Another Kashmiri Deported By UAE For ISIS Sympathies

Irfab Zargar, a Kashmiri engineer who was recently deported to India from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on suspicion of being an Islamic State (IS) sympathiser has been handed over to the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Police for further investigation, The Tribune has reported.

Zargar, who is a resident of Bemina in Srinagar, had gone missing from Dubai in April and was deported to India on 1 August.

Based on claims by his relatives and office colleagues, it was earlier reported that the 36-year-old Zargar, who was employed with a consultancy firm in Dubai, disappeared after he had entered the UAE in his car from Oman. A frenetic search operation was launched by the Indian Consulate for finding Zargar in Dubai after intervention by External Affairs Ministers Sushma Swaraj.

After Irfan went missing, Irfan’s family back home – his mother and brother – took up the matter with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose youth leader, Waheed Para then took to Twitter, seeking the intervention of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and she responded by promising help.

The minister immediately directed the Consul General of India in Dubai, Vipul, to “spare no efforts to locate him.”

After coming back to Dubai, Irfan was taken in to custody by UAE cops. He had reportedly called his family in Srinagar to inform them that he did not know where he was and who had confined him at the unknown place.

However, it has now come to light that he was detained in Dubai for his social media activities like sharing Islamist videos and uploading pro-Islamist quotations. He reportedly shared videos on Facebook depicting the plight of Muslims around the globe along with several anti-India posts.

The Tribune, quoting security sources, reports that he was subjected to intensive questioning for his sympathies for the IS’ activities in Syria and Iraq.

After his questioning in Dubai, he was deported to India where the National Investigation Agency (NIA) questioned him. The NIA found nothing incriminating against him and, therefore, handed him over to the state police, official sources said.

Irfan Ahmad Zargar is the second Kashmiri to be deported by UAE on charges of being a “sympathiser of the banned ISIS” terror group. Last year, Azhar ul Islam, from Ganderbal in central Kashmir, had been deported from the UAE on similar charges.