Daesh Urges Lone Wolf Hacking Attacks on Foreigners in India

The Indian intelligence service has revealed that the Daesh terror group has called on its affiliates in India to carry out lone wolf-style attacks across the nation with the use of knives and machetes.

In its address, the violent extremist organization prompted its offshoots and lone wolves in the country to conduct hacking attacks, primarily focusing on foreign tourists, the Times of India reported citing the sources in the intelligence services.

According to an unnamed intelligence official, Daesh also instructed its Indian followers to film the hacking attacks on mobile cameras so they could be posted online afterwards to create a maximum impact on Indians and the international community.

Additionally, the use of cold steel arms in terror attacks could help perpetrators minimize the risk of being caught by authorities, the official added.

“IS modules and lone wolves here are being told by their handlers not to risk gathering explosives, assembling IEDs or illegally buying automatic weapons for attacks,” he said to the Times of India. “Instead, all they need to do is buy big chopping knives or machetes, which would neither raise suspicion nor involve a huge cost.”

The news came in the wake of the arrest of six alleged Daesh affiliates who reportedly plotted attacks in southern India. The group of suspects from the Kerala and Tamil Nadu states aimed to attack “important persons and places of public importance in various parts of south lndia,” the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) reported.

The NIA unveiled that the suspects were going to use machetes in their planned attack.

"Though they were discussing targeting Jews the plan, as per our assessment, was to hack foreigners to death in tourist hotspots in Kerala and Tamil Nadu," an intelligence officer said.

The official also observed that after the crush of a pan-India Daesh-affiliated group project by state authorities, the terrorists have changed their tactics, calling to form small terror cells. Such groups are believed to be currently operating in such states Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka, he added.

“IS handlers have been encouraging Indian contacts to work in smaller groups with minimal inter-connectivity. This is to escape surveillance and minimize arrests in case a module is detected," an intelligence officer said.

According to the NIA, such an attack was carried out in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka in July, when a group of gunmen barged into a café killing 22 people. They were reported to have filmed their attack.