After the recent terrorist attack in Paris, the exact presence of Islamic State (ISIS) operatives in many countries was being debated. This piece of information turned around drastically. In a behind the scenes cooperation between Indian and US intelligence agencies, almost 20 ISIS operatives have been spotted in India. US agencies have been tracking ISIS computers and phones in West Asia.
This sense of tracking the ISIS saw Indian agencies follow the leads over the last weekend that led them to blow the lid off the ISIS cells. CIA has been keeping track of thousands of IP addresses of computers and smart phones which are used by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. There were several addresses which ISIS operatives were using to access Facebook to communicate.
All such IPs and proxy servers were under surveillance and one address was used by ISAuT commander Shafi Armar (codename: Yousuf al-Hindi) to communicate with the likes of Akhlaq ur Rehman and several others. He was arrested in Haridwar along with three others. The inputs were being shared and surveillance mounted on the suspects. Sources say the agencies were able to intercept calls, Whatsapp and Facebook messages being exchanged.
In mid-January, an exchange between Yousuf and Akhlaq read, “7 Kalash rakh do”. The code was interpreted as a plan to bomb 7 places in India. CIA shared this Input with the Indian agencies and alarmed the security officials. Immediately in the next few hours, the suspects shifted from Roorkee to Haridwar.
The security was anticipating the next move and the suspects of Haridwar shifted base to Roorkee. Even some of the other modules shifted their locations in a suspicious manner which lead to an order to crack all ISIS modules across India. The agency security worked and roped in Police and anti-terror squads stationed in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Te agency investigators set up a control room in Delhi to track the identity and location of the target.
No one had an idea of the target and just know the place of stay of the person. Thus, the agencies executed the operation and picked up the suspects one-by-one. After the mission, the North Indian module was handed over to a special cell. The others were handed over to the NIA and other police. Not to forget CIA, which informed us about the probable attack.