India: Persistent Islamist Radicalism – Analysis
On May 10, 2025, the Special Task Force (STF) arrested an operative of the transborder Islamist group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), identified as Abbas Uddin Mollah, from Pathra village in the Diamond Harbour of South 24-Parganas District in West Bengal.
On May 9, 2025, the STF arrested two JMB operatives, Ajmol Hossain (28) and Saheb Ali Khan (28), from Birbhum District, West Bengal. Ajmol Hossain was arrested at Nalhati, and Saheb Ali Khan in Murarai. STF suspected that they also maintained links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
After the arrests, the STF disclosed that these persons had been involved in procuring firearms and were planning to prepare explosives for the furtherance of the purported Ghazwatul Hind (the prophesied Islamic conquest of India). The three JMB operatives were produced in the Rampurhat Court of Birbhum District.
Saikat Hati, the Assistant Public Prosecutor of Rampurhat Court, remarked, “All three were connected with JMB, and their role was to increase the membership of the banned outfit by promoting radical ideology. They used to share their thoughts, narratives, and agendas through highly encrypted social media platforms.”
Indian intelligence agencies have increased surveillance in West Bengal following the arrests, particularly in the Murshidabad and Malda Districts, which share borders with Bangladesh. Additionally, Birbhum, East Burdwan, and Hooghly Districts have also been brought under this special surveillance, to identify potential threats.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least three cadres/associates of JMB have been arrested in the current year (data till May 18, 2025). No JMB operatives were arrested in 2024.
Further, three operatives of the Ansallurah Bangla Team (ABT)/Ansar-al Islam (AaI), the other transborder Islamist group based in Bangladesh, which poses a significant security threat to India, were arrested in 2025. Two operatives who were identified as both ABT/JMB members were also arrested in 2025. At least 17 cadres or associates of ABT had been arrested in 2024.
Varying reports in March and April 2025 indicated an escalating threat from JMB/ABT in India’s eastern region, intended to turn West Bengal into a ‘hub for transnational attacks’. According to intelligence inputs, JMB, ABT, and Islamic State (IS) are now operating under shared command structures, with a common target, with bases located across South India, including Assam, and West Bengal, reactivating old sleeper cells with funding from small madrassas (Islamic Seminary). The reports mentioned that Murshidabad District in West Bengal was susceptible to the rising jihadi threat, and that JMB and Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) cadres, currently operating out of the Rajsahi and Chapai-Nawabganj Districts in Bangladesh, were making attempts in small groups to illegally cross into the Indian territory in Murshidabad District, to reactivate sleeper cells with their local moles through various Internet-based communication channels. Among those local contacts whom the JMB and Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) cadres contacted, were some who were attached to khariji (unregistered) madrasas operating out of villages in Murshidabad along the India-Bangladesh border.
The global Islamist terrorist Al-Qaeda and its regional affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), continue to seek an operational presence in India. An AQIS operative, Shahbaz Ansari, was arrested from the Chanho Police Station area in the Ranchi District of Jharkhand on January 10, 2025. Ansari was part of the Jharkhand-based AQIS module ‘Ranchi Radical Group’ (RRG), headed by Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, a radiologist at a private hospital in Ranchi, whose role was uncovered by the Delhi Police Special Cell on August 22, 2024. After Ansari’s arrest, it was revealed that the module had hatched a plan to establish a training camp for AQIS on the Nakata Hill located on the border of Ranchi and Latehar Districts in Jharkhand.
Further, a chargesheet against the module filed by the Delhi Police Special Cell before a court in February 2025, mentioned that the arrested operatives procure arms and ammunition in Ranchi to prepare for jihad; accumulated funds through the Prime Minister (PM) Kisan scheme; encouraged youngsters to “avenge atrocities on Muslims”; conducted a physical training programme at Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh and weapons training at Bhiwadi on the Rajasthan-Haryana border; and prepared local bombs.
