Home Ministry seeks IB's view on NIA's request for filing case against ISIS & Al-Qaeda

NEW DELHI: The home ministry has sought the Intelligence Bureau’s “view” on whether the National Investigation Agency (NIA) should be allowed register cases against ISIS and Al-Qaeda for their alleged attempts to recruit Indian Muslims for terror acts.

It has been nearly three weeks since NIA wrote to the ministry, seeking its permission to register an “open” case against ISIS and Al-Qaeda. NIA’s move followed emergence of a video in which Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the creation of an Indian branch of his militant group. Earlier, there were reports of some youths from Maharashtra going to Iraq and Syria to join the ISIS.

The NIA has told the home ministry that this is a fit matter for a case to be registered against ISIS and Al-Qaeda. “We have now asked for IB’s view on the same.


The ministry wishes to ascertain if there is any need for lodging this FIR and what purpose will be served by it,” a home ministry official said. Another official said a call may well be taken on the issue upon the return of National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval from the US on Wednesday night. “We feel the case is required,” a senior NIA official said.

In a recent media interaction, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had made light of the ISIS attempts to recruit Indian youth for terror acts.

“There is no progress in ISIS recruitment in the country. All Muslim organisations have condemned the outfit and its ways in India,” Singh had said on September 12, adding that there was no information of any Indian youth joining the ISIS.

In a recent interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had played down the Al-Qaeda threat. “If anyone thinks Indian Muslims will dance to their tune, they are delusional. Indian Muslims will live for India, they will die for India — they will not want anything bad for India,” Modi had said.