The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia has detained an Islamic State bomber who, it said, was planning to travel to India to carry out a suicide attack on a ruling party "representative" for insult to Prophet Mohammad.
In a video confession shared by the Russian authorities, the alleged terrorist, Mashrabkhon Azamov, who is an Uzbek national, said he arrived in Russia after training in Turkey and was supposed to soon meet people in India for carrying out a suicide attack at the behest of the terrorist group. There was no immediate reaction from the MEA although official sources here said they were closely following the case. Sources in intelligence agencies confirmed the arrest of Azamov by FSB, identifying the Islamic State terrorist as son of Tokhir Ugli.
Diplomatic sources said there was no clarity yet about exactly who in the Indian ruling party he was planning to target. Former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma had created a furore with her controversial remarks against the Prophet, but it was not clear whether Azamov had planned to eliminate her, already being sheltered at a secret location because of the multiple beheading threats by radicals, or someone else belonging to India's ruling party.
The arrest of of the IS terrorist for "avenging the insult to Prophet" comes barely three months after the Islamic State in Khurasan Province (ISKP) released a 50-page document on the same issue with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a cow.
The 10-minute video titled 'The polytheists are the brothers of the polytheists' featuring Sharma was released in June and also mentioned the demolition drive in Delhi's Jahangirpuri where a part of a mosque was demolished by the civic authorities. "I, Azamov, born in 1992, in April 2022 made a vow to the Emir of the ISIS named Yusuf Tajike. In 2022, I underwent special training in Turkey. In 2022, by the command of Yusuf Tajiki. I arrived in Russia from where I was supposed to leave for India. In India, I was supposed to be met and given everything necessary to commit a terrorist attack by the command of ISIS for insulting the Prophet Muhammad," said Azamov, as per the English translation of his confession.
