Last week, two young men from Chennai were deported from Turkey after they tried to enter Syria, probably to join the Islamic State. They were arrested from a hotel near the Turkey-Syria border. Officials say the Turkish authorities have of late been sharing information with Indian agencies on a real-time basis.
In the past seven-eight months, Turkey has helped to deport at least 15 Indians who planned to cross over to Syria to join the IS. Officials tracking the influence of the IS in India said Turkey was cutting the red tape and, on many occasions, had directly provided information to officers posted in the field. In January, it helped to deport nine persons, including a couple who had gone with their five children.
The suspects had gone to Istanbul on a tourist visa but were nabbed by the Turkish authorities before they could cross over.
An alert sent by the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) to the authorities in Delhi read: “Turkish authorities have conveyed that the individuals have admitted to trying to cross over to Syria to take part in jihad.”
“The Turkish authorities are not hesitant to share information with Indian agencies, and this has really helped operations on the ground. It took a while to develop trust and now the channel is streamlined,” said a senior government official.
Another official said Turkey launched its campaign against the IS only early this year. “They might have realised that inaction on their part was fuelling the IS crisis even more and it could turn out to be a bigger trouble for them. The Indians going to Turkey to join the IS will not help their case any way, so it is better to alert the authorities here and deport them,” said the official.