Forensic Linguistics: Decoding Coded Communications in Terrorist Activities

ABSTRACT

The world of global terrorism is changing, and terrorists use even more advanced methods of linguistic coding in their emails to hide their true purpose of their operations. This research paper has come up with and has analyzed the Cognate Technique new forensic linguistic method which is based on exploiting cross-linguistic similarities, etymological overlaps, and semantic mapping to reveal latent connotations in multilingual terrorist emails. Based on comparative linguistics, psycholinguistics and corpus analysis, the study combines the Cognate Technique with traditional email forensic methods, e.g. header analysis and metadata examination.

By using specific cases from South Asian terrorist networks (e.g. Indian Mujahideen), the paper, through these examples, proves that cognates like “shaadi”, “operation”, and “package” could be used as secret messages. The article discusses the method’s capability as a piece of evidence, its acceptability in the court of law under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, and its limitations practically. When the results of the Cognate Technique are confirmed with digital forensics, this method will be instrumental in deciphering coded communications and will help in overcoming semantic difficulties in counter-terrorism intelligence, as per the findings of the study. This article offers a hands-on, step-by-step guide to law enforcement agencies on how to extract actionable intelligence from seemingly harmless emails.