UAE deports Kashmiri man for suspected IS links

In a development which could have far-reaching consequences on security situation, a Kashmiri man living in United Arab Emirates (UAE) was deported to India on suspicion of being sympathiser of Jihadi militia Islamic State(IS).

Sources said 36-year-old Irfan Ahmad Zarger, a resident of Chattatabal area of the old city of Srinagar, was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the UAE authorities on August 14, for allegedly showing active support to IS activities in Syria on social media.

“The NIA after questioning Zarger for a couple of days handed over him to Jammu and Kashmir police for detailed interrogation,” they said and added, Zarger, a telecom engineer, who was working in Dubai, was picked up by the authorities there when he was entering into another Gulf country Oman on April 28.

The matter came to light after one of his relatives sought External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj help on Twitter to trace Zarger. The Indian Consulate General in Dubai had initiated the process to reach out to the man after the Swaraj’s intervention. However, it took Dubai authorities several months to complete their own investigation, before they handed him over to Indian authorities, officials said.

The development comes in the backdrop of security forces killing four Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK) militants in a gun battle in Srigufwara area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on June 22. While the central government has been maintaining that there is no presence of IS in the Valley, state police chief Shesh Pal Vaid had for the first time officially confirmed of IS militant being killed in Kashmir.

Zargar is the third Kashmiri to have been deported in recent times after being accused of sympathising with the IS. Before him, Srinagar-resident Afshan Parvaiz was deported from Ankara on May 25 while another young man named Parvaiz was deported from Tehran on March 23.

Another youth from Ganderbal, Azhar ul Islam, was deported from the UAE last year for being an IS 'sympathiser'.