New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) There has been a clamour among terror groups to recruit women and form an outfit exclusively for them.

Both the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad have all-women modules, and intelligence agencies have learnt that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahiddeen, Bangladesh (JMB) has now revived an old plan whereby it is setting up an all-women’s module known as the “Sister Wing”.

The first time that the JMB thought of setting up such a module was in 2016. However, the plan had to be put on hold after the agencies in Bangladesh cracked down on the module.

Details about the women’s module came to light following the arrests of Asmani Khatun, alias Asma, and Shrine Khatun in February and March 2020, respectively.

Various Intelligence assessments have found that the JMB has been trying to actively spread its footprint along with the Islamic State in South India. These groups have been making some inroads in South India, but that has been limited largely to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

These groups are now focusing on states such as Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh.

An official said that the JMB and Islamic State are attempting to revive the women’s module and recruit in all southern states.

The investigations conducted following the arrest of Asma and Shirina revealed that they were told to spearhead recruitment and indulge in propaganda campaigns.

In recent months, women part of the JMB network have been instructed to get in touch with their contacts in South India and undertake a massive recruitment drive of women.

Another official said that the JMB may not be planning strikes in South India in the immediate present. The information that the agencies have suggests that the focus is more on recruiting women and then indulging in a massive propaganda campaign.

Setting up the ‘Sister Wing’ in South India would be a huge step forward for the JMB. An Intelligence Bureau official said that the confidence to set up such a wing stems from the fact that there have been many women recruits in Kerala, who have left the state and joined the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) in Afghanistan. The official said that the 2016 exodus, in which 21 persons from Kerala left the state and joined the ISKP, had many women who were part of it.

All of them were brainwashed for several years before they could be convinced to join the ISKP in Afghanistan. These women were married to the men who travelled with them.

Another official said that the JMB and Islamic State would not look to send the women they recruit to other countries. Their plan suggests that they are more interested in creating a huge army, with the focus being more on recruitment rather than propaganda. A 2016 kind of exodus may not be easy, as the agencies are on high alert. Further, stories that came out from Afghanistan about the plight of the 21 recruits and the poor conditions they lived in have acted as a deterrent to many.

However, officials say that there are a large number of people in the Southern states who still subscribe to the ideology of these terror groups. They would be more keen on joining the JMB-Islamic State’s ‘Sister Wing,’ and indulge in propaganda sitting in their own state, the official said.

The agencies are keeping a close tab on social media activity. The women members have been told to create multiple accounts on social media and then hunt for women recruits in South India.

This would be the first part of the plan, and once they manage to recruit a substantial number of women, then the outfit would pick a head and train her. The job of the head would be to train the women recruits in South India.

The JMB has realised that propaganda is a better tool in the initial stages when compared to an attack. It is the mind that they are looking to capture, and once they are successful in doing so, the next processes become relatively easy. Officials say that while remaining on alert and keeping a track of such activity is important, it is also necessary to have many de-radicalisation camps. There are already many camps that are present, but looking at the changed tactics that the JMB is indulging in, more would need to be done, the official added.

–IANS

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