Acting tough against terrorism, the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) and different state police departments have so far arrested atleast 160 suspects, who are associated with dreaded terrorist group ISIS.According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the arrests were made from acrossseveral states, including some from southern part of the country.

The ISIS had been notified as a terrorist organisation bythe central government and included in the first schedule of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act, 1967.According to reports of intelligenceagencies, the group has been using different social media platforms topropagate its ideology and radicalise youth. Security and intelligence agencieshave been keeping a constant watch on the cyber world to check this modusoperandi of the outfit. Actions have also been taken by the agencies in thisregard on a few occasions.

The NIA has so far registered 27 ISIS-related cases andarrested 110 suspects in connection with them. Of these, as many as 18 caseshave been registered and 56 arrests have been made in southern states.

In June, the NIA had conducted training sessions for seniorofficials of police departments and intelligence agencies to train them tocheck use of internet by such terror groups to radicalise youth in India.

According to an official who was part of the trainingprogramme, the NIA taught them about how they could foil the conspiracieshatched by ISIS-like terrorist groups using WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook andsecret chat services. They were also informed about means to monitor suchgroups and how to use chats etc as evidence in the court of law.

A report sent to the Union Home Ministry recently claimedthat some radical groups, associated with outfits like ISIS, with bases insouthern state of Kerala were making attempts to radicalise youth living nearthe India-Nepal border. Such groups were also targeting Bangladeshi Muslims whoreside in northeastern states like Assam.