Ker: Mother hopeful of return of daughter from IS camps

It is light at the end of the tunnel for Thiruvananthapuram native Bindu Sampath as she was highly hopeful of the return of her daughter Nimisha Fathima and family, who reportedly crossed the borders in 2016 to join the IS.

Close on the heels of reports of scores of IS operatives surrendering to the forces in Afghan, NIA officials shared some pictures with Bindu of the surrendered IS operatives. "I could spot by son-in-law Bexin and three-year-old grandchild in the picture. The burqa-clad woman carrying my grandchild on lap could be obviously my daughter only," Bindu told DH.

Nimisha was among the 21 odd persons from Kerala who reportedly crossed the borders in 2016. Thereafter Nimisha contacted Bindu a couple of times over social media messaging apps, the latest being in Nov 2018.

Bindu said that over the last couple of years many told her that there was little chance for those joining terror outfits returning to India. There were even reports that Nimisha and husband suspected killed in encounters. But those did not affect her optimism as she firmly belied that her daughter would return. She still firmly believes that her daughter won't do anything wrong, but was trapped by another youth by converting her to Islam and ditching her while she was pursuing a dental degree course in North Kerala.

To overcome the stress caused by her daughter's disappearance, Bindu got fully engaged in her profession as a makeup artist and also got involved in Zumba training. In between, she also used to send communications to authorities within India and even Afghan enquiring about whereabouts of her daughter.

Meanwhile, Kerala police intelligence sources said that though there were reports that a couple of Malayalis were among the IS operatives surrendered, an official communication from central agencies was still awaited.