India Turns to a Soft Approach to Prevent Radicalisation

Abstract:  Worried about the long-term dangers radical Islam can wield amongst the world’s second largest population of Muslims, India is set to draft the first ever counter-radicalisation policy. In a shift from it’s `hard’ approach, sympathisers and volunteers of the extremist Jihadist group are `counselled’ with a humane touch, marking a new approach towards tackling terrorism.

Almost a year after the first cases of Indian nationals joining the ISIS and Al Qaeda emerged; intelligence and security agencies have come to an important realisation that India is no more a bystander in the Jihad fought in the distant lands of Iraq and Syria. With 17 Indians enlisted on the ranks and files of the extremist militant organisations, India has embarked on an ambitious intervention to prevent the 180 million strong Muslim community in the country from falling sway to the savagery of the Islamic State and propel them from going down the path of terrorism and global Jihad. The counter-radicalisation strategy, a flagship initiative, still in its making will put the thrust on soft approaches like counselling, guidance and de-radicalisation programmes for the suspected misguided youths, supporters, sympathisers, instead of detaining them behind prison walls for following a radical ideology justified in the name of religion.

Former Intelligence Bureau Chief Asif Ibrahim -- inducted as Special Envoy on Counter-Terrorism by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval --is said to have prioritised such strategy in November 2014 during the annual DGPs' conference in Guwahati. Earlier in August, the Ministry of Home Affairs met intelligence agencies (R&AW), National Technical Research Organization (NTRO), National Investigation Agency (NIA), DGPs and home secretaries of a dozen states -- Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam, Punjab, West Bengal and Delhi to frame an appropriate response in view of the growing threat of ISIS and Al Qaeda related radicalisation. While there is no centre of gravity where ISIS ideology is at its strongest, the suspected ISIS recruits have come from these 11 states.

Officials from the MHA admitted that the impact of ISIS—which swept control of land in East Syria and West Iraq with lightning speed to declare a Caliphate and a new country called the Islamic State in June 2014—islimited in India. The number of Indians attracted by its aggressive zeal to restore Islam to its glorifying pinnacle is miniscule in comparison with the actual number of Muslim population. Nevertheless, if unchecked the trend of Indian fighters joining global Jihad could mean deep trouble for India’s internal and external security. The counter-radicalisation policy is a step in the direction to combat the ISIS ideology from taking root in India.

Why now ?

The urgency to evolve a counter-radicalisation doctrine is reflective of the havoc created by ISIS and other Islamic militant groups, who have taken the virtual world by storm to spread propaganda, promote their activities, raise funds and recruit volunteers in their brutal war. The appeal of ISIS and its black-masked, long bearded fighters waving the group’s signature flag, holding guns and beheading apostates to purify Islam, is driven by curiosity amongst the youth population who are getting acquainted with the romantic and glamorous version of Jihad on the social media and online forums. The social media jihad – according to one research, Islamic Jihadist groups post at least 90 tweets[i] every minute and has more than 90,000 accounts[ii]—where fighters and supporters are uploading information, photographs, videos and tailored views all as a part of propaganda, in real time, are a defining feature of new age terrorist is estimated that 25,000 volunteers from 100 countries including India answered the call to Jihad and arrived in Syria via the open borders of Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, in the last two years. Aptly, Syria which was once called the cradle of civilisation is now the playground of Jihadists.

A majority of the Indian ISIS/Al Qaeda recruits are believed to have been radicalised by online charismatic handlers. Currently around 250 active online supporters are under monitoring by the intelligence agencies. These preachers or supporters use religious ideology and quote Quran verses on various platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Kik to incite people in joining Jihad as a spiritual journey and even provide information to facilitate one’s travel to Iraq and Syria. The availability of ISIS-related propaganda in the open-domain has increased the risk for radicalisation through internet and social media. In the case of Indian recruits, many have no combat or terrorism experience--they are students of engineering, a journalist and regular immigrant employees in the Gulf –and were motivated to join the Jihadist groups by such religious handlers.

Religious Radicalisation

Apart from online radicalisation in the cyber world, certain maulvis are under scanner for inciting people to join Jihad a religious obligation. Although such cases are few, mosques, institutions and charity foundations following Wahabbi/ Salafist ideology are suspected to be fertile ground for indoctrination. For example, Saleem Tanki and Areeb Majeed, two of the boys from Kalyan are suspected to have been indoctrinated at the local Islamic Guidance Centre and Ahl e Hadees mosque[iii]adhering to Wahabbi thought or the Salafis interpretation of Quran. The Ahl e Hadees is primarily promoted in India by the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith foundation, which receives its main funding from Saudi Arabia. The Foundation claims to be the group of Sunni Muslims who adhere to the Salafis interpretation and rejects unIslamic practices, traditions and rituals. Following Kashmir, where it first registered the foundation in 1958, the Ahl e- Hadith has spread to Maharashtra and Kerala.[iv]

Although no direct co-relation exists between Ahl-e-Hadees followers implicating radicalisation, a national survey by intelligence agencies found that J&K and Maharashtra are amongst the top online surfers tracking news and activities related to ISIS.[v]  Intelligence agencies however warned that interest in ISIS’s activities or its online sympathisers does not translate into active members. It does mean that there is an appeal of the militant outfit’s acts amongst certain segments.

