JOIN USPolice catch man hoping to join IS
Delhi Police detained a 50-year-old man outside Iraqi embassy in south Delhi on Friday for suspected links with the militant group Islamic State.
Sources said Zuber Ahmed Khan was taken into custody after a call was made to the police control room by the embassy.
He was taken to Vasant Vihar police station, and questioned by a joint team of local police and Special Cell.
Zuber, a resident of Mumbai, had written on his Facebook profile that he wanted to surrender his Indian passport and become an official spokesperson for IS.
Zuber holds a passport valid until September 17, 2017.
On Facebook, Zuber had even posted a message to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In a post on August 1, Zuber claimed that he would reach Delhi by Rajdhani Express on August 4 and visit the Iraqi embassy.
He also planned to visit the Pakistani embassy at south Delhi’s Chanakyapuri during his five-day stay in the capital.
“Zuber went to Iraqi embassy to apply for a visa, but the embassy officials found his behaviour suspicious,” said a police officer.
The embassy officials then informed police. On being questioned, Zuber told police that he wanted to go to Iraq for a job.
Sources, however, said he was frequently changing his statement.
Zuber also termed 1993 Bombay bombings convict Yakub Memon as a martyr in several posts before and after Memon’s execution on July 30.
Zuber claimed to be a journalist from Navi Mumbai, the editor-in-chief of Journalist for International Peace newspaper.
After an initial probe, police said he worked as a lecturer in Maharashtra and lost his job in 2007.
In his message to al-Baghdadi, Zuber wrote that he wants to “work with the Islamic State as a spokesperson or a government journalist.”
Maharashtra Police have also questioned his wife and children, and analysed his Facebook posts.