The story of a 25-year-old girl, daughter of a retired Indian Army Lt Colonel, de-radicalized by Intelligence Bureau recently for trying to joining the Islamic State, did not have much to do with her believing in some extremist ideology . It was a normal love affair, a girl wanting to marry a boy of her choice, but running into resistance from her family because the boy belonged to a different faith.
Things took a different turn because the girl was angry her parents were not allowing her to marry her boyfriend, a Muslim. She sought to take revenge on her parents, frequenting sites having material on IS and began reading literature on Islam.
It all started in Australia. The girl, an aspiring journalist belonging to a Hindu family in Mumbai, graduated from Delhi University and went to Australia for a three-year post graduate programme there. She fell in love with a Muslim boy from Mumbai, who was in Australia for his studies. When she expressed her desire to marry him, her parents said `no' because the boy was a Muslim.
As the girl told IB officials, the rejection from parents angered her and she began surfing the net for IS activities and reading up on Islam in general.
Her boyfriend instigated her and shared a lot of material with her.
About two and a half months ago, her father happened to go through her laptop and was shocked to see that his daughter showed interest in joining IS.The incident had sent shockwaves among members of the intelligence community . “Nothing suspicious was found against the girl though and she has been de-radicalized. She was not in touch with any ISIS member online. It was out of anger she did what she did,“ said an officer.
An officer, who shared the interrogation details of the girl with TOI, said that “we suspect that the boy might be in touch with people either associated with Islamic State or other outfits“.
Indian intelligence agencies have approached Australian authorities to know more about this Mumbai-based youth. Earlier, four Mumbai youths from reportedly joined IS.
The matter is being pursued seriously also because Australia has been badly affected with IS activities has been one of its major recruitment grounds.The outfit, which killed thousands of people in the last one year, is now considered a global threat.
