIS is headed by Sanaul Haq alias Maulana Asim Umar from Sambhal in UP , AuT is run by Shafi Armar, an Indian Mujahideen rebel who has several IM members in his group who had revolted against the Bhatkal brothers.

Between December and January this year, the agencies have busted the AQIS modules spread across the country . A month later, they busted ISIS's recruits who had been brainwashed online by AuT chief Shafi Armar and were to carry out strikes in north India. This operation had led the agencies to wipe out IS recruits from across the country .

(toi)