Security has been stepped up and states and metropolitan cities have been alerted

NEW DELHI: The threat of a terror attack looms large over the capital. An intelligence agency on Saturday received a specific input about a possible strike being planned by Islamic State operatives in the coming days.

The input, accessed by TOI, mentions human intelligence sources stating that two Pakistani terrorists, who were operating in Shopian region of J&K till now, had moved out to launch a terror attack somewhere in the mainland. “The terrorists owe their allegiance to ISIS and are using Telegram to communicate,” it added.

The agency was given the tip-off that the two terrorists had left the Valley last week by road and were going to reach Delhi in a couple of days.

Security has been stepped up in Delhi and efforts are on to disperse the crowd gathered at various interstate bus terminals and at the UP border. Police of states like Punjab and metros like Mumbai have also been alerted.

The threat is being taken “very seriously” as IS magazines like al-Naba and Voice of Hind have written cover-page articles urging Indian Jihadis to capitalise on the “enemy’s preoccupation with novel coronavirus” and wage attacks.

In an editorial piece in al-Naba, Islamic State mentioned that jihadis could exploit this opportunity as the security apparatus of all countries was busy fighting the pandemic. The article elaborated on how the ability of the governments in coordinating counter-terror operations was reduced as it was focusing on dealing with casualties, price hike and product shortages.

“We are preparing for new attacks, which will be the last thing they want. The military apparatus is also crippled because of restriction of movement. The overburdened hospitals will have a nightmare if the mujahideens greet them in the morning,” added the article, which was widely circulated on pro-ISIS channels and chat platforms like Rocketchat, TamTam, Threema and Telegram.

Intelligence sources said they were well aware of these communications and were closely monitoring them.

