Signs of Islamic State’s influence are also being seen in Kashmir. Security officials in Kashmir say they have been trying to find out the level of support for the Arab group after IS flags and banners appeared.
Intelligence and police sources in New Delhi and Kashmir said the flags were first seen on June 27 in capital Srinagar, and then in July.
Some IS graffiti also appeared on walls of buildings in Srinagar. A police officer said youngsters carrying Islamic State flags at anti-India rallies had been identified, but no arrests had been made.
Another officer who questioned people detained in protests against Indian rule, many of them teenagers, said most were only focused on winning independence from India.
A splinter group of Pakistan’s Taliban insurgents, Jamat-ul Ahrar, has already declared its support for the well-funded and ruthless Islamic State fighters, who have captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in a drive to set up a self-declared caliphate.
“IS (Islamic State) is an Islamic Jihadi organisation working for implementation of the Islamic system and creation of the caliphate,” Jamat-ul Ahrar’s leader and a prominent Taliban figure, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said. “We respect them. If they ask us for help, we will look into it and decide.”
Islamist militants of various hues already hold sway across restive and impoverished areas of South Asia, but Islamic State, with its rapid capture of territory, beheadings and mass executions, is starting to draw a measure of support among younger fighters in the region.
Source: Assam Tribune
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