Pune: “I was stunned beyond belief when I saw myself being accused as a suicide bomber planning a strike on behalf of the ISIS on Republic Day,” said 18-year-old Sadiya Anwar Shaikh, who was detained on suspicion of being a suicide bomber for the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), while narrating her traumatic ordeal here on Monday.
Sadiya (18), accompanied by her mother and members of a social outfit, was speaking with reporters here following her arrival from Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday night.
“The moment I saw news about me on television channels, I voluntarily approached the police to correct this grievous error,” she said.
Earlier, the Kashmir police had detained Sadiya on the night of January 25 following intelligence inputs by security agencies calling for increased surveillance on her as she had allegedly shifted her ‘base’ in the Valley and was preparing for a major strike.
“In 2015, I had committed a small mistake and was misled by people intent on committing wrong acts. I admit I chatted with them on Facebook… But even at that time, when I became suspicious of their true intentions, my family were the ones to approach the Pune Anti-Terror Squad (ATS),” she said.
There is no case against her either in Kashmir or in Pune.
Sadiya was suspected to have come into contact with a Srinagar-based sympathiser of the ISIS in 2015 and had reportedly displayed signs of incipient radicalisation.
“I underwent counselling by my community leaders and it helped me immensely. Since then, I have never chatted with any individual affiliated to terror outfits nor have viewed or ‘liked’ any video spreading false propaganda,” said Ms. Shaikh, who lives in the city’s Yerwada area.
Following this, Sadiya and her family resolved that she needed quieter environs to pursue her studies. Accordingly, she took admission at the Set College of Paramedical and Nursing in Kashmir’s Bijbehara Tehsil in December last year.
Her course was scheduled to commence on February 19. However, college authorities, on hearing the news about her, caused her name to be removed on January 27.
“It is my ambition to be an IPS officer. I needed a quiet environment to study and hence my family and I decided to take admission in a college in Kashmir. But after this, I fear I cannot continue my education there,” said Sadiya, who underwent a thorough interrogation by the Kashmir police before being let off.
“I was so scared when she was labelled as a suicide bomber. I had no idea of what to say to anyone. Even now, a cloud hangs over us,” said Sadiya’s mother.
Blaming ‘irresponsible journalism’ for blowing the issue out of proportion, activist Anjum Inamdar, president of the Muslim Mulnivasi Manch, said his outfit would be lodging a complaint against those media houses responsible for “spreading false news” about Ms. Shaikh.
“A reputed TV channel first broadcast news about her using such headlines as ‘Baghdadi (the Salafi jihadi terrorist Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi) ki lady, Kashmir mein ready’, while noted dailies published her photo. We are planning to book them as this adverse coverage has irrevocably destroyed the girl’s educational career,” Mr. Inamdar said.
He further said that following her return to Pune, Sadiya had sunk into a “deep depression”.
“The family is wary of speaking to the media after this. Hence, it was decided to call a press conference to clear the air once and for all,” he said.
