Intel warning: ISI-LeT plot to infiltrate parties

There is a strong possibility that subversive elements may try and join political parties in the run-up to this year’s Lok Sabha elections posing as political workers, and then make efforts to foment communal trouble. Intelligence sources said all major political parties will be sensitised in the next few days on this, and warned to be extremely careful about new members joining them.

Intelligence sources said political outfits will be asked to do thorough screenings and background checks before enrolling new members. “Usually, before parliamentary elections, there are fresh drives by leading parties to take new members. The subversive groups may try and take advantage of this, and join political parties to trigger communal unrest in the garb of political workers,” an intelligence official said. The sources said when home minister Sushilkumar Shinde recently warned that terror outfits will try and damage the nation’s secular fabric, it was in the backdrop of these inputs.
These starling details were revealed in investigations by the Delhi police special cell and intelligence agencies that led to the busting of a Lashkar-e-Tayabba terror module, that was trying to rope in Muzaffarnagar riot victims into terror activities. The module was in constant touch with top Lashkar commander Javed Baluchi in Pakistan. Sources said as Pakistan’s ISI and Lashkar failed to make inroads into the Muzaffarnagar riot victims, they will adopt a different strategy to infiltrate political outfits in the garb of political workers and try engineer unrest.
“This is a smart ploy adopted by the ISI and LeT as they can easily tarnish the reputation of political parties and say this is an internal law and order problem. There are inputs on an even greater threat to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as Indian Mujahideen handlers across the border have asked them to plan a major attack on him,” an official said.
The intelligence sources also said that investigations had confirmed that virtually the entire Uttar Pradesh cadre of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India had been absorbed into the Indian Mujahideen.