A 16-year-old girl from Pune is under the scanner of the Maharastra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) after investigations revealed that the teen was planning to join the Islamic State (Isis) in Syria. The girl has reportedly been radicalised by an Isis recruiter, who was arrested from Rajasthan earlier this month.
The Jaipur Police last week arrested Mohammed Sirajuddin, an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) executive suspected to be an Isis recruiter. It has been learnt that Sirajuddin radicalised many boys and girls in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh through Facebook and WhatsApp.
The teenager from Pune hails from an affluent family and was in regular touch with the IOC manager.
"We have kept the girl under surveillance," Assistant commissioner of police Bhanupratap Barge of the anti-terrorism squad, Pune unit, told The Times of India.
"Efforts are on to de-radicalise her. Her parents, religious scholars and Muslim community leaders have been asked to help," he added.
The Isis recruiter is said to have brainwashed the girl and was in the process of getting her to travel to Syria to join the Sunni terrorist group.
According to Hindustan Times, the teenager was also in touch with other Isis sympathisers in Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka.
A day after the arrest of Mohammed Sirajuddin in Jaipur, the ATS had alerted the police in Hyderabad about a 20-year-old woman who had also been brainwashed by the Jaipur-based Isis recruiter.
