State ATS pulled away 86 persons from IS clutches

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has de-radicalised 86 persons in the last two years as a part of its efforts to pull away misguided youth from the lure of online terror propaganda by the trans-national terror outfit group, the Islamic State (IS), said agency sources.

Those brought into the mainstream include well-educated people like a young couple, both post-graduates in pharmacy, an aeronautical engineer and an IT professional. The de-radicalisation is done to bring back to normal life, persons who had strayed in the name of ‘jihad,’ a senior official of the ATS said.

According to sources all these 86 people, including eight women, had come in contact with their handlers via social networking sites and were radicalised online. They were on the verge of joining the IS or planning to work for it, but ATS team managed to dissuade them.

Maharashtra’s ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni, said, “Our agency always keeps an eye on the youth who are found searching such websites. The ATS has modern equipment, weapons, and gadgets to tackle any situation.”

Another ATS officer said, “These youth were found continuously in touch with the ISIS people from Syria. The agencies, instead of booking them under the law, chose to look for ways to deradicalise them. The process of deradicalistion takes almost two to three months per individual. Most of the ATS team’s deradicalise procedure happened in the Parabhani area of Maharashtra, from where most of the youth get attracted towards ISIS,” he said. ‘Apart from watching ISIS related videos, the youth were facing several financial issues for which they plan to join ISIS these days,” he added.