Terror recruits

As the United States cobbles together an alliance against the ISIS, scoop operations in Australia, Britain, and Iran have led to arrest of a number of people who were planning to join the dreaded force.

Several countries in the West and around the world are revisiting their domestic laws, and making necessary amendments, to ensure that nefarious elements do not succeed in regrouping, arming and recruiting people for overseas ventures.

Iran went official when its Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani said that it has arrested Afghan and Pakistani nationals who were trying to cross over into Iraq to join the ISIS. The trend of recruiting people for the so-called holy war is not limited to this part of the world, as the Brits are too in the run. In raids that were conducted by Metropolitan Police, a large number of suspects are reportedly held by London. So is the case in Brisbane, Australia, where a seminary was raided and people tasked with the job of hiring people for jihad were detained.

Australia has already upgraded its terror threat level after several Aussies reportedly joined the militant group in Syria. A video on social media that showed an Australian holding a severed head under the ISIS banner, and similar graphical images that showed British-accent speakers recording their statements before killing US journalist James Foley were more than enough to raise eyebrows to the level of influence the terrorist group had attained among civilised societies. Coupled with precautionary measures are travel bans to countries in the Middle East in order to deter citizens from going astray.

Last but not least of the troubling developments, as far as terror-recruitment is concerned, is a announcement by Al Qaeda of launching a local unit in India to fight so-called injustices in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. These undercurrents are too unnerving and solicit immediate attention of authorities at state level. The trend among youngsters to go astray has to be nipped in the bud.

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