The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear the mother of a girl who allegedly got radicalised in Kerala, married a Muslim and fled to Afghanistan to join the Islamic State when she was seven months pregnant.
Bindu Sampath has asked the Supreme Court to direct an “extensive investigation” into what she terms “Jihad Romeos” who form part of a network recruiting for IS.
Hadiya case
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra refused to issue notice in the petition filed by Ms. Sampath, represented by advocate Aishwarya Bhati, but said the matter would be listed in the next two weeks.
The court has its hands full with the Hadiya case, which also involves the conversion of a young woman from Kerala and her subsequent marriage to a Muslim. The court has summoned the girl before it on November 27.
Ms. Sampath said her daughter, Fatima alias Nimisha, is now believed to be in the IS-controlled Khorasan province of Afghanistan.
‘Situation grim’
In an earlier application for impleadment in the Hadiya case, Ms. Sampath had submitted that “the situation in Kerala seems to be grim — the most number of people joining IS from India are so far from Kerala.”
“There are multiple reports coming from across India reporting a similar tactic being used — the Jihad Romeos are given cell phones, bikes and fashionable clothes to accomplish their sinister mission. They have two weeks to find a girl of another religion and six months to convert her to Islam. If the girl shows no interest within two weeks, they are to leave her and find another,” Ms. Sampath had alleged.
Ms. Sampath described herself as a “the hapless mother … who has not been able to get any relief or respite in her crusade to secure the well-being of her daughter”.
Noting that her son is an Army officer, she said she needed help to rescue her daughter, her Muslim husband and her granddaughter from harm’s way or they might lose their lives in the U.S. bombings.
