De-radicalised 20 city youth lured by ISIS: ATS

In the last seven months, nearly 20 young men have been lured by the banned terrorist organisation Islamic State, some even wanting to leave the country and be an IS operative. According to officials from the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), these 20 are residents of Mumbai and once traced, were counselled and de-radicalised before they took the extreme step of leaving the country.

“This year itself we have seen nearly 20 young men who had been fascinated by the ideologies of the Islamic State. Thankfully, after tracing them, we managed to successfully de-radicalise them,” said an officer from the ATS.

When asked how they found these youngsters, the officials said most of them frequent websites on the dark net — an anonymous online home to both criminals and activists fearful of government surveillance — and chat portals. “The IS is very active on social media and there are many websites where IS sympathisers post provoking content. The youngsters start researching on this and then soon start visiting chat portals where they start speaking to people online who convince them to join the fight for an Islamic State,” said a senior ATS officer.

While he declined to name the websites, he said information was easily available. “While we track certain keywords, just visiting a website does not mean they have been radicalised or want to join the IS. We don’t trace them out till we have enough evidence that they showed active interest in joining the IS and even leaving the country,” he said.

ATS officials add most of the youngsters who are lured into the ISIS propaganda are not from influential or rich families.

“Most of the youngsters we have counselled are between 19-28 years. They are young men who are either studying or working after graduating or finishing studies. Sometimes they are not very educated, but listen to their peers discuss ISIS and get easily lured with the prospect of doing something for their religion,” the officer said. “All the 20 youngsters had started by researching about ISIS. They then start following the official IS magazine Dabiq and visit the dark net where much more content is available,” explained an officer.

“They also visit chat and social networking sites where they meet like minded people from across the world who advise them that they should leave their families and countries and join the ISIS and be a part of their efforts,” he said.

The ATS had recently arrested two people from Parbhani for being ISIS sympathisers and also allegedly plotting a terror attack on the state. Twenty-four-year-old Shahed Khan was an IT graduate who had learnt how to make explosives after being recruited by 31-year-old Naser Chaus. Both of them were acting on the directions of one Farooque Khan, who is said to be an IS operative living in Syria.

Officials say that once the youngsters are tracked, they are brought in for questioning and then counselled. “We counsel them about the real face of the ISIS and how they should think about their families and what really happens to people who go and join the ISIS. It is very easy to get lured with the number of videos and written material available online,” said the officer.

Early this year, a video allegedly being floated by the ISIS started surfacing on social media. This video showed Fahad Sheikh, a Kalyan resident who had left the country in 2014 along with three of his friends Aman Tandel, Areeb Majeed and Saheem Tanki. Areeb who returned in November 2014 confessed he had been ill treated by the ISIS and was later arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).