ISI PLANNING OPERATION KHORASAN AGAINST INDIA, AGENCIES SAY

Terrorists belonging to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), who were released from Afghanistan’s prisons by the Taliban, are likely to be used by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, to carry out terrorist attacks against India. According to Indian intelligence sources, like most terrorist groups functioning in this region, the ISKP is under the complete control of the ISI.

Indian intelligence agencies are apprehensive that Pakistan’s ISI may provide arms received from the Taliban to ISKP terrorists. ISKP terrorists have been accused of carrying out the suicide attack at the Kabul airport recently, in which a large number of civilians and 13 American Marines were killed.

Sources told The Daily Guardian that ISKP is likely to send its terrorists to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), from where a conspiracy may be hatched to carry out terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and/or in other parts of the country. It is being alleged that around 25 youths from Kerala have gone to Afghanistan and become ISKP terrorists. There is speculation that the ISI might use these terrorists to carry out attacks in India. The ISKP is now on the radar of the Indian agencies.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) report on the matter accessed by The Daily Guardian says that ISKP commander Munsib, who has been operating from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, is likely to be used by ISI to radicalise Indian youths and make them join ISKP. Munsib has been very active on social media for the last few months.

According to the agencies, over 7,000 Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba terrorists from Pakistan had gone to Afghanistan to help the Taliban, and were involved in attacking Afghan security forces. After the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, these terrorists have been spotted coming back to Pakistan with weapons, including American weapons. The ISI plans to shift all these terrorists to PoK, from where to launch attacks on India.

Indian agencies have also got information about the presence of Pashtun speaking terrorists in some terrorist camps located in PoK.

While talking to the media recently, CRPF DG Kuldeep Singh had said that if the terrorists present in PoK came with American weapons, then India would have to make full preparations to deal with the situation and that the CRPF was ready to deal with such threats.

An Intelligence Bureau official, who is monitoring the ISKP threat said, “The ISKP has been recruiting Indian nationals from Kerala and some other states. The recruitment is initially done through online interactions.”