NEW DELHI: Indian intelligence agencies have warned of intensified radicalisation efforts across the country, noting that attempts are being made to scale up recruitment and build white-collar terror modules similar to the Faridabad cell that operated undetected for years. While extremism has long been a concern, officials say there is now a coordinated push to radicalise a larger pool of people, including professionals and students.
A major concern is the targeting of Indian students studying abroad. According to intelligence officials, Pakistan's ISI is identifying Indian students pursuing medicine and engineering in countries such as the US, UK, Germany and Australia with the intention of indoctrinating them before they return home. These students, often assumed to be low-risk due to their professional backgrounds, can become highly effective operatives because their credentials provide cover and they are adept at using digital tools to communicate covertly.
Inputs received by agencies indicate that the ISI has formed dedicated teams to map such students. Officials are also reviewing the backgrounds of around 12,000 Indian students who were studying medicine in Bangladesh during the 2024 protests that led to Sheikh Hasina's ouster. After the upheaval, Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing, Islamic Chatra Shibir (ICS), reportedly launched efforts to identify and radicalise Indian medical students in the country. Intelligence agencies say the ISI has also linked up with hardline clerics in multiple countries to reach and indoctrinate Indian students abroad.
The objective, officials warn, is to prepare these individuals to form sleeper modules once they return to India. The Faridabad module-active since 2001 until its recent bust-is cited as a model the ISI is trying to replicate using overseas students. That cell communicated only through encrypted channels, met discreetly at hospitals and universities, and conducted late-night discussions under the guise of group study, allowing them to evade detection for years.
With scrutiny tightening after the Faridabad operation, the ISI is shifting focus to radicalising Indians outside the country, where surveillance is more challenging. Indian students abroad are being targeted precisely because their activities overseas fall outside the regular monitoring mechanisms of domestic intelligence. (IANS)
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