Delhi police detains IS-linked couple using the recent protests to incite terror attack

Delhi police has detained a couple from Kashmir with alleged links with the Islamic State - Khorasan Province (ISKP) on Sunday morning.  

The couple had been in touch with senior ISKP members in Afghanistan to exploit the ongoing agitation against the amended citizenship law to incite Muslim youth to carry out terror strikes, reports Hindustan Times.

The two arrestees are Jahanzaib Sami and his wife Hinda Bashir Beigh from Kashmir's Srinagar. 

"Jahanzaib Sami and his wife Hinda Bashir Beigh, a couple from Srinagar in Kashmir, have been detained. We are in the process of completing the formalities to place them under arrest," said a senior police officer.

Jahanzaib Sami had come to the notice of the Indian intelligence operatives some time back for his association with senior members of ISKP in Afghanistan. The ISKP is the Afghanistan-based affiliate of IS.

It is believed Sami had intended to carry out terror strikes including a suicide attack and had also been attempting to procure weapons for this purpose. For the present, however, Jahanzaib Sami's activities were largely confined to propaganda for the proscribed terror group on cyber space and had been advocating that the group should expand its focus to the Indian hinterland, and not just Jammu and Kashmir.

Intelligence officials say that Sami had also been in touch with Huzaifa al-Bakistani, the Pakistani commander of the Islamic State's Khorasan wing who played a key role in efforts to radicalise Kashmiri youngsters to join the terror group.

Huzaifa al-Bakistani was a well-known online recruiter for IS. The Pakistani national first joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba before upgrading to the IS and was killed last year in a drone strike.