India seeks China’s help to unravel IS expansion plot in country

India has sought Chinese help to unravel the conspiracy of ISIS to spread its tentacles in the sub-continent and asked for details of the ‘chat conversation’ an alleged Islamic State (IS) recruit from Maharashtra had with his handlers in Syria and Iraq.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sent Letters Rogatory to China, requesting for the chat details of Areeb Majeed, arrested by the anti-terror agency in December 2014, with his handlers, official sources said on Monday.

Once the authorities in Beijing send in the details, including the location of his handlers in Syria and Iraq, the NIA will file a supplementary charge-sheet in the ‘open case’ it has registered against the terror group which controls vast swathes of land and population in the two countries and declared a Caliphate, the sources said.

Majeed used ‘WeChat’ messaging service for allegedly chatting with his handlers and the server was located in China.

The 24-year-old man from Kalyan landed in Mumbai on November 28, 2014, after spending nearly six months in Iraq, following which he was detained by the security agencies and later arrested.

A case under Unlawful Assembly Prevention Act (UAPA) and a Section of the IPC that deals with waging war against any Asiatic country, which has friendly ties with India, was registered against ISIS, Majeed and three other young men from Kalyan near Mumbai.

In May 2014, the four had left the country to visit holy places in West Asia but disappeared. They were alleged to have joined ISIS. Majeed, however, returned.

Majeed is the only alleged ISIS member arrested in India so far who was claimed to have gone to Syria and fought alongside the outfit against the forces of Bashar al-Assad regime. The NIA has so far arrested over 35 people who were allegedly trying to spread the tentacles of ISIS in India.