Indian Isis-affiliate Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind try to extort cash from Bollywood stars for jihad

An Islamic State (Isis) affiliated terror group in India planned to extort a string of Bollywood stars to wage jihad, say reports. In a bid to fund terrorism against the Indian state and abroad, the Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind (Army of Caliph of India) decided to target the country's famous movie sector in conversations with another militant last September say police.

As Daesh (Isis) comes under mounting pressure in both their de-facto capital of Raqqa, in Syria, and in the besieged city of Fallujah, in Iraq, their affiliate in India has been severely disrupted by several arrests. Indian police apprehended two men Rizwan Nawazuddin, alias Khalid, and Muddabir Sheikh, who, they say, were planning the attacks.

Named as the operational head, Rizwan, who was radicalised online was said to have planned the extortion along with lone wolf attacks against top Hindu leaders such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat and the Vishva Hindu Parishad's Ashok Singhal and Pravin Tagodia, hoping to bring them fame on the international stage.

The claims, which have not been verified by IBTimes UK, were made by an anonymous source to the Indian Express, which is based in New Dehli. They said: "Just before the module could chalk out the entire plan, security agencies, which had been monitoring their online activities, arrested them in a nationwide clampdown".

The Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind is an affiliate of Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilad al-Hind (AuT), a splinter group of the Indian Mujahideen (IM). Active since April 2015, a 14-strong cell of Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind was arrested in January 2016.

They were rumbled after explosives that could have been used to carry out series of blasts across India were dumped in a drain in Delhi by an alleged Isis recruit when he panicked at the last moment. Mohammed Hussein Khan, was said to have "confessed" to having collected 1.5 kg of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN).

In neighbouring Pakistan counter-terrorism officers arrested eight suspected Isis operatives in December last year, seizing propaganda materials during a raid in Sialkot city. At least three of the arrested suspects are thought to have received military training from the Iraqi Islamist group.