28/1/2018
PUNE/SRINAGAR:
The
Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Saturday said the Yerawada girl
detained in Kashmir following an alert that she could be used as a
suicide bomber near or inside the Republic Day parade venue in the Valley was
in contact with a Kashmiri boy on a social networking site and had planned to
marry him.
A senior ATS officer, requesting anonymity, said, "We
were aware of the girl's presence at Bijbehara in Kashmir. The Jammu and
Kashmir police detained her for questioning because they had strong inputs that
she could cause suicide bomb explosion there. Our investigations have revealed
that the girl's mother had dropped her in Kashmir around a fortnight ago and
returned to Pune."
An official of the Pune police, however, said, "Our
investigations revealed that the girl's mother had dropped her to Delhi and
from there she went to Kashmir. We have requested her mother and family members
to join us in investigations, but they have refused to share information of the
girl for various reasons."
The senior ATS officer said, "We had gathered information
that the girl pursuing a nursing course was in touch with the militant
organization, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The ATS, along with
experts, social NGO, Maulana and her parents, counselled and de-radicalized her
and kept her under observation."
On how the girl changed tracks again, the officer said,
"She often told ATS that she was keen on joining ISIS in the past for
carrying out terrorist activities. Since she was so determined, we had to keep
a close watch on her movements to prevent her from joining the radical
outfit." On de-radicalization of youths, the ATS officer said, "We
have been making conscious efforts on this aspect for the past three years. In
this case, the girl was highly influenced and therefore, we could not change
her mind set. Second, we did not want to register a case against her.
Therefore, it had become difficult for us to restrict her movement or
activities over a period of time."
The officer said, "Preventing social media activities was
our first challenge and we managed to restrict it by closing over 100 URLs
propagating ISIS agenda. The current status of the outfit also helped us."
He said, "The girl is yet to be arrested formally. Currently, Kashmir
police are interrogating her. Therefore, we cannot comment on the further
procedure at this juncture."
Additional-director general of police (Kashmir range) Munir
Khan said, "We worked on certain leads and detained the girl. We are
interrogating her to find out if she was a suicide bomber or not." When
asked if militant outfits were recruiting educated youths, Khan said, "Yes
the militant outfits are luring the youth into militancy and they are trying
hard to get educated youth. We are countering it the way we have to. Let us see
how much we succeed. Today, 99 % of youths are educated and there are
exceptional cases (alluding to those who have joined militant ranks). So, we
are also looking into it."
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