The deportation by Afghanistan of a 26-year-old Kerala resident who had illegally entered the country in to join the Islamic State is a first. The accused, Nashidul Hamzafar, was arrested by the NIA at the Delhi airport after he was deported by the Afghan authorities.
Hamzafar, who had been working in the United Arab Emirates had come to India in 2017. On October 3, he and his friend left for Muscat on a tourist visa. They then travelled to Iran, from where Hamzafar alone entered Afghanistan, through one of the unguarded border checkpoints. His friend returned from Iran after his family got to know of his plans and pressurised him to come back, the official said.
In 2016, as a well thought-out conspiracy, 21 men, women and children from Kerala had left for Afghanistan via Iran to live in the IS-controlled territory. The NIA had registered two cases. Mainly comprising defectors from Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), the Wilayat Khorasan of the Islamic State in Afghanistan came into existence in 2015
The official said that Hamzafar was in touch with some of the accused living in Afghanistan and was radicalised by them. He was detained by Afghan security agencies last year for illegally entering the country to join proscribed terrorist organisation IS, an NIA spokesperson said.
“After he reached Kabul, he was on way to Nangarhar province in a taxi when he was intercepted by the authorities... since then he had been in detention,” the official said.
Published - September 19, 2018 10:17 pm IST
