Acknowledging that the presence of Islamic State (IS) modules in the country was more in the southern States, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday said that the police of four southern States were working closely and sharing information with the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“Bengaluru is closer to borders of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. We have noticed that the movement of people between these States and Bengaluru is higher, and the police of southern States are working closely with each other,” Mr. Bommai told presspersons here on Sunday.
United Nations report
His reaction came after the 26th United Nations report that tracked IS, Al-Qaeda, and others stated that Karnataka and Kerala were among those States that had a significant number of individuals associated with these terror organisations.
“We have worked closely with NIA, and are sharing with as well as taking inputs from the agency. We have busted two modules in Bengaluru and Udupi and the State is continuously involved in taking action to stamp out terrorism,” the Home Minister said.
“We are in touch with the police in neighbouring States; and in several cases, sharing of information has helped. Individuals are either committing crimes in Tamil Nadu and coming here (Bengaluru) or vice versa,” he said.
Different modules
Mr. Bommai said that the U.N. report published recently was based on the operations conducted in these four States.
“IS is operating in different modules and some modules are very active in the southern part of India, more so in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are big and small modules. We have busted these modules time and again and police are also aware of some. We are continuously operating against terrorism at our own pace. The police are on pursuit of these modules,” he stressed.
Tighter security
The Home Minister, in a statement, said that the State has taken the report of the United Nations seriously and has decided to tighten the internal security with the DGP having been asked to submit a report in this regard. It said that the UN report cites busting of Al-Hind module in January 2020 and JMB module in 2018-2019.
The recently-held DGP’s conference on terrorism in South India has also discussed the issue. “A direction has been issued by the Home Department to monitor the movement of suspicious persons coming into the State as well as those organisations that are involved in terror activities,” the statement read.