The chargesheet also outlined 11 accused – Anamul Ansari (32), Shahbaz Ansari (32), Altaf Ansari (35), Hasan Ansari (32), Arshad Khan (26), Umar Farooq (20), Ishtiyaq Ahmad alias Captain (49), Mohammed Rizwan (40), Moti-ur-Rehman (40), Mohammed Rahmantulla (30) and Faizan Ahmad (47), from different villages in Ranchi. A supplementary chargesheet in the case highlighted that, during the training at Bulandshahr, Ishtiyaq Ahmad met an anonymous person addressed as ‘Big Cat’ in Delhi and finalised the purchase of AK-47s at INR 5,00,000 to INR 6,00,000.
Significantly, Al-Qaeda/AQIS issued a threat message declaring Jihad fi Sabilillah (struggle in the path of God) against India and accused the country of waging war against Islam, following India’s reprisal Operation Sindoor, under which precision strikes were carried out at nine terrorist locations on May 7, 2025. The targets were affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied J&K (PoJK). The Operation was launched in the wake of the terror attack at the Baisaran Maidan near Pahalgam in the Kashmir Valley on April 22, 2025, which killed 26 civilians, including a Nepali citizen, once again bringing the focus on Pakistan-backed cross-border terrorism.
The other major global Islamist formation, the Islamic State (IS) or Daesh, has also set eyes on India, with continued efforts to mobilize and engineer attacks. Most recently, on May 16, 2025, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested two IS operatives, identified as Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh aka Diaperwala, and Talha Khan, at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The duo was wanted in connection with a 2023 case involving the fabrication and testing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at a rented residence in Pune’s Kondhwa area, Maharashtra. They were arrested after being intercepted by the Bureau of Immigration at Terminal 2, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, as they attempted to return to India from Jakarta, Indonesia, where they had been in hiding.
At least 20 IS operatives were arrested in 2024, in addition to three in 2025 (data till May 18, 2025). NIA has filed a chargesheet in 35 IS-related cases.
In one of the NIA’s latest charge sheets, filed on April 17, 2025, five accused – Sheikh Hidayathullah, Umar Faaruq, Pavas Rahman, Sharan Mariappan, and Aboo Hanifa – were accused for terror financing and other activities linked with the IS-inspired Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) car bomb explosion case of 2022, in which the suicide bomber who perpetrated the blast was killed. The charge sheet (the fourth supplementary chargesheet in the case) was linked with the terrorist attack that had targeted a Hindu temple, Arulmigu Kottai Sangameshwarar Thirukovil, in Coimbatore, in October 2022. NIA filed a fresh set of charges for terror financing against Sheikh Hidayathullah and Amir (‘chief’) Umar Faaruq, who orchestrated the attack. The two had also organised a fake COVID vaccine certificate scam in 2021-2022, using the funds earned, to procure materials for explosives and other resources for the car bomb attack. The accused Pavas Rahman and Sharan facilitated the scam, while Aboo Hanifa provided funds to generate the fake certificates.
HuT, an international pan-Islamist fundamentalist political organisation, has demonstrated its presence in India. At least 36 HuT operatives/associates have been arrested across the country since the first arrest in October 2020 (data till May 18, 2025). Most recently, on April 30, 2025, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested a former Indian Mujahideen (IM) and suspected HuT operative, Ammar Yashar (33), from Shamsher Nagar under the Shamshar Bhuli Outpost of Dhanbad District in Jharkhand. The ATS also seized a mobile phone and several incendiary documents from his possession.
To contain the spread of HuT radicalisation, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) banned the group on October 10, 2024, declaring it a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). According to UMHA, the group was promoting jihad and terrorist activities to undermine democratically elected governments, and to create an Islamic state and Caliphate in India and globally. UMHA also stated in the notification that HuT targeted gullible youth to radicalise and motivate them to join the Islamic State (IS) and raised funds for terrorist activities. Further, the UMHA notification added, the organisation used social media platforms and secure applications, and also conducted Dawah meetings, to promote its extremist ideology and terrorism.
