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MUMBAI: The recent arrests of youngsters from Parbhani — Naser Bin Yafai Chaus and Shahid Khan — for alleged links with the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-sham (ISIS) show the terror outfit attracts youngsters from both urban and rural centres, according to security.
While Chaus was arrested 10 days ago, Khan was arrested on Sunday.
Earlier, the cases detected by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) were from urban centres such as Mumbai, Thane and Pune.
But recently the agencies have detected cases from interiors of the state such as Yavatmal and Parbhani. In most of the cases, the recruits were radicalised online and sent to a small module or group created by foreign handlers of the ISIS.
In one case, a module from Yavatmal was linked to a group in Hyderabad. In the case of the Malwani module from Mumbai (see box) – the ISIS handlers got the youngsters in touch with Khalid Ahmed Ali Nawazuddin alias Rizwan, the second-in-command of the India wing of ISIS from Uttar Pradesh.
The group also had links to other suspects in several parts of India.
A senior ATS officer said the rate at which ISIS is spreading its tentacles is worrying and they are trying their best to ensure they do not carry out any strike in the country.
“So far, we have managed to bust a few modules in the state and have nabbed most of the suspects,” he said.
In most cases, the ISIS has penetrated into the interiors, which initially surprised the security agencies, but they immediately involved community leaders to combat the menace.
In case of Mumbai, Malwani, which is not in the centre of the city, was selected for operations. An ATS official said most recruits were from financially weaker families.
Former ATS chief KP Raghuvanshi said earlier radicalization was a slow process. “The recruit would be taken across the border via various routes and then be imparted training. In the era of the Internet, there is self-radicalization. The information on making bombs is available on the Internet,” he said.
Raghuvanshi said the agencies need to have a better coordination and they need to take help from locals to ensure the spread is contained in time.