A 26-year-old man from Kerala was deported by officials in Afghanistan after he had illegally entered the country to join the Islamic State (ISIS). He was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) at Delhi airport.
The accused, who has been identified as Nashidul Hamzafar, had been working in the United Arab Emirates and had last come to India in 2017. He traveled to Muscat on a tourist visa, with a friend in October and from there, he alone went to Iran through unguarded border points, according to media reports.
“The NIA arrested Nashidul Hamzafar after he was deported to New Delhi from Kabul, Afghanistan. Nashidul was detained by Afghan security agencies last year for illegally entering the country to join his associates in proscribed terrorist organisation ISIS/Daish,” the NIA said in an official statement.
Hamzafar, a native of Kerala’s Kalpetta in Wayanad district, was allegedly in touch with many others who had left Kerala and were living in ISIS controlled Afghanistan, and had been influenced by them.
In 2016, twenty-one individuals from Kerala had travelled to Afghanistan via Iran and currently live in ISIS-headed territories. Hamzafar reportedly was in touch with a few of them and was planning to join the Islamic State. He allegedly obtained their contacts through “encrypted social media platforms” and through college friends.
The Islamic State had allegedly recruited well-educated members from Kasargod, who then left India to live in Afghanistan.
Last year, Afghan authorities detained Hamzafar after he was found to have illegally entered the country in order to join ISIS, according to the NIA.
A special court for NIA cases looked at this case on Wednesday in New Delhi. Hamzafar is now being taken to Kochi to be produced before a special NIA court which had issued a warrant against him.