Police takes steps to counter lure of terror in Malwani area

The Malwani police is taking the initial step in combating the menace of ISIS in its jurisdiction by taking a Mohalla committee meeting on Saturday wherein all the concerned people, including leaders from the minority community, will come together to spread awareness against the terror-outfit’s propaganda. This is in the backdrop of three youths from the area fleeing to allegedly join ISIS.

Senior police inspector Milind Khetle of Malwani police confirmed the development but refrained from using name of the terror outfit ISIS. Mr Khetle said, “We are going to call for a Mohalla committee meeting on Saturday to appeal to all the members to ensure the youngsters from the area are not misled. We will talk about how the youth are being misled and how they need to take steps to prevent this from happening.”

Mohsin Ibrahim Sayeed (26), Wajid Sheikh (23), and call centre employee Ayaz Sultan, (23) are the three youth who have all fled to allegedly join ISIS. The trio is from the same neighbourhood in Malwani no. 8 area. Their families, including parents, wives and children, are concerned after the news of them joining ISIS broke out.

The anti-terror cell of the Malwani police is also keeping a tab on other youngsters who have gone missing since last year from the minority community and have not been found till date. Over 5 lakh people live in Malwani, with are most of them living in slums, with a majority of them being from the minority community.

“We condemn ISIS. It is against Islam. We have a taqreer (speech) for about 45 minutes every Friday before reading Namaaz. This speech is given to make our youth aware of all evils in the society.” said Zuber Hashmi, treasurer of Sunni Anjuman Jama Masjid in Malwani no. 7 area, the oldest and biggest mosque in Malwani attended by thousands of people.

“So we will be asking all our maulanas to include the topic of ISIS. We will also attend the Mohalla committee meeting on Saturday. For two years we have carried out an anti-drugs campaign and it is still on,” added Mr Hashmi.

Qari Zamir, a teacher at the same mosque, said, “We are against ISIS and we had offered prayers in our mosque after the brutal attacks in Paris. Our religion is against any terror activities. It is only about peace. ISIS has tarnished our religion’s image.”