Bengaluru: Blackmail, sexually abuse and convert them to Islam. This has been the pattern followed several Islamic outfits, who have for long indulged in Love Jihad.

The Intelligence Bureau has sounded an alert that amidst the ongoing violence around the Citizenship Law, several radical Islamic outfits would push for Love Jihad with more vigour. Areas such as Kasargod, Mangaluru, Lucknow and Delhi would witness cases of Love Jihad in a big way, the IB has warned.

Most recent case:

Last week, a 24 year old man from Palakkad was arrested for sexually abusing a 19-year-old girl from Kasargod, Kerala. The girl alleged that she was lured by this man who works in a bakery in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Her juice was laced with sedatives, following which she was sexually abused, she further alleged.

She also alleged that after being sexually abused, she was blackmailed and forced to convert to Islam. BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje has alleged that this is a case of Love Jihad. She said that a complaint was filed with the chief minister of Karnataka, BS Yediyurappa and Bengaluru Police because the ‘secular’ government of Kerala was silent.

The girl, who initially refused to speak out against the accused, later told the police that she had been raped three years back as well, when she was a minor. The police have filed a case based on her two complaints.

The latest alert:

Cases of Love Jihad by radical Muslim outfits could witness a spike, said the IB. These would be acts of revenge by the Islamic outfits in the wake of the citizenship law, the IB also said. Several persons opposing the new law have questioned as to why the government did not include Muslims in the new law. The amended citizenship law says that citizenship would be granted to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Muslims were left out as they are not minorities in these three countries.

An Intelligence Bureau official told MyNation that they have been witnessing this pattern of Love Jihad for long. The IB said that girls from the Hindu community should be extremely careful, as there would be traps set to convert them. The modus operandi suggests that Hindu and Christian girls could be trapped, sexually abused and then blackmailed into conversation, the officer also said.

Further, the officer also noted that such cases could witness a spike in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala. The problem would be the highest in Kerala as the establishment is very slow in reacting to the problem. However, the bigger problem is that in most of the cases, the Kerala government has not even acknowledged the problem and said that the girl had gone out of her own wish. Even if the girl has gone out of her own wish, the law prohibits blackmail and forced conversions.

This is not the first time that the IB has sounded such an alert. There was alert sounded stating that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba had directed its foot-soldiers in Kerala and Mangaluru to start building a rapport with Hindu and Christian women. The Lashkar-e-Tayiba said that women should be trapped, blackmailed and converted to Islam. There was also a directive to use them for terror-related activities.

Modus operandi:

In cases where the woman has gone out of her own will, it has been found that after a couple of months, she has been blackmailed with videos and forced to convert or even marry the man. 
However, today there is a worrying trend, where the girl has been blackmailed after being sedated. In Kozhikode, a Christian girl was raped by a Muslim man after her juice was spiked. The incident was filmed and the girl was blackmailed into converting to Islam. When she resisted the conversion attempt, she was abducted from the hostel, the police had said. The parents then filed a complaint with the Nadakavu police station against Jasim, who was the girl’s classmate at a coaching centre in Kozhikode.

A similar incident took place in Delhi, where a Christian girl was blackmailed and then abducted to a West Asian country. The modus operandi was similar and the girl’s drink was spiked before she was abused. 

At an adalat held recently at Pathanamthitta, a 26-year-old Hindu girl said that she had met a man in Telangana who had converted from Christianity to Islam. She said that she was tricked by him and converted. However, later the man said that she should join the Islamic State. When she refused, she was abandoned, she added.

In another case, the Kerala high court was petitioned by a lady, who alleged that one Muhammad Riyaz had converted her and tried to sell her off as a sex slave to the ISIS.
Recently, the Delhi Police arrested one Luit Zameel Zaman in connection with a terror-related case. Zaman was accused of trying to trap a Hindu girl at Goalpara and convert her to Islam. This was also a case of Love Jihad.

Christians are soft targets:

In Kerala, the Christian girls have been soft targets. The Islamic outfits have targeted both Christian and Hindu girls in Kerala. Out of the 21 persons who left Kerala for Afghanistan, five were converted to Islam from Christianity. 

It was probably for the first time that a statutory body, the National Commission for Minorities, had written to the Union home ministry alleging that Christian girls had become soft targets for Islamic terror recruiters in Kerala. The spate of organised religious conversions and using the victims for terror activities by trapping them through Love Jihad has shown that the Christian community is a soft target for Islamic radicals, the vice chairman of the body, George Kurian, had stated in his letter to the home ministry.

He further sought a probe by the National Investigation Agency. 

The law enforcement agencies said that at first it was noticed that only Hindu girls were the targets of Islamic radicals. However, there has been a steady pattern of late to even target the Christian girls, the agencies have noted.

Back in 2012, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council had reported that there had been 2,868 victims of Love Jihad in Kerala, between 2006 and 2009. In a newsletter, the council had urged parents to monitor their children, so that they could be better prepared to fight Love Jihad and resist Muslim men from luring the girls into conversion.