Mumbai fears 3 youths may have joined militants

Three young men missing from Mumbai are feared to have joined a militant outfit, possibly the Islamic State, police officials in Mumbai said on Monday.

The possible radicalisation of the three – all in their 20s – comes in the midst of growing wor ries over civilians being radicalised by the ideology of Islamic State, which has over the couple of years gathered a steady world-wide following for its extremist agenda.

Of the three youngsters — auto driver Mohsin Ibrahim Sayeed, 26; Wajid Sheikh, 23, and call centre employee Ayaz Sultan, 23 — Ayaz left his home in October while the other two left on December 15.

In all three cases, the parents of the youth registered a missing complaint with the police.

Senior police i nspector Milind Khetle said after the missing complaints were filed, they had started recording the statements of the family members and others who were in touch with the boys.

“We are looking for the three youngsters and prima facie, we cannot say whether they joined the IS or have gone somewhere else,” he added.

An official of the Anti-Terror Squad however said that they suspect that the three youths have been radicalised into joining the Islamic State.

Senior ATS officials, however, said there was no confirmation of the trio having joined Islamic State.

On Monday, teams of the ATS and the Intelligence bureau (IB) camped in Malwani and the state agency also recorded the statements of the family members of the boys about two days ago.

The ATS has seized evidences such as two mobile phones used by Wajid and has also recorded the statements of their friends.

They also questioned those who were with them in the Masjid where they are believed to have been brainwashed.

According to PTI, officials tried to crack the password of the email accounts of the youth, but have not been successful as yet.