Recent media reports indicate ISIL’s desire to attack India. The US Embassy warns of an increased threat to places in India frequented by Westerners. “All US citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness as detailed in the State Department’s Worldwide Caution of September 9, 2016.’’
That was the terse warning put out by the US embassy in New Delhi on November 1. ISIL refers to the Islamic State, which now controls chunks of Syria and Iraq, and is bent on imposing its bloodthirsty version of an Islamic Caliphate worldwide. If one were to go to that Worldwide Caution page mentioned in the US advisory, this is what it says:
“India continues to experience terrorist and insurgent activities which may affect US citizens directly or indirectly. Anti-Western terrorist groups active in India include Islamist extremist groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad- i-Islami, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Indian Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e Tayyiba….” Notice that there is no mention of the Daesh.
In fact, the last reference to the Daesh’s plans to attack India go all the way back to July 2015, when USA Today cited a 32-page Urdu document believed to be an “Islamic State recruitment document found in Pakistan’s lawless tribal lands.”
The document warns that “preparations” for an attack in India are underway and predicts that “such an attack will provoke an apocalyptic confrontation with America”. Since then, however, while there have been references to Indians being arrested for links with the Daesh, the outfi t itself is under pressure on its own turf, with Russia and US crushing their strongholds in Iraq and Syria. In turn, the outfi t has retaliated by targeting Paris, Belgium and even Fortress America, besides other ‘apostate’ states like Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Which in turn brings us to the timing of the US advisory. Does Washington know something we don’t?