A group of 26 Muslim youths caused a flutter when they posed for a photograph, sporting black T-shirts with the emblem of the ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and al-Shams) in front of a mosque at the coastal town of Thondi in Ramanathapuram district on Eid day.
After one of them posted the photograph on Facebook, which went viral, the police swung into action but found none of them had any direct or indirect link with the ISIS, which was battling the governments of Iraq and Syria, or any other fundamentalist Muslim outfit.
“The police questioned B. Abdul Rahman, 24, who had ordered the T-shirts from a garment company at Tirupur, but found nothing incriminating,” said Superintendent of Police N.M. Mylvahanan.
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Rahman, who was working in Bangkok, had come to his native Thondi for Ramzan, and he was summoned for questioning on Sunday, the SP said. The interrogation revealed that the youths wanted to hail the ISIS for releasing the Indian nurses recently without harming them.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Rahman had collected money from the youths and ordered 100 T-shirts through his friend Vilven in Chennai, Mr. Mylvahanan said.
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The other version was that he had bought the T-shirts from his own money. A police team was being sent to the garment company at Kadharpettai in Tirupur to find out how many T-shirts were ordered and how they were distributed, the SP told The Hindu .
Though enquiries showed that the youths had no links with either the ISIS or any other Muslim outfit, Rahman and others would be brought under police surveillance. “We will watch their activities, though prima facie there is nothing serious,” the SP said. The police had not seized the T-shirts, he said.
As the ISIS was not banned in India, the police were not contemplating any action against the youths, Mr. Mylvahanan said. Sources in the Q Branch said there was nothing incriminating in the case.
The photograph had since been removed from Facebook.