A pro-Islamic channel, Al Hindi on Telegram, an encrypted chat platform, has praised Mohammad Saifullah, encountered in Lucknow terror operation as a 'soldier of Khilafah from India' and incited Muslims to follow his example and launch lone-wolf attacks
On March 7, a low-intensity blast took place in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, and the arrest of the suspects who planted the IED led the police to a house in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, where Mohammad Saifullah was holed up. He was killed in an encounter. The incident was claimed as an attack with IS involvement by the UP and MP police. However, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in his statement to Parliament last week, neither called the incidents in MP and UP an act of terror nor named the IS for any remote involvement.
Earlier claims by the police that the attack was carried out by members of the IS Khorasan, the branch of the IS based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, appears to have been picked by extremists on social media to further their terror propaganda in India. So far, IS has made limited inroads into India and attempts to form a module have been effectively busted by the state police forces and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
A day after Saifullah was killed in an encounter by the UP ATS in Lucknow and arrested eight, including a former Indian Air Force corporal, for setting up an IS-inspired terror module, al-Hindi channel made a series of posts on Saifullah as an example to launch attacks in India, jihadi monitoring intelligence body SITE reported. "Brother Saifullah, From India. encountered by (Anti-Terrorist squad UP), May Allah accept this soldier of Khilafah from Land of shirk..(sic)''
Al-Hindi is not an IS channel, it is one of the several channels operated by jihadis, particularly by the IS and al Qaeda, for encrypted communication. Calling jihad an individual obligation, the channel cohorted Muslim youth to disobey their parents, if they oppose them in the way of Allah. It referred to Saifullah's father, who refused to take the body of his son for committing a terror act against his own countrymen, as an "unbeliever". "Don't obey them. And remember jihad is Fardhul Ayn in Hindu mushrik, secular and democratic country of India.''
Al-Hindi channel also called for lone-wolf attacks, reinforcing slain IS leader Mohammad al Adnani's message to target the non-Muslims, apostates wherever they are, with whatever means. This call was emulated in the supposed 'lone-wolf' attacks in Nice, Berlin, Florida and San-Bernandino in Europe and the US.
IS considers Hindu-majority India as the land of 'shirk' or idolators, which is against the monotheism of Islam and thus one of its targets for jihad to bring it under the fold of Islam. "Muwahideen of India. Kill them, stab them, hit them with car, use guns, weapons anything you have. And make them weak, shed their (mushrik, murtdad) blood like water…and make your way easier to jannah…,'' the report by SITE on the al-Hindi post said.
Police had recovered an IS flag from the rented house of Saifullah and his three associates who allegedly planted a pipe IED in the train last week. So far, the IS has not issued any statement through its related media channels to claim the attack or identify the suspects as its members. Sources said the suspects were allegedly in contact with an online handler, who they believed was connected with IS.