The investigation/operation against the homegrown Islamist Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliated organisations, which UMHA banned on September 28, 2022, is continuing. At least 11 PFI operatives were arrested in 2025 and nine operatives in 2024. PFI was banned for involvement in serious offences, including terrorism and its finance, gruesome targeted killings, etc. In the latest arrest, on April 28, 2025, Police arrested the ‘district president’ of PFI, identified as Mausin alias Imtiaz Abdul Shukura Honnavar (35), linked with the 2020 KJ Halli and DJ Halli riots in Bengaluru, from the Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka. He had been evading capture for over three and a half years, during which time, as PFI’s Uttara Kannada ‘district president’, he trained several individuals.
Further, on March 3, 2025, the Enforcement Directorate (ED’s) arrested Moideen Kutty K. alias MK Faizy, ‘national president’ of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) – PFI’s political wing – under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), at Delhi Airport. Kutty’s interrogation unveiled the establishment of SDPI by PFI to promote the jihadist ideology. ED has arrested 26 operatives, including senior office bearers of PFI, since 2021, filed nine charge sheets, and attached INR 560 million of PFI assets. Documents recovered by ED indicate that PFI influenced SDPI’s nominations of candidates for Assembly and Parliamentary elections, with its ‘national executive committee’ ratifying funds for SDPI candidates. The ED discovered that PFI gave INR 31.7 million to SDPI for the 2019 elections.
Earlier, on October 18, 2024, ED disclosed that PFI had 13,000 members in Singapore and the Gulf countries, including Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who had been tasked with the collection of funds and their transfer to India through circuitous banking routes and illegal hawala channels. In addition to violence, PFI has also adopted patterns of cruelty and subjugation, haunting and taunting officials, fraternisation, mock funerals, interdictions, Lysistratic Non-Action (sex strikes), etc., to promote its objectives.
Since 2023, no fatalities have been recorded in violence linked to Islamist terrorism in India, outside Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The last recorded fatality was in 2022 when a 21-year-old man was beheaded in Delhi on December 14-15, and a 37-second video of the killing was sent by the culprits to their Pakistan-based handler, Sohail. The incident came to light on January 14, 2023, when the Delhi Police recovered two hand grenades and a man’s dismembered body, following the interrogation of two terrorist suspects, identified as Jagjit Singh alias Jagga, and Naushad, who had been arrested on January 12, 2023.
The Islamic State (IS)- inspired IED explosion at the Rameshwaram Café, Brookfield, ITPL Bengaluru, Karnataka, on March 1, 2024, in which nine persons were injured, is the last recorded major blast attributed to Islamist terrorists outside J&K. On September 9, 2024, NIA charge-sheeted four accused – Mussavir Hussain Shazib, Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taaha, Maaz Muneer Ahmed and Muzammil Shareef – in the case. NIA’s investigation found that Shazib and Taha were IS radicals and they radicalised the other two accused, Ahmed and Shareef, with IS ideology.
Meanwhile, on April 28, 2025, Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Vikas Sahay disclosed that nearly 6,500 suspected Bangladeshi citizens had been detained in search operations across Gujarat. After this massive operation, Sharad Singhal, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), stated that several terrorists affiliated with ABT and JMB, who escaped from Bangladeshi jails, were attempting to infiltrate into India by creating sympathisers in the Chandola Talav area of Ahmedabad.
He further observed, “In recent years, four active members of the banned terrorist organisation AQIS, originally from Bangladesh, were arrested by the Gujarat ATS from this area (Chandola Talav) in Ahmedabad city and booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The case is currently under investigation by the NIA.”
Through sustained pressure from different security agencies, Islamist terrorism has been more or less contained or neutralised across India, outside J&K. However, radicalisation and the latent threat from extremist and terrorist entities remain a concern. The problem is exacerbated by persistent inducements offered by Islamist radicals to establish regional terrorist affiliates of core global terrorist formations, Pakistani state-sponsored cross-border terrorism and the harnessing of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the country by Bangladesh-based radical and extremist groups. These tactics need to be neutralised to contain the Islamist radical and extremist elements that persist in their efforts to promote extremism and terrorist violence in India.