As part of its probe into the ISIS team running the online magazine called Voice Of Hind (VOH), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) apprehended an alleged ‘highly radicalised’ ISIS operative from Varanasi. According to the federal agency, Basit Kalam Siddiqui was arrested for his active involvement in the radicalization and recruiting of vulnerable youth from India on behalf of ISIS to wage jihad against the country.
NIA conducts raids and searches at 2 locations and arrests a highly radicalized operative in ISIS ‘Voice of Hind’ module case (RC-14/2021/NIA/DLI) pic.twitter.com/M1iXvGmJNu
— NIA India (@NIA_India) October 19, 2022
During its searches, the NIA seized incriminating items such as handwritten notes connected to the manufacturing of IEDs and explosive chemicals, mobile phones, laptops, pen drives, and so on.
In a press release, the agency informed that it had conducted two raids on October 19 in Delhi, Varanasi and Uttar Pradesh and arrested Siddiqui, who was in active touch with ISIS ‘handlers’ based in Afghanistan and indulged in content creation, publication and dissemination of ISIS propaganda materials through its magazine ‘Voice of Khurasan’.
On their directions, he was trying to fabricate an explosive ‘Black powder’ and gaining knowledge on the use of other lethal chemical substances to be used for the fabrication of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
“He was also imparting training on making of explosives, through several Telegram Groups he operated, for carrying out terrorist attacks against Vital Installations and the civilian population. He was also preparing to undertake ‘hijrat’ to Khorasan for joining active ISIS terrorists in combat,” the statement added.
ISIS magazine calls for destroying Idols in India
It may be noted that in January this year, Voice of Hind, the propaganda digital magazine of ISIS released its new edition in which it has gone on to instigate Muslims to “Take back Babri from Hindus”.
Earlier the ISIS magazine’s earlier edition had threatened to break Idols of Gods in India. The cover of this edition showed a computer-generated broken idol of Bhagwan Shiv with an ISIS flag hovering at the apex of the broken statue. Under the idol, the cover said: “It’s time to break false Gods”.
“Spread coronavirus to as many Kuffars as possible to take them down easily and with minimum effort,” the ‘Voice of Hind’ had said in one of its earlier issues. It also mentioned keeping chains, rods, and wires on hand, as well as being ready to choke and bludgeon Kuffars to death.
Voice of Hind and Indian government’s action against the magazine
In February 2020, Al-Qitaal Media Center, a pro-ISIS media outlet and Junudul Khilafah al-Hind launched ‘Voice of Hind’ magazine. According to a report from September 2021 in The Print, National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that the propaganda magazine was being made in a ‘call centre type setup’ in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Qualified graduates and translators work on putting this magazine together.
Initially, it was believed that the magazine originated from Afghanistan, but later with the help of technical experts, they established a link to South Kashmir. The magazine gets edited in Pakistan, and content creators were hired from Maldives and Bangladesh, the report added.
In July 2021, NIA arrested three men from Anantnag, identified as Umar Nisar, Tanveer Ahmad Bhat and Rameez Ahmad Lone, who were accused of collecting and disseminating propaganda content among youth. VOH was being circulated through a complex network consisting of fake online entities and hiding the real identities through VPN. Investigations established links between Indian mobile numbers and those online fake accounts. NIA said that it seized a large number of digital devices such as mobile phones, hard disks, SD cards etc., used in the running of the magazine.
In August 2021, NIA arrested a key Islamic state operative identified as Jufri Jawhar Damudi alias Abu Hajir Al Badri from Bhatkal, Karnataka. Another operative identified as Ameen Zuhaib was also arrested. These arrests were made in connection to the agency’s probe into VOH magazine.
In October 2021, NIA conducted several raids in Kashmir in connection to the publication of the ISIS propaganda magazine.
