NEW DELHI: On a day when Egypt launched massive air strikes against the Islamic State(IS) after the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, the Centre has said that it will impose a ban on the terrorist organisation and other acronyms like ISIL, IS etc associated with it.
A senior Ministry of Home Affairs official said that they will issue a notification banning the outfit this week. The ban will be imposed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 or UAPA. “The notification will have different names of IS which also includes the ISIS, ISIL and DAESH (Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq wa al-Sham). This is to ensure that all associates, offshoots and splinter groups are covered under it,” an official said.
The ban on the outfits under the UAPA provides broader scope to law enforcement agencies to deal with the cases related to terror. According to intelligence sources, at least 20 Indian youths indoctrinated by the IS are fighting in Syria and Iraq. An IS renegade Arif Majeed chose to return home after spending several months fighting in Iraq and Syria. Sources said that the notification will help them to effectively deal with cases like those of Majeed and IS’ twitter manager, Mehadi Masroor Biswas.
“The NIA, which is probing the cases, was also struggling to respond to several inputs on the indoctrination and associates for prosecution. The notification will help the agency to arrest and prosecute those responsible to spread IS propaganda as well,” the official added.