The West Bengal youth, who was arrested last month for his alleged links to Islamic State, was directed to target foreign tourists instead of Indian locals by his Syria based handler.

According to official sources in the National Investigation agency (NIA), which is currently probing the youth named Mohammad Masiuddin, the accused had made visits to two locations, one in Srinagar and other in Kolkata, and selected them as venues where he was supposed to carry out an attack using the 13 inch knife that was allegedly recovered from him following his arrest in July.

Masiuddin, also known as Musa, was told to look out for areas where tourists belonging to United States, Britain and Russia mostly hangout. The accused had visited the Mother Teresa centre in Kolkata and Dal lake in Srinagar last year in July to check if the locations were suitable to carry a ‘stabbing attack’, a tactic last seen during the Dhaka Terror incident.

“The visits cannot be termed as rece’s but during his interrogation the accused admitted that he had visited the two locations and selected them as possible target area’s,” said a NIA official. The accused had taken trains to Kolkata as well as Jammu from where he proceeded to Srinagar by a bus, the official added.

The accused was arrested from the Burdwan railway station where he was to take Vishwa Bharti train to go to his home in Labhpur in Birbhum district. Musha was working at a grocery shop in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu and was living there with his wife and two children. NIA has claimed that Musa was given the duty to establish a module in Burbhum. Musa and his two other arrested associates Abbasudin, had allegedly identified vulnerable youth, radicalized them to fight for IS, reported DNA.

“The accused revealed that he was planning to use the weapons to target foreign nationals visiting India. For this purpose he had visited two locations as well,” the officer said adding that the directions for the same had come from handlers Shafi Armar and Mohamad Suleman. While Armar, previously with Indian Mujahideen, is believed to be in Syria, Suleman, heads the Jamat-ul Mujahideen (JMB) module in Bangladesh. Musa had allegedly met Suleman as well during a wedding reception in West Bengal this year.

“The handlers preferred victims of terror attacks to be foreign nationals and had made a list of places which are likely to be visited by tourists. The accused had visited the Mother Teresa Centre and Dal Lake for the same purpose,” the official said adding the goal of the attack was to show ISIS presence in South Asia. While agencies in India have foiled several ISIS attacks, Bangladesh has not been immune to the terror tactics of the dreaded group with the latest attack resulting in deaths of 20. Jammu and Kashmir, already witnessing an insurgency 27 years old, is also a territory which ISIS would like to show presence in, officials believe.