Three City Youths Bound For Syria Arrested

The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra and the Hyderabad Police, in a joint operation, detained three Hyderabad youths, who were suspiciously leaving the country to join the terrorist Islamic State, at Nagpur Airport on Saturday.

The Maharashtra police handed them over to the Telangana Anti-Terrorist Squad.

The three arrested youths were identified as Abdul Wasim, Umer Hasan Farooqui and Majha Hasan Farooqui, and are cousins. The trio, all aged between 20 and 25 years, were planning to board a flight to Srinagar from Nagpur, after arriving in Nagpur from Hyderabad in a cab on Friday. The police received information that they were then planning to go to Afghanistan or to PoK.

It is learnt that the parents of the three youth had lodged a complaint with the police that they were not in a position to find their whereabouts.

Police officials revealed that so far some 20 youths from Telangana had tried to travel to Syria to join IS.

Indian security establishment suggests that some 20-odd Indians are currently fighting for the banned outfit IS in Iraq and Syria. They include two youths from Kalyan on the outskirts of Mumbai, an Australia-based Kashmiri, one youth from Telangana, one from Karnataka, one Oman-based Indian and another Singapore-based Indian. Last year, a youth from Kalyan had returned home after spending about six months with IS. He was arrested upon arrival in Mumbai.