Arrested Men were to target Politicians and not crowded places: NIA

The fourteen men arrested by NIA on suspicion of being part of an 'online radicalization module' that owes allegiance to ISIS have revealed they were supposed to focus on ‘political targets, foreigners, vital installations and government machinery’ and not crowded public places.

Counter-terror experts believe that this is a new trend among home-grown jihadis. The Indian Mujahideen (IM) that successfully carried out multiple blasts across India from 2004 to 2014 targeted market places and religious establishments.

Two of the 14 arrested suspects were brought to New Delhi and produced before a local court on Sunday. The Court remanded the duo for 13 days NIA custody. The two have been identified as Abu Ansa and Nafees Khan, both residents of Hyderabad. According to NIA, 12 others will be produced before the court on Monday.

The new strategy of these radicals is to target a political person because targeting public does not yield results. "The arrested suspects who owe their allegiance to AuT/IS believed that to shake the government, politicians should be targeted," a top NIA official told ET.

"IM commanders considered that it was difficult to target a political person and would have also led to lot of backlash against their community," the official said.

Image credit: Indiatimes