New Delhi: Security expert Alok Bansal on Monday described the unfurling of Islamic State (IS) flag in the valley by some Kashmiri youths as serious, saying the time has come for the Indian Government to undertake a massive de-radicalisation programme to tackle the menace.
“This has been a very big issue and the Indian Government needs to take a serious note of it. Islamic State is influencing youth in India in a very big way at least in the cyber domain. We have already seen one youth dying in Iraq fighting for the IS; we have had number of youths apprehended from Calcutta (Kolkata) who were residents of Hyderabad who had gone there to migrate to Bangladesh and eventually fight for the Islamic State,” he told a news agency here.
Highlighting the reasons behind the Islamic States’ popularity among the Indian youth, Bansal said: “Now, if we do not undertake a serious dedicated de-radicalization programme, this sort of a menace is going to increase. The use of terms from Islamic lexicon has a huge attraction for young Muslim youth and as a result many of them probably see the glory of the past days of Islam in the form of the newly created Caliphate and they are attracted by the symbolism that IS represents.”
“I think the time has come for the Indian government to go ahead with a massive de-radicalization programme. Regrettably we have not had such a programme; concerted efforts by the scholars who understand the menace of radicalism and Islamic radicalism have not been co-opted by the government in going ahead and countering this sort of a menace,” he added.
Concerns have been raised within security establishments about an incident where some unidentified men wearing masks were reportedly seen carrying ISIS flags after Eid celebrations last week.