The symptoms of radicalization are particularly exalted in Maharashtra which so far has witnessed maximum number of ISIS related cases. Apart from the four boys from Kalyan, of which Majeed returned back to India following a six month stint with ISIS, reports of an online sympathiser of ISIS who allegedly conspired to blow American establishments and a school[vi]in Mumbai, two instances of messages scrawled in men’s toilet in Mumbai International airport[vii] threatening attack by ISIS, alleged death of a 55 year old Mumbai man[viii]fighting for ISIS in Syria, a Navi Mumbai Journalist wanting to join ISIS[ix] and two SIMI members from Vidarbha and Marathwada region planning to go to Afghanistan to join Al Qaeda[x], made news since last year.

The Threat

Radicalised individuals are at a higher risk to act upon their indoctrination. Those who are unable to participate in the violent Jihad may be prompted to execute lone-wolf attacks. The possibility of ISIS/AQ penetrating in India with foreign fighters and establishing a base maybe non-existent; but the likelihood of radicalised individuals supporting extremist ideologies carrying out attacks on their own is a point of worry. The case of Charlie Hebdo attack and the Sydney hostage incident adds to this threat.

The Counter-Radicalisation Strategy

The MHA has devised a three-step approach towards ISIS related cases that are currently being followed by the respective state government and its police. ``First we make an assessment of the accused’s profile. If it comes to the notice that these youth don’t have any previous cases of terrorism, are not members of any terror outfits, were not planning any violent attack in India and were not in possession of arms, then cases are not registered against them. These people are radicalised religiously and want to join a terror group based outside India. Our objective is to prevent them from doing so and filing an FIR against them or taking any harsh punitive measures can prove counter-productive to the goal,’’ said an official. This approach is applied on case-by-case basis. After confirming that the individual is radicalised, in the next step the police charts a course on whether the person can be counselled for de-radicalisation. The counselling is done by the police and by involving religious leaders from the Muslim community, following which they are released back to their normal lives. Surveillance is maintained on the person to prevent recidivism. Currently, these steps are being followed by states like Maharashtra and Telangana. Once the counter-radicalisation strategy is formalised at the national level, the new approach will be adopted by individual states handling ISIS or radicalisation related cases, except for definitive cases where a solid evidence of terror connection or crime committed exists.

In a follow-up action, each state will set up/devise its own set of counsellors or guides involving local Muslim religious leaders, community elders, civil society members to assist police officials in identifying and dealing with suspects. Community outreach programmes undertaken by the police and other security agencies will reach out to schools, colleges and set up help-lines. Importantly, there will be stress on sensitivity to ensure that such cases are not publicised to prevent social ostracism and labelling. These softer approaches of counter-radicalisation model that India aims to adopt are currently practiced by many Western nations[xi] dealing with the ISIS menace.

The strategy must also focus on the following:  causes of radicalisation, of what drive these individuals in their decisions to embrace jihadist organisation; are the reasons  ideological (hijra) religious duty, martyrdom), attraction (romantic vision of war, guns, heroism) or dissuasion (identity crisis); introduce de-radicalisation programmes at prisons for the returning fighters like Areeb Majeed which would be crucial to disengage from religious indoctrination and violence: highlight cases of de-radicalised individuals and make them a part of counselling process.

Counter-terrorism experts and scholars are divided in their opinions on the success of de-radicalisation programs and have argued that it is futile in preventing terrorism. Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Britain were amongst the first countries to launch such programmes, following the 9/11 attack; however, they continue to be a source of the foreign fighter phenomenon. In the Indian context, where the threat to internal security is mainly from home-grown terrorism due to social, political and economic alienation of the Muslim minority, lure of radicalisation is an existentialist threat. Terrorism in India until now was only dealt with in a `hard’ approach of catch and kill or arrest and hang, while disregarding the complex and wide range of reasons which transforms one to conduct violent acts. The focus on counter-radicalisation is a positive reinforcement by the state to disengage such minds and give them a chance to reintegrate into society, has the potential to be of enormous help in combating delusion. The degree of success or otherwise of these measures however, if implemented in earnest, can only be analysed in a not-so-distant future.