A joint Indian-American counterintelligence operation, described as "unprecedented in its scope and scope," thwarted a major suicide attack by the Islamic State in New Delhi and helped achieve "a string of victories" against the group. in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the Indianapolis newspaper "The Indian Express", which cited "the best diplomatic and intelligence sources", the "audacious" operation took place a year ago, but the details were only made available to its reporters in the past days.
The document states that the operation lasted 18 months and involved the systematic surveillance of numerous suspects in Dubai, New Delhi and in several cities of Afghanistan. It also included substantial intelligence sharing between Indian and American security agencies, as well as constant intelligence gathering by 80 Indian physical surveillance experts. The intelligence services gathered from physical surveillance were combined with information gathered through wiretapping. Eventually it became clear that the Islamic State had recruited and trained 12 suicide bombers in various secret camps in Pakistan. The recruits were tasked with carrying out suicide bombings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
One of these recruits, the son of a wealthy Afghan businessman, sent by the Islamic State to New Delhi to carry out his deadly mission. To escape the attention of the authorities, he enrolled in a private engineering college in New Delhi but was arrested by Indian intelligence and quickly transferred to Afghanistan to be interrogated by some American officers.
According to The Indian Express, the information gleaned from these interrogations helped the US-led coalition in Afghanistan achieve "a string of successes" against former Taliban forces aligned with the Islamic State.