Police suspect Kashmir youth of IS links
A business administration graduate from Kashmir is suspected of affiliation with the Islamic State militant group based in Syria and Iraq, a secret police note which described him as having an “ardent extremist ideology” has revealed.
The note is the first official confirmation that police intelligence suspect Adil Fayaz Waida, a resident of Srinagar, of having links with the middle-eastern militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which declared a caliphate last year.
The police note titled “Kashmiri youth affiliated with ISIS” discusses “reports” that Waida of Srinagar’s Jawahar Nagar locality is “suspected to be affiliated with ISIS”. The note, however, does not reveal the source of the reports.
Waida’s affiliation with the ISIS was first reported in August last year. His family in Srinagar had denied the reports and the police had said it had no evidence to suggested any youth had gone to join the ISIS.
The family had then said it was in touch with their son through Skype, an Internet-based messenger and video calling application.
Waida is the first-known Kashmiri suspected of having ties with the ISIS. Earlier this week, the Al-Qaida announced the death of a Kashmiri militant, Mohammad Ashraf, a resident of Anantnag district, in a US drone strike in Pakistan’s North Waziristan.
The police note discusses Waida’s detailed biography from his primary education here, graduation in business administration from a local college and his postgraduation in Australia’s Queensland University.
“The subject (Waida) returned to his home Jawahar Nagar (in) Srinagar during 2013 and stayed there for a month. During his stay in Srinagar, the subject got a job offer from an NGO working for the rehabilitation of refugees, with its offices in Australia, Turkey and Malaysia,” the note reads.
It further says that Waida, now aged 28, initially got a visa for Malaysia, from where he “is said to have been dispatched to Turkey where he is involved in rehabilitation work of displaced people of Syria”.
“He is reportedly in touch with his family only through internet facility and is not using cell phone facility. Reports suggested that the individual is having an ardent extremist ideology,” police wrote in the note.
The police note also discussed Waida’s family background, including his father’s sympathies for “separatist ideology”.
