NIA busts another ISIS module. Here's why we should be concerned

ISIS is a Sunni group. It has not only killed thousands of Shias but made gory propaganda videos showing its cadres slitting the throats of Shias, or shooting them dead.

So, the revelation that two of the suspects, who are brothers, are Shia is quite surprising. One of them, Mohammad Ibrahim Yazdani, is in fact alleged to be the leader of this ISIS ring. "The two brothers had adopted the Ahl-e-Hadees Salafist sect but we don't know how long back they adopted it," said a source in the intelligence establishment.

If the arrested brothers are indeed Shia, even if lapsed, it could mean that ISIS's ideology is gaining wider acceptance than previously thought - this is something that obviously doesn't auger well.

According to the source, the explosive seized from the group - Triacetone triperoxide, or TATP - was the same one that was used by ISIS terrorists to bomb Brussels early this year. The attack killed at least 32 people. TATP can reportedly be easily made with chemicals available on the open market.

This means that terrorists the world over are learning from successful attacks elsewhere to strike at home.

ISIS is using a franchise model in India: it's basically outsourcing terrorist activities to already established groups such as the Indian Mujahideen. Many leaders of terrorist groups that are believed to fled to Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai attacks are learnt to have activated their sleeper cells for ISIS.

The person believed to be handling ISIS operations in India is Shafi Armar. Almost every time the NIA busts an ISIS module, his name crops up. He is said to have been the handler the leader of the freshly busted module was in touch with. Armar is learnt to have coordinated the entire operation from outside India.

Busting ISIS modules or "sympathiser groups" in and around Hyderabad has become an alarming routine now. For some reason, youth in Hyderabad are becoming easy prey for ISIS propaganda. At least 54 Indians have been held for indulging in terror activities in the name of ISIS so far, and most of them have been from Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Such narrow geographical spread could enable ISIS recruits to form trusted networks and operate undetected for long.