Among the 900 ISIS terrorists who have surrendered to Afghanistan authorities, a report in the Hindustan Times says that there are 10 women and children, who are families of Indian terrorists. Most of these 10 women and children belong to Kerala. The 900 ISIS terrorists have surrendered in a span of a fortnight.
Reportedly, the terrorists have surrendered in the Eastern province of Nangarhar, where the Afghan national security forces are conducting operations against the ISIS. The operations started on the 12th of November against the terror outfit. 93 terrorists, that included several Pakistanis, had surrendered only hours after Afghanistan’s offensive against the terror outfit began on the 12th of November.
Read: ISIS terrorist from Kerala killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan, was ‘missing’ since 2017
According to reports, several terrorists from Kerala travelled to Afghanistan since 2016. Some had even converted to Islam to join the terror outfit. Many of them take their families along with them. The 10 women and children who have surrendered are believed to be the family members of ISIS terrorists from India who travelled to Afghanistan. Officials have reportedly said that they are gathering information on all the terrorists who have surrendered.
It is also being reported that the 10 women and children, the families of terrorists mostly from Kerala, have been shifted to Kabul. A special team from the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency, is gathering details of the people who have surrendered.
Interestingly, it was reported recently that the Khorasan group of ISIS, or the ISIS-K, had attempted a suicide attack in India last year. This was claimed by a top US official. The ISIS-K operates in South Asia and according to Russel Travers, Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Office of Director of National Intelligence, ISIS-K concerns the US the most among all of its other branches.
“Of all of the branches and networks of ISIS, ISIS-K is certainly one of those of most concern, probably in the neighbourhood of 4,000 individuals or so,” Travers had said in response to a question from Maggie Hassan, the junior Senator from New Hampshire. “They have attempted to certainly inspire attacks outside of Afghanistan. They attempted last year to conduct a suicide attack in India. It failed,” he had added.
Travers further said that two years ago, ISIS-K had made an attempt to perpetrate an attack on US soil but the FBI prevented it. Furthermore, he told the lawmakers that by any calculation, there are more radicalized individuals now than there were at the time of 9/11.
Days after ISIS chief-terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed during the raid conducted by the US military in northwest Syria, Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had said in an interview to India Today that the terror organisation is shifting its base to Afghanistan.
He had said that the recent attacks which were carried out in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan border were done by ISIS while operating out of Afghanistan. The deadly gun battle left at over a dozen people dead.
Read: Kerala: Two radical Islamist PFI members among the 10 believed to have joined ISIS
Zarif said that his government is in regular touch with the Indian agencies reprising about the updates of ISIS. The terror group shifting base to Afghanistan also poses a threat to other South Asian countries like Pakistan, Russia and China. “This (fight against terrorism) is an issue that can unite all of us,” Zarif said, asserting all these countries need to unite to fight the threat emanating from the terror group.
