Highly-placed sources in an anti-terror agency said there is a “strong likelihood” that 23-year-old Ayaz Sultan, one of the four youths from Malwani suspected to have left home, has joined ISIS. Sultan’s last location was traced to Kabul in Afghanistan. The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad neither denied nor confirmed the development, but an ATS source said that the ISIS’ influence in India is not that serious.
“The minority community has understood that the ISIS is against its religion and it is not supporting it. We keep taking measures to ensure that the youth do not get radicalised and join any terror outfit. In our efforts, we’ve got a good response from the minority community as well,” said the ATS source.
It is also confirmed that Ayaz deliberately kept discussing everything about ISIS with the three youth from Malwani who had fled their homes, confirmed ATS sources. Ayaz was the one who got them into chat rooms, WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups. The ATS is investigating the activities undertaken by the three youths and the minor girl from Pune before finally deciding if they should be booked for their activities.
As per highly-placed ATS sources, sustained interrogation conducted for the past three days of the two Malwani youths, identified as Noor Mohammad Shaikh and Wazid Shaikh, has revealed that there were “some discussions” but had made “no plans” of joining the ISIS. The third youth, Mohsin Shaikh, is nowhere to be found and it was his idea that the three should flee from Malwani.
Explaining the reason for their sudden disappearance, an ATS source said that the three youths were in touch with Ayaz. Ayaz deliberately used to speak with them about ISIS activities. After Ayaz left his residence for Kabul, Afghanistan in October, his parents started questioning these three youths. They even blamed the three youths for his sudden disappearance.
Eventually, the three youth got scared that Ayaz’s family will give their names to the Mumbai police and they would be unnecessarily grilled because of Ayaz. It was Mohsin’s idea to flee from Malwani before the police started to torture them. On Mohsin’s instructions, Noor and Wazid ran off from their homes.
