The Hyderabad police began questioning of three city-based students picked up from Nagpur airport while on the way to Srinagar to join “jihadi terror groups”. They are being questioned in front of their parents. The three youths, cousins in their 20s, have reportedly told the police that, they were on way to Pakistan via Kashmir to join a jihadi group. They were ready to join any group, the police said — the ISIS, Al Qaeda or even Hizbul Mujahideen.
The students were depending on Asiya Anderabi’s Dukhtaran-E-Milat, a Kashmiri women’s group, to help them cross the border and get in touch with jihadi groups, the police said. But Abdullah Basith, Omer Farooq and Maaz Hasan were arrested on Saturday, just before they were to board a flight to Srinagar.
Mahender Reddy, police commissioner of Hyderabad said, “Their entire effort was influenced by social media rather than by any individual. They are all related to former SIMI activist Salahuddin and being of the same family, his ideas probably influenced them.”
On Friday, the three took Rs. 90,000 and left home. They also left a note, hinting that they would not return. The families approached the police and lodged a missing persons’ report.
From Adilabad, the students took a taxi to Nagpur and bought tickets to Srinagar the next morning. The three have been booked for criminal conspiracy and under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and sent to judicial custody for two weeks.
Though Union home minister Rajnath Singh said since Indian families are not with extremist groups, ISIS is not a big threat to India, the home ministry has asked the police not to take a lenient view of the students’ activities.