3 missing boys from Mumbai may have joined Daesh

Mumbai - Mother of one of the youth claimed her son had mortgaged their home for Rs300,000 and had left home in the early hours of October 30.

Three youngsters in their 20s, who have been reported missing by their families from a north-western Mumbai suburb, are suspected to have joined the Daesh, with one of them likely to have left India for Syria.
According to Mumbai police sources, relatives of the three men - Ayaz Sultan, Mohsin Sheikh and Wajid Sheikh - filed complaints that they were missing for a few weeks. Some of the relatives also said that they had been attracted to the Daesh ideology and had approached travel agents for making arrangements to fly to Syria.
The police alerted the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which is now investigating the case. On Monday, a local newspaper quoted the mother of one of the youth as claiming that her son had mortgaged their home for Rs300,000 and had left home in the early hours of October 30, along with his baggage and passport.
The ATS suspects that the youngster, Ayaz Sultan, 23, might have left India, though the whereabouts of the other two men are not known. Ayaz's mother Razia said she noticed a lot of changes in her son's behaviour over the past few months and he spent a lot of time on the computer. A call centre employee, Ayaz lived with his mother and two siblings in Malwani.
The two other youngsters, also living in Malwani, left their homes on a few days ago and have also not returned.
The ATS were told by their family members that they too were planning to travel abroad and appeared to have been influenced by some online sites.
The police claim that Wajid's relatives admitted that he had discussed plans of going to Syria.
This is the second instance of a group of youngsters from Mumbai being lured by the Daesh. Last year, four men from Kalyan travelled to Syria to join the Daesh. One of them, Areeb Majeed, was deported from Turkey and was arrested by the National Investigation Agency. He has filed a petition in the Bombay high court seeking bail.
The Maharashtra ATS last week detained a 16-year-old girl from Pune who had also been lured to join the Daesh. According to the ATS, the girl was in touch with Sirajuddin, the Indian Oil Corporation manager, who was arrested recently from Jaipur for suspected Daesh links and for trying to lure youngsters to the group.
The ATS has been counselling the teenager, along with a Muslim cleric, dissuading her from taking to such steps.
nithin@khaleejtimes.com

• India