UAE deports 4 Indians for suspected ISIS link; 4 more expected

NEW DELHI: UAE today deported four Indians suspected to have links with ISIS and is expected to send back the same number of more people soon, reflecting growing cooperation by the Gulf country in fight against terror.

The deportation comes close on the heels of UAE sending back 37-year-old Afsha Jabeen alias Nicky Joseph who was allegedly involving in recruiting youth for ISIS.

The four people deported today were placed under arrest upon their arrival at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram airports, official sources said.

Another batch of four will be arriving soon, they said.

Subsequently, the government will take a call on whether to hand over all these cases to National Investigation Agency (NIA), which dedicatedly deals with terror cases, or allow the state police to probe.

These Indians are not yet involved in any terror activities but were in regular touch with two persons who were in the Gulf and had joined the ISIS, the sources said.

One of them - a Bangladeshi - has already died while fighting for the ISIS, while the whereabouts of the other -- an Indian - are not known, the sources said.

The group told the interrogators, both in the UAE as well as in Kerala, that out of curiosity towards ISIS, they were in touch with the two men who had joined the terror group, the sources said.

They were being joint interrogated by central and state security agencies.

The sources said these nine Indians, with suspected ISIS links, were identified to UAE authorities who acted promptly.

Earlier in January, Salman Mohiuddin of Hyderabad was arrested at that airport when he was preparing to board a flight to Dubai on way to Syria via Turkey.