NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Tuesday sought to downplay the issue of the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), saying the militant group had no existence in the disputed state.
“There is no physical infrastructure or manpower of the IS in Kashmir. It does not exist in the state,” an Indian home ministry spokesperson said. The Indian government’s assertion came after the group claimed responsibility for the killing of policeman Farooq Ahmad Yatoo in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.
Amaq and Al-Qarar, propaganda wings of the IS, claimed that the outfit was responsible for the killing and warned that a “war” had just begun. Ahmad was killed and the assailants decamped with his service rifle.
An official said that terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) could be behind the attack on the policeman. Esha Fazali, a local militant who first joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and later shifted his allegiance to LeT, emerged as the prime suspect.
In Srinagar, senior police officer SP Vaid said that even though there were no visible signs of the IS’ presence in Kashmir, a possibility did exist of it carrying out a lone wolf kind of attack. “Although there are no visible signs on the ground, there could be a lone wolf type of attack. There is a possibility [of its presence]”, he said.
Admitting that it was a matter of concern, he said that the claim would be verified. “The IS has claimed on its website Al-Qarar that they are here [in Kashmir]. This needs to be verified on the ground. It is a matter of worry,” Vaid said.
They not only claimed responsibility for the killing of the policeman but showed the weapon as well, he said and added that the police would probe and verify the claim. “They had also made a claim in November 2017. This needs ground verification. There is an element [of suspicion] in it,” he said.
The Kashmiri people would be vigilant enough to not allow it to become another Syria, he said. In November 2017, there were reports that the global militant group was involved in an encounter with the Indian forces in Srinagar where a ‘militant,’ identified as Mugees Mir, was killed and a sub-inspector, Imran Tak, lost his life.
Amaq then claimed responsibility for that attack. Pictures of Mugees with the IS flag in the background surfaced on social media. Even his body was wrapped in the flag of the banned terror group during the funeral.
However, security officials then claimed that Mugees belonged to an extremist group called Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen and was its Pulwama district commander. The Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen was among the first few militant groups that emerged at the onset of separation in the disputed region in the early 1990s.
The police found no logistical connection between the two, another official said. The cadre strength of the group was very small and it had been facing an extreme shortage of weapons, officials said and added that the Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen was founded much before LeT and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen came into existence.
