India bans Islamic State as its recruits from India pose a threat

NEW DELHI: India has banned the Islamic State (IS) and all its manifestations saying the terrorist organisation is recruiting "vulnerable youth" from India, posing a major security threat when such youths return to India.

ET has now accessed a February 16 notification issued by the Union Home Ministry in this regard. "The Central Government is satisfied that the Islamic State/Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Daish is a terrorist organisation and has decided to add the said organisation and all its manifestations in the First Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967," the MHA notification says.

The notification adds that Central Government believes that the Islamic State/Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Daish is involved in "radicalization and recruitment of vulnerable youth from various countries including India" and says this a threat. "Such recruitment of youth to the outfit from India and their radicalisation is a matter of serious concern for the country especially with regard to its likely impact on national security when such youth return to India," the notification says.

Areeb Majeed, a youth from Kalyan in Mumbai, had gone to Iraq last year to join the ISIS and returned to India last November after actively training for the outfit and taking part in several terrorist operations there. The NIA is now probing a case against him. Three other youths from Kalyan who went along with Majeed to Iraq have not returned so far to India.

The MHA notification says the Islamic State/Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Daish is a terrorist outfit operating in Iraq and neighbouring countries and has been resorting to terrorist actions to consolidate its position in that area by recruiting youth for ‘Global Jehad’. The notification says this activity of IS to achieve the objective of establishing its own ‘caliphate’ by overthrowing democratically elected governments, besides resorting to terrorism in the form of killing of innocent civilians and security forces.