Russia may be eyeing grand gesture for India on IS terror suspect

Russia may be preparing the ground for a huge gesture of handing over to India a just-arrested Islamic State terrorist planning to suicide-bomb an important political leader in India, writes Sanjib Kr Baruah

New Delhi:Indian security agencies are eagerly waiting for details of the interrogation of a man of Central Asian origin, believed to be a member of the Islamic State (IS) who planned to kill an unidentified Indian political leader by suicide bombing, security sources have told ETV Bharat. Till now the details have not come in yet nor any revelation of the identity of the Indian leader who was to be targeted, said the sources.

Underling once again that terror knows no boundaries, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)—successor to the dreaded secret service KGB—has already taken custody of the man, Russian news agencies have reported.

“The Federal Security Service has identified and apprehended in Russia a member of the outlawed (by the Russian Federation) Islamic State international terrorist organization. The detainee is a native of a Central Asian country, who planned to commit a terrorist attack against a member of India’s ruling circles by blowing himself up,” the agencies quoted the FSB as having reported.

The KGB was reorganized as the FSK in 1993. In 1995, the FSK became the FSB. The FSB’s Center for Public Relations also released a video on Monday where the nabbed man is shown confessing that he swore allegiance to the Islamic State Amir in April 2022 and underwent special training in Turkey, after which he flew to Russia, from where he was to travel to India.

The video shows the man saying that he was supposed to be supplied with equipment to launch a terror attack on an Indian leader for having insulted Prophet Muhammad.

The FSB reported that the Central Asian man was recruited by one of the IS leaders as a suicide bomber sometime in April-June 2022 in Turkey. “His ideological indoctrination was conducted remotely via Telegram messenger accounts and during personal meetings in Istanbul with an IS representative,” the Center for Public Relations reported.

Grand Gesture?

The very fact that the report is being given wide publicity by the shadowy secret agency may be indicative of the possibility that Russia may be preparing ground to hand over the nabbed man to Indian security agencies on request. In that case, such a move will be a grand gesture on part of Russia as the man has not committed any crime on Indian soil.

Such a move will hugely underline Russian commitment to Indian interests that will amount to taking potshots at the US and the UK where many men ‘wanted’ in India roam free despite criminal and terror antecedents. The Russian move will be amply supported by the existence of an existing wide-ranging extradition treaty between India and Russia since 1998.

Significantly, Clause 4.1 of the India-Russia extradition treaty says: “It shall be an offence under the laws of both the Contracting Parties for any person to abet, conspire or attempt to commit, or incite or participate as an accomplice in the commission of, any extradition offence.”