A person who allegedly plotted to blow himself up to kill a senior Indian politician was intercepted during transit through Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Monday.
The would-be suicide bomber was recruited in Turkey by the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), the statement said. The man was radicalized on social media and met a representative of IS in Istanbul to record a pledge of allegiance before going on a mission to India, the FSB said. Russia served as a transit nation for the trip, the agency said.
#BREAKING: Russian security agency claims to have nabbed Islamic State suicide bomber who was planning to strike in India, targeting a member of the "ruling circles". The terrorist is in Russia’s custody and is likely an Islamic State (ISIS) operative. More details are awaited.
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) August 22, 2022
Russian law enforcement described the intended target of the terrorist attack as a “member of the ruling circles of India.”
The FSB said the man was a citizen of an unnamed Central Asian nation, who was “staying in the Turkish Republic between April and June 2022.”
Read more: How Russia-India relations are reshaping the Pak-US relations?
The agency also released a video in which the suspect, whose face was blurred, confessed to pledging allegiance to ISIS. He was speaking in broken Russian and said he received “special training” and was supposed to meet a handler in India who would provide him with the “necessary materials for a terrorist attack.” The Indian target allegedly insulted the Prophet Mohammed, he said.
Nupur Sharma, the national spokesperson of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allegedly made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad during a television debate last week. The party’s media chief, Naveen Jindal, also posted a tweet about the Prophet, which he later deleted.
Read more: Indian police step up arrests following religious unrest over anti-Islam remarks
Their remarks caused outrage in India, too, and even led to street protests by Muslims in the central Indian city of Kanpur on Friday. But as the outrage spread across the Arab and Muslim world — with which India has strong business ties — the BJP seemed forced to suspend Nupur Sharma’s party membership, and it expelled Jindal on Sunday.
RT with additional input by GVS News Desk