India Faces Serious ISIS Threat due to Presence of Radical Elements like Bengaluru Cafe Bomber: Intel Sources to News18

India is facing a serious ISIS threat and is definitely the target of the global terrorist group because of the presence of radical elements, intelligence agency sources told CNN-News18 on Friday.

Recent threats by the Islamic State Pakistan Province (ISPP) can’t be taken lightly, they said.

Islamic State (ISIS) and Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have joined hands after the weakening of the Taliban, the sources added.

The Ab Kiski Baari Hai (Who Is Next) poster issued by Nashir media, affiliated with ISPP, threatened India, the United States, China, and Denmark.

Alongside were released images from this month’s devastating Moscow and Kandahar attacks.

On March 21, ISIS targeted the top leadership of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and its supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The next day, gunmen sprayed concertgoers at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall with automatic weapons and set the venue on fire, killing at least 130 people, with many still reported missing.

“We can’t take this threat lightly,” an Indian intelligence official told CNN-News18. “ISIS is trying its level best to instigate Indian youth regularly from a particular community. We are dismantling their ability to attack India regularly with the help of state police. We are on high alert and everyone who is into these activities is under scanner.”

Pakistan’s ISI is regularly helping and instigating Indian youth on social media and other VoIP platforms to carry out these attacks, the sources said. They are also cultivating people with criminal records like Bengaluru cafe blast suspect Mussavir Shazeeb Hussain to do such activities, they said.

At least nine people were injured in the blast around 1 pm on March 1 at the popular Rameshwaram Cafe in the city’s Whitefield area. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the case.

With the Taliban coming to power in Afghanistan, said the sources, ISIS has gained strength because it doesn’t face much of a challenge from any other terror group.

Also, they said, the Taliban and Pakistan army are regularly fighting at the borders, and to gain an upper hand, the ISI has been using ISIS.