New Delhi: In the Faridabad module case, investigators found that the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) had managed to infiltrate a medical institute and rope in doctors to carry out attacks in India.
The white-collar module had managed to procure over 2,500 kilograms of ammonium nitrate and had planned on carrying out a series of attacks in and around Delhi.
The Intelligence agencies have now learnt of another plot whereby the JeM has planned on infiltrating colleges and schools in a bid to radicalise the students. Through its propaganda content, the outfit is trying to recruit some boys who, in turn would spread the ideology among their friends.
The purpose of having such modules involving school and college-going students is part of a long-term plan of the JeM, an official said.
Such strategies have been adopted by both the JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan, and currently, it wants to execute the same in India.
Picking students of such young ages and radicalising them works for these groups in the long run. By the time these students turn 20 or 25, they will be so highly radicalised that they will be ready to execute attacks across the country, the official added.
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) had earlier this week arrested a student from Mumbai after it was learnt that he was allegedly part of a JeM module.
Ayan Shaikh, the accused, had been in Mumbai for six months. He was in touch with several young people and had been trying to radicalise as well as recruit them into the JeM.
He had managed to radicalise two students and had even convinced them to travel out of the country and undertake training to carry out terror attacks, the probe found. The ATS, however, managed to scuttle the plot.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that such attempts are being made in various states.
The JeM realises that students do not come under the radar easily. Moreover, this is a long game that the outfit is playing and it wants to build up an army of highly radicalised terrorists.
The official explained that the outfit seems to be in no hurry to recruit a large number of students. It is trying to do so gradually and is planning for the next five to ten years ahead. This way, it would at any given time have a considerable number of recruits to carry out strikes in the country.
Another official said that the idea is not to have a bunch of students sit in one place and plan attacks. The plan is not to have a dedicated module comprising a certain number of recruits. In the Faridabad case, the JeM realised that too many persons being part of a module proved to be risky. If there are over three people in a module, then their communication gets tracked. There is also a chance of one of the module members acting irrationally, which would eventually lead to it getting busted.
In the student module, the outfit would like them to either operate individually as lone wolves or as buddy pairs. This lessens the risk of the members getting exposed to the security agencies. Ideally, the outfit would be pushing for a lone wolf system.
Either the lone actor acts on his own by picking the target, or he is instructed by a handler on what he should be doing.
Officials said that preventing this is crucial. If the outfit manages to set up an army of students over the years, then it would be a dangerous situation. Since there would be no urgency for these recruits to act immediately, the outfit gets more time to radicalise them.
If they are radicalised for three to five years, then it is impossible to break such recruits, and their commitment levels would be extremely high, another official said.
