The AQIS threat

Even as the Assam Police have been working day in and day out to arrest the activities of Islamic jihadi groups in the state, there is now news that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has roped in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to unearth a deep-rooted network being operated by Al-Qaeda in the Indian-Sub Continent (AQIS) which has been active in different districts of Assam. Media reports quoting the MHA have said that a First Information Report (FIR) of the NIA has clearly mentioned that a particular module of AQIS with a well-knit network has been active in different districts of Assam. According to the National Investigation Agency's FIR, the objective of the AQIS module is to "propagate terror in Indian territory, radicalize like-minded youth and carry out recruitment to wage war against the Union of India, with a view to overthrow the democratically elected government by establishing the 'Rule of Khilafat' (Sharia Law) in India as well as to wage war against Bangladesh, an Asiatic neighbour on friendly terms with India and to implement 'Ghazwa-e-Hind', with the help of recruits of India". This module and its network have direct or indirect links with the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), an Islamic terror outfit which is based out of Bangladesh. It is important to note that AQIS is a very prominent branch of the banned terror outfit Al-Qaeda which was established in 2014, and is reportedly operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Important to note, the main agenda of AQIS is to wage jihad in order to establish an Islamic state, a long-felt dream of the Muslim League, which was born in 1906 in Dhaka with this as a major objective. While various groups have been since then working overtime to change the demography of Assam, the methods adopted include pushing as many people as possible from erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh, defying all population control efforts of the Government of India and rapidly increasing the immigrant Muslim population, indoctrinate the Muslim youth of immigrant origin to develop an anti-India mindset, and engineer communal tension.