Rise in ISIS interest in state worries Assam police

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Guwahati: A rise in jihadi activities has the Assam Police worried about international Islamist terrorist outfits like the IS (Islamic State) making inroads into the state, a senior police official said.

Assam's Director General of Police (DGP) Khagen Sarma said this during a press conference held at the Assam Police headquarters here on Tuesday.

He said though no one from Assam had joined the IS so far, yet people's interest in the terror organisation was on the rise.

"We have not seen anyone joining the ISIS so far in Assam but a lot of interest has generated in the outfit in Assam. We are alert and worried," Sarma said.

"Many people have visited the ISIS websites through Internet and the hits recorded by these websites indicate that it is more than curiosity. It is on the higher side like in Jammu and Kashmir or in Andhra Pradesh," the official said.

"We do not have the expertise and equipment to monitor this but the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) is monitoring all these developments," the DGP said, adding that the cyber cell of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Assam Police, is also working on it.

He said there was a threat to the state from the fundamentalist forces "both the Hindu right wing fundamentalist and Islamist fundamentalist outfits".

While the actions of the Islamist fundamentalist forces are visible in the state the Hindu fundamentalist groups are not yet active.

"Recently we arrested 24 members of the Jamaatul Mujahideen, Bangladesh (JMB), a Bangladesh-based Islamist terror outfit, who have spread to Assam and some other states in India after the Bangladesh government launched a crackdown against them", Sarma said.

"We have also arrested members of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) from Assam in the past," he added.

(With inputs from IANS)