IS Claims Province In India After Security Forces Killed Terrorist Associated With The Outfit In Kashmir

The Islamic State (IS) has for the first time claimed that it has established its caliphate over a “province” in India, after the security forces killed a terrorist with ties to the group, reports The Hindu.

IS, through its, Amaq news agency, announced that it has a new province named “Wilayah of Hind”, and claimed to have inflicted casualties to the Indian soldiers during an encounter in the town of Amshipora in the Shopian district of Kashmir.

However, there are strong suspicions that such claims by the IS are designed to boost the morale of its ever-dwindling resources. The dreaded outfit was driven out of vast swathes of areas in Iraq and Syria in April. At one point of time, IS controlled thousands of square miles of the region.

“The establishment of a 'province' in a region where it has nothing resembling actual governance is absurd, but it should not be written off,” said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intel Group that tracks Islamic extremists.

According to the J&K police' official statements and military sources, Ishfaq Ahmed Sofi, possibly the last terrorist in the valley associated with IS, was eliminated by the security forces during an encounter on Friday (10 May). “It was a clean operation and no collateral damage took place during the exchange of fire,” a police spokesman said in the statement on the encounter, as reported by The Hindu.