A Kashmiri man, Irfan Ahmed Zargar, who was in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) working for a telecom company in Dubai, was deported to India on suspicion of being an ISIS sympathiser on August 14, news agency PTI reported. Irfan is a resident of Chattatabal area on the outskirts of Srinagar. He allegedly showed support on social media platforms to ISIS’ activities in Syria.
Local daily, Greater Kashmir reported that the engineer is likely to be released from the Jammu and Kashmir police’s custody today.
Zargar, who is an engineer, was interrogated by the NIA for two days before being handed over to Jammu and Kashmir police, who were carrying out detailed investigations, PTI quoted officials as saying. He was picked up by the authorities in Dubai on April 28 this year when he was entering into the Gulf country from Oman, officials told PTI.
On being interrogated, he said that he had travelled to Oman to set up a handicraft business. His relative had on Twitter asked for External Affairs Minister of India, Sushma Swaraj’s help. The Indian Consulate General in Dubai had then started to process of reaching out, but the Dubai authorities barred any further pleas without completion of their investigation.
Zargar is the third Kashmiri to have been deported on accusations of being an ISIS sympathiser. Earlier, Afshan Parvaiz was deported from Ankara on May 25, another from Tehran was deported March 23 and a youth from Ganderbal was deported from UAE last year.
