Russia arrests ISIS bomber plotting suicide attack on BJP leader over Prophet Mohammed row

The arrest of a terrorist by an intelligence agency of Russia unearthed the Islamic State’s (IS) plot to carry out a suicide attack on a leader of the ruling BJP in India.

Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested a man who was indoctrinated by the Islamic State during his stay in Turkey and was planning to carry out a suicide attack on a leader of the BJP, apparently in response to controversial comments about Prophet Mohammed made by two functionaries of the saffron party, Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, in May.

Moscow made public the detention of the Islamic State terrorist in Russia just days after National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met with his counterpart Nikolai Patrushev.

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The FSB released a video with the 30-year-old detainee identifying himself as Azamov Mashahont and confessing that he had pledged his loyalty to a leader of the Islamic State during his stay in Turkey from April to June this year.

Moscow is likely to highlight the arrest of the terrorist as a sign of Russia’s commitment to counter-terrorism cooperation India. It was announced on a day the chief of the United States Directorate General of Intelligence, Avril Haines, had meetings with senior security officials in New Delhi.

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Azamov, a citizen of a Central Asian nation, was radicalised online by the IS operatives through his account on Telegram. He traveled from Turkey to Russia and was preparing to fly to India. He told the FSB interrogators he would have received explosives, detonators, and other equipment necessary for a suicide bombing from a contact in India after his arrival in the country from Russia.

“I was supposed to be given things there to commit a terrorist attack at the behest of the IS for insulting the Prophet Mohammed,” the detainee said in the video released by the FSB.

The comments made by Sharma and Jindal about Prophet Mohammed had triggered strong reactions from international community, particularly from the West Asian nations, which conveyed their displeasure over the remarks, many of them by summoning India's envoys in their respective capitals. The remarks also elicited condemnations within India.

The BJP had subsequently suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal.