Iraq unrest: Will ISIS target India? Map shows group's chilling plan

Even as Iraq reels from the onslaught of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants who have seized multiple cities and towns and taken 39 Indian construction workers hostage, a new map released by the group shows parts of western India as part of a bigger ‘caliphate’ that the group calls the “Islamic state of Khorasan.” The Times of India reported that ISIS that has taken over a number of cities in Iraq in a lightning advance is aiming “to create an Islamic World Dominion of which even India would be a part.” According to the TOI report, the militant group recently released a map, which shows parts of North-west India, including Gujarat, part of a bigger caliphate called the “Islamic state of Khorasan.” The report claims that the outfit is likely to get help from Indian jihadists allegedly fighting in Iraq and Syria. The jihadists, the report says, are likely to return to India and aid the ISIS from within. [caption id=“attachment_1584609” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. AFP[/caption] The ISIS’ brisk onslaught in Iraq comes two years after the United States withdrew troops from Iraq and left the war-torn nation in the hands of a Shi’ite government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Iraq government has failed to prevent the attacks in which scores have been killed and close to a million have fled. In a piece  on Firstpost titled ‘Iraq unrest: Why India needs to worry about the ISIS’, Seema Sirohi wrote: “India, which has the second largest Shia population, is affected in three critical ways by what’s unfolding: it has 10,000 workers in Iraq alone and hundreds of thousands more in other Arab countries, it imports 25 million tonnes of oil from Iraq every year and finally the presence of Pakistani jihadists in the ranks of Syrian and Iraqi militants brings the conflict and Wahabi Islamist ideology closer to India.” This comes as the return of over 100 Indians has been stalled due to problems with documentation as the crisis escalates. Read the full report here.