ISIS Lone Wolf Looks A Little Like Twilight’s Jacob Black

Even as the exact details of the Lucknow encounter and Ujjain blast were slowly trickling in, The Times of India informed us yesterday that India had been struck by the Islamic State (IS) for the very first time.

The front-page report had very little by way of facts to establish a direct connection between IS handlers in Syria to the terror suspects behind the Ujjain blast. In fact, the copy says as much:

“MP and UP police confirmed that that the module owes allegiance to IS, but were not clear whether the directive to carry out the attack came from an ‘online handler’ of the international terrorist network currently engaged in a grim battle of survival in Iraq and Syria.”

Not just TOI, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan, too, declared there was proof of IS involvement.

Today’s reports, in The Hindustan Times and Indian Express, for example, have clarified that the terror suspects “could have been self-radicalised sympathisers of the terrorist group [IS].” HT reported on how the Centre was miffed at the Uttar Pradesh police for “jumping to conclusions” on the IS link. Indian Express had a detailed report on Saifullah, the terror suspect who was gunned down by the UP police, and his alleged links with Mudabbir Mushtaq Sheikh, who is now being prosecuted for “his alleged role as chief of the Jund-ul-Khalifa-ul-Hind, or army of the Caliph in India, an Islamic State-inspired organisation of Indian jihadists”. As of now what appears to be emerging from these reports and indeed from the statement issued by Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Daljit Chaudhary is that Saifullah and other Ujjain terror suspects could have been inspired by jihadist material on the internet, including that of IS.

While there may simply not be enough proof of a direct link to IS, television news, like TOI, decided the explosion in Ujjain was an attack on India masterminded by none other than Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. India Today ran breathless coverage of the Lucknow encounter yesterday, flashing “War on ISIS” every other minute.

Zee News, however, outdid everyone with its bulletin, Bharat Main Baghdadi Ke Kitne Bhediya, complete with images of wolves from New Moon, the second film in the Twilight saga.

The wolf you see is supposed to be a depiction of ‘lone-wolf’ attacks. Considering that the National Investigation Agency has made about seven arrests in the Bhopal-Ujjain explosion the context is lost on us.

Zee News’ anchors claim to expose the plots al-Baghdadi has been hatching sitting in Syria. The voiceover states that he has been able to make a “blueprint” of terror attacks in India, sitting 6,000 km away from Delhi. (Clearly, in the channel’s world, he finds the time to do that while fighting and fleeing from the United States-backed Syrian fighters.) The so-called report informs viewers that al-Baghdadi’s men could be anywhere – in your neighbourhood, in your office, among you: “woh padhe-likhe hote hain, badi badi companies main kaam karte hain, humaari aur aapki tarah bhi dikhte hain (They are educated, work in big companies and even look likes us).” Strangely, the bulletin plays clips from Daljit Chaudhary’s presser, in which he says that these men were probably self-radicalised and that there is no direct link to IS. We’re told this with the voiceover informing us that it is surprising that while Madhya Pradesh police have stated that Saifullah was an IS terrorist, Uttar Pradesh police believes he is not associated with any organisation.

There’s only one thing that remains to be said, and to do so, we’ll take a leaf out of Zee News’s playbook and look at the ‘Courage Wolf’ meme that they used in their show: