Staff Reporter :
Indian Home Ministry has asked the state intelligence agencies to keep a close watch on the movements of visitors from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan in the wake of growing radicalisation in these countries.
It also asked the agencies and states to outline a plan to stop radical elements and ISIS sympathisers spilling over from neighbouring countries and influencing Indian youths, according to a report of Mail Online India published on Wednesday.
“The plan should take into account spread of radicalisation in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh,” a home ministry note said.
Quoting unnamed sources, the report said, Bangladesh is emerging as the next ISIS hotbed, and the growing extremism there is a major concern as India gets the highest number of its international tourists from that nation.
New Delhi has also rejected more than half of the visa applications from Pakistan this year.
A three-pronged approach has been planned to fight the extremism menace.
“Targeting the leadership of the organisation, forming specialised groups to tackle them in their area, and ensuring speedy development to provide support to the population may be considered,” an official said.
Over the past year, more than two dozen young people from India joined ISIS and 49 have been arrested from across the country.
Agencies have not gone in for knee-jerk arrests in cases of radicalisation. Telangana was the first state to take this approach, and has been successful with its counter-radicalisation programme.
Home Ministry sources said an assessment of measures taken by states shows that among those affected by growing radicalisation, Telangana has performed the best, followed by Maharshtra which has taken some important steps. Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal need to do more.
However, since most of the radicalisation is taking place in cyberspace, geographical boundaries are of limited relevance.
“With a shared culture and people-to-people connect with the neighbours, there is a fear that growing extremism in those places can impact in India,” said an official.
The different approaches being considered by intelligence agencies to tackle the threat include disengagement of the target from pursuing radical ideology, deradicalisation aimed at changing the beliefs and thoughts of affected individuals, and security measures involving legal and penal action.
The government is also working towards creating a database of international tourists visiting India to maintain closer scrutiny and identify suspicious elements. It has initiated the Unique Case File (UCF) scheme, in which any foreign nationals who wish to come to India on tourist visas must provide their fingerprints and other details on their E-Visa request forms.
Involving community elders, monitoring radical social media platforms, and real-time sharing of information are a few steps the authorities plan to launch to prevent young people being drawn to radical ideologies.
