The Intelligence agencies have received alarming inputs that Pakistan-sponsored terror groups Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are trying to produce SAS313, a radio frequency-operated robotic device made by school students from Jammu & Kashmir under a Do It Yourself (DIY) project with an agenda to infuse technology into terror operations in the Valley.
The robot can be operated from a range of one kilometer and if deployed by terror groups, the terror operations will undergo a sea change in Jammu & Kashmir as they can hit police posts and paramilitary camps from a distance. This will change the dimension of the terrorist attacks against the security forces in the Valley.
Addressing commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) at Manesar on Tuesday during the Raising Day celebrations, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said threats posed by DIY terrorists and lone wolf attacks are new and are a major challenge for the security agencies.
The name given to the robotic device — SAS 313 — itself suggests fusion of modern technology with jehadi agenda and an indication of the high-tech nature of the next generation terror attacks being planned by the Pakistani terror groups.
While the alphabets have been taken from a variant of such a device from USA’s NASA, the numerals indicate linkages to the terrorist ideology. A top Al Qaeda operative Iqbal Kashmiri, a former Pakistan Air Force official had formed a group named Brigade 313. Kashmiri was killed in a drone strike by the US and his team members subsequently joined JEM, Intelligence officials said.
The officials said the model of the robotic vehicle and its usefulness for jehadi attacks are being circulated within the top echelons of the AQIS and JeM to their sympathisers to encourage them acquire such technology. The sympathisers of the these terror groups are also spreading on the social media that the talent of Jammu and Kashmir students involved in the DIY projects are not getting their due recognition.
“There is a need to compact the children’s zeal in science and technology projects with counter radicalisation measures. The science teachers need to be exposed to containment of radicalisation,” a counter terrorism expert said.
The major concern in the security agencies is that if the DIY enters chemistry labs, the fallout on the security situation in the Valley will be significant. Till now, the DIY projects are confined to Physics labs.
The name of the project indicates that science students are getting indoctrination in radical ideology and the terror groups are out to exploit their technical knowhow for furthering their nefarious agenda. “There is a need to engage the students in more constructive work and firewall their inclination to separatist ideology,” another official said.
