Intelligence agencies tracking movements of women from Kerala who had left the country with the intention of joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Afghanistan may not be sure about their current whereabouts after they moved out of jails in the Taliban country and there is a possibility that they may have been residing in West Asia, according to sources.
Sources also told News18 that the women, who ended up in Afghan jails and reportedly released after the Taliban siege last year, could still be in touch with some IS militants. Officials, however, are tighter-lipped about it.
The scenario has come to the fore after the Supreme Court asked the central government on Monday to look into the plea of a Kerala-based man for the extradition of his daughter who left the country to join IS and his minor grand-daughter’s detention in Afghanistan. She later surrendered after her husband was killed in a cross-firing with security forces in Afghanistan.
Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha, who converted to Islam, was seen in a video shot by Strat News Global in 2020 where she said she went to Syria to join ISIS and lived under the Islamic rule but was met with “disappointment”. The NIA had registered her status as ‘absconding’ and Interpol had issued a red corner notice against her in 2017.
Samsiya Kuriya and Reffeala were among other women who also appeared in the 2020 video. They said they wanted to come back to India as what they expected in Syria under ISIS was “different”.
According to NIA officials, Sonia Sebastian got married to Abdul Rashid Abdulla in 2011 who is the main accused in the case. He facilitated everything on behalf of ISIS. In the 2020 video, she said she did not want to associate herself with ISIS again and wanted to return to India.
Sonia Sebastian is the second most important accused in FIR No.534/2016 of Kasargod police station. The case was later transferred to the NIA in August 2016 and is pertinent to the activities of 14 youngsters from the Kasaragod district who along with their families left India between May and July 2016 and joined the ISIS/Daesh.
She has been charged with various sections including 120 B, 125 IPC , Section 57 of Kerala Police Act & sections 13,38 and 39 of the UA(P) Act,1967.
According to the NIA, she along with other accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, commission of unlawful activities, membership and support to proscribed terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) by a youth in Kasargod.
Although the NIA has filed a charge sheet, and a conviction has been done, the case is still under further investigation.
“In pursuance to the criminal conspiracy hatched with fugitive ISIS/ Daish activist accused Abdul Rashid Abdulla besides Ashfak Majeed and others, accused Nashidul Hamzafar had exited India on October 3, 2017 and travelled to Muscat, Oman before travelling to Iran and had further reached Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was detained by Afghan Security Agencies during October 2017 for illegally entering the country and attempting to join his associates, in ISIS/ Daish,” the NIA said.
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