Spurned by lover, Bengal student contacted IS

KOLKATA: Asif Ahmed, a 19-yearold suspected Islamic State member being interrogated by the NIA, has said that he got in touch with the Indian chapter of the organisation after being ditched by his girlfriend and manhandled by her relatives.

KOLKATA: Islamic State (IS) member Asif Ahmed (19) who is being interrogated by the NIA has revealed that he got in touch with the organisation after he was ditched by his girlfriend and manhandled by her relatives.

“Ahmed had been assigned to recruit people for Junul–ulKhalifa-e-Hind —the Indian chapter of IS — in Bengal. We feel he developed hatred for the society and joined IS. We are trying to put him under a de-radicalisation programme,” said an official.

Ahmed, who is being interrogated since Wednesday, has not been arrested yet. The NIA picked him up on February 23 from his rented accommodation in Durgapur where he was pursuing his polytechnic degree.

Ahmed said he was in love with one of his friends who spurned him around a year back. Even though he started studying at a polytechnic college in Durgapur, he could not forget the insult.

“In Durgapur, he read a magazine on an Islamic radical unit and got influenced. He got in touch with an IS member and joined Junud-ul Khalifa-e Hind,” said an NIA official.