‘Islamic State’ doesn’t exist in Kashmir: MHA

New Delhi, Feb 27: The Union government on Tuesday sought to downplay the issue of presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Jammu and Kashmir, saying the terror group had no existence in the Valley.
“There is no physical infrastructure or manpower of the IS in the Valley. It does not exist in the Valley,” a Home Ministry spokesperson said.
The Central government’s assertion came after the IS claimed responsibility for the killing of policeman Farooq Ahmad Yatoo in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday.
Amaq and Al-Qarar, propaganda wings of the IS, claimed that the outfit was responsible for his killing and warned that a “war” had just begun. Ahmad was killed and the assailants decamped with his service rifle.
An official said Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) could be behind the attack on the policeman.
Isa Fazali, a local militant who first joined the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and later shifted his allegiance to LeT, has emerged as the prime suspect.
However, Jammu and Kashmir DGP S.P. Vaid said in Srinagar that even though there were no visible signs of the IS’ presence in Kashmir, the possibility does exist of it carrying out a lone wolf kind of attack. “Although there are no visible signs on the ground, but there could be a lone wolf type of attack. There is possibility”, he said.
Admitting that it was a matter of concern, the Director General of Police said the outfit’s claim would be verified.
“The ISIS has claimed on its website Al-Qarar that they are here (in Kashmir). This needs to be verified on the ground. It is matter of worry,” Vaid told PTI.
They have not only claimed the killing of the policeman but have shown the weapon as well, he said and added that the police would probe and verify the claim.
“They had also made a claim in November last year. This needs ground verification. There is an element (of suspicion) in it,” Vaid said.
People of Kashmir will be vigilant enough to not allow it to become another Syria, he added.
In November 2017, there were reports that the global organisation was involved in an encounter with security forces in Srinagar where a terrorist, identified as Mugees Mir, was killed and a sub-inspector, Imran Tak, lost his life.
Amaq, the official news agency of IS, had claimed responsibility for that attack.
Pictures of Mugees with the ISIS flag in the background surfaced on social media. Even his body was wrapped in the flag of the banned terror group during the funeral.
However, security officials had then claimed that Mugees belonged to an extremist group called Tehrik-ul- Mujahideen and was its Pulwama district commander.
The Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen was among the first few militant groups that emerged at the onset of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1990s.
The police have found no logistical connection between the two, another official said. The cadre strength of the group is very small and it has been facing an extreme shortage of weapons, officials said and added that Tehrik-Ul-Mujahideen was founded much before the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen came into existence.