Russian FSB to allow India access to detained IS bomber

While Russia will take approval from Uzbekistan before giving access to Islamic State bomber, the Indian security agencies are keen to dig out the local link who was to supply explosives and target to the terrorist.

Russia has agreed into principle to allow Indian security agencies access to detained Islamic State terrorist, who was planning to target members of the ruling BJP or the RSS for alleged blasphemy, after securing approval from the country of radical’s origin Uzbekistan.

On July 27, 2022, the Russian security agency, the FSB, informed their Indian counterparts about the detention of 30-year-old Uzbek national Mashrabkon Azamov, who was planning to commit a suicide bombing against the ruling party representatives in India for alleged blasphemy. Azamov along with another Kyrgyzstan national was radicalized by an IS handler in Turkey as well as through online channels for the mission against India. The terrorist chose the Moscow route to enter India to avoid maximum scrutiny by the Indian immigration authorities.

With India and Russia partners against religious fundamentalism and terrorism, the FSB has conveyed to its Indian counterpart that they will allow access to Azamov after taking approval from Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyzstan national was not picked up by the FSB and apparently went back to Turkey.

Even though Russia has shared parts of Azamov’s interrogation report relevant to the Indian context, the security agencies are keen to dig out the Indian local link that was supposed to supply explosives as well as single out the VVIP target to be hit. The Indian intelligence also wants to find out who is behind the radicalization against India in Turkey, a close ally of Pakistan. The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) terrorist group has its footprint in Telangana and Kerala and is growing in numbers in Afghanistan as a counter to the Taliban. A terror group that wants to capture land and power in the name of propagating medieval Islam, ISKP believes in Sunni supremacy and is against all other sects of Islam. The ISKP in Afghanistan also plays the cat’s paw for the Pakistani deep state to check the Taliban and keep the Sunni Pashtun force under control with savage indiscriminate violence against the Shia Hazaras community including school children and others.

With the Taliban not being able to control large swathes of Afghan territory, the ISKP is expected to expand in the ultra-conservative and already radicalized Emirate and will be a cause of problems to India, bordering Central Asian Republics and China soon.