Foreign women, not Pakistanis: ISI�s suicide bomber strategy to retain deniability

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) In January this year, the ISI circulated an audio clip in which Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief, Masood Azhar is heard threatening to unleash thousands of suicide bombers on India. Although, it has not been verified whether the voice was Azhar’s, it is a well-known fact that the JeM is in the process of building an army of suicide bombers. Intelligence inputs have suggested that this suicide bomber unit of the outfit would be women heavy.

Interestingly, the JeM has not hired a single woman bomber of Pakistani origin. It is being headed by Pakistani women, but the bombers are all from abroad, an official said. It has been found that the terror outfit has been recruiting women in large numbers from Uzbekistan, Indonesia and the Philippines, an official said.

There is a dual purpose behind this strategy. Pakistani women are not as strong when compared to the women from these regions. Further, these women are also more charged when it comes to ideology and hence the ISI asked the JeM to pick people from these countries, the official added.

The second part of this strategy is what Pakistan tries its best to do-deniability. It is not ready to give up its terror first policy, but also cares about the punishments it would get from international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Hiring such women and deploying them for attacks would offer Pakistanis the deniability factor.

Another official said that the deniability factor strategy has been tried for very long by Pakistan. However in reality it has never worked.

During their training programme, these women have been told to aim for soft targets. They are being trained to carry out attacks on movie theatres and hotels in different parts of India. An Intelligence Bureau official said that once their training is complete and the target is fixed, a reconnaissance would be carried out, following which the details would be shared with them. Once this aspect is complete, these women would be told to return to their home countries and then wait for orders. They would then try and enter India and execute the attack once the green signal is given, the official also said.

The Pakistani women who are part of the module are more involved in radicalisation and training. They have not been trained for field activities as yet and the ISI intends to keep it that way, an official added.

In addition to the JeM, the ISI is also promoting the female network of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. For now the Lashkar-e-Tayiba is in the recruitment mode. It has many women who are part of the top leadership. These women are actively recruiting women. However the brief for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba is focus more on Jammu and Kashmir, while the JeM would target the rest of India, officials have learnt.

The women’s wing has been pushed by Pakistan for long. It feels the need to have such a wing as the women are considered to be more ideological, radical and committed to the cause. The chances of a U-turn are very low among women in terror groups, analysts have found. Women normally tend to dodge the radar, when compared to men.

Even in the Faridabad module, a woman, Dr. Shaheen Shahid played a major role. In the run up to setting up the module she made multiple trips from Faridabad to Jammu and Kashmir. She was the lead recruiter and was majorly involved in recruitment. While the fact that she was a doctor did help her dodge the radar, the woman angle, too, contributed largely to this, the probe has found.

Officials say going forward, the modus operandi of the ISI would largely focus around recruiting more women and white collared terrorists, officials say.