Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the Ester Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka that claimed close to 250 lives.
With the threads of the attack being closely connected to India, it is essential to make an assessment on the IS influence in India.
How is IS presence in India?
Islamic State came to the notice of Indian intelligence agencies way back in 2013.
Reports from Syria had then suggested that some Indians were fighting alongside the IS there.
However, it was more considered a problem of the Middle East.
The perception of Indian agencies changed in 2014 when IS kidnapped 39 Indians in Iraq and executed them.
Further, a closer look at the outfit's plans revealed that they have had India in their targets since the beginning.
An IS map of the Khorasan Caliphate showed some of India’s states as its part.
Since then, multiple Indians have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside the IS.
As many as 100 have been arrested by the agencies either on return from Syria or while preparing to join them.
Many have also been arrested for preparing to carry out an attack in India after being inspired by the IS.
How is it in South India?
Generally, the North India regularly sees communal clashes.
States such as Jammu and Kashmir, MP and UP in North India have seen some IS influence on the youth.
But strikingly, it is the southern states which have sent maximum recruits to IS.
Reportedly, almost 90% of all recruits who have gone to Syria are from the southern States.
A majority of those arrested while preparing to launch an attack are also from southern States.
These include Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
In fact, the first recruit from India to join Islamic State in 2013 was Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu)-born Haja Fakhruddin.
He joined the IS and migrated to Syria while working in Singapore.
Most recruits from Kerala who joined the Islamic State were working in the Gulf.
Otherwise, they had come back from the Gulf with an already developed liking for IS’s extreme ideology.
Does IS provide any organisational support?
The IS had not provided any kind of organisational support to its recruits in India.
It has largely focused on inspiring the youth to either migrate to Syria and Iraq or carry out attacks in India with their own resources.
Many Indians have not even had a handler and have merely come together on their own to allegedly carry out attacks in the name of IS.
They have formed various groups such as the Ummat E Mohammadiya, Harkat ul Harb-e-Islam, Ansar ul Tawheed fi Bilad Al Hind and Junud Al Khilafa e Hind.
However, none have had any influence beyond their close-knit group.
Most of these groups were made to arrange for explosives and arms on their own with members contributing from their pockets.
How has India’s response been?
The Indian security establishment has approached the issue of IS influence with caution.
Some of the youth who were learnt to be eager to join IS are merely swayed by the IS online propaganda.
It has attracted restless youth with video-game-like macabre videos.
So realising the fact that they may not be fully radicalised given their clean background, India has taken the counselling approach.
Many IS recruits have been counselled, made to go through a de-radicalisation programme and let off with a warning.
These were done on slight detections of surfing IS’s online material or apprehended while trying to migrate to Syria.
India's approach had been positive given the fact of less recruits to the IS despite a very large Muslim population in India.
Only those who were in the process of carrying out an attack or had made multiple attempts to go to Syria despite counselling were arrested.
