In what has come a rude shock to Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), three young Muslim men from Malwani locality at Malad in north Mumbai, who had disappeared all of a sudden in recent weeks — are suspected to have joined international terror outfit international outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
In a development that has come days after its Pune-based officials put an ISIS-indoctrinated 16-year-old Muslim on a de-radicalisation programme, the State ATS has reasons to believe that three youngsters from Mulsim community — identified as Ayaz Sultan (23), Mohsin Shaikh (26) and Wajid Shaukh (25) — have joined ISIS.
“Our officials have spoken to the family members of the three youngsters. They are trying to gather as many details as possible about the whereabouts of the three youngsters. But, we have strong suspicion that the three youngsters have joined ISIS,” a senior ATS official said.
All the three, who have been roped in by the ISIS, are school or college drop-outs. While Ayaz was working at a call centre, Mohsin drove an auto-rickshaw. The third youngster Wajid, who is married, was involved in his family business.
The parents of the three youngsters have lodged missing complaints with the Malvani police station at Malad (west) in north Mumbai.
While Ayaz went missing from October 30, Mohsin and Wajid have been missing from December 16. Ayaz told his family members he was visiting Pune in connection with a job offer in Kuwait in the Gulf, while Mohsin left home saying that he was saving he was going to attend wedding of a friend, On his part, Wajid left home, saying he was going out to make application for getting his name corrected in the Aadhar card.
“We have registered missing complaints. Our investigations are underway to ascertain their whereabouts,” a senior police official from Malvani said.
Given that all the missing youngsters are friends, that they resided in the same area and that two of the three youngsters left on the same day, the investigators believe that they were in touch with each other.
The ATS officials have tried so far unsuccessfully to crack the passwords of the email accounts of the three missing youngsters. “We are also using our other channels to ascertain the whereabouts of the three youngsters,” the ATS officer said.
The reported netting of three youngsters by the ISIS is the third instance of its kind witnessed in Maharashtra. In May last year, four youngsters, who were also engineering students, had disappeared from Kalyan in May 2014. later, news reports emerged indicating that all four of them had joined ISIS.c