A 20 year old person from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh had joined the ISIS to fight in Iraq. A class 12 pass out, he was involved in small businesses back home before getting attracted to ISIS online.
Neither he nor his family has any prior history of being associated with fringe elements. He is considered to be the first person from Uttar Pradesh to join ISIS directly without having any contact with any terrorist organisation in India and without any criminal past.
He is among the 20-odd Indians who are currently fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria. These include two youth from Mumbai outskirts Kalyan, an Australia-based Kashmiri, one youth from Telangana, one from Karnataka, one Oman-based Indian and another Singapore-based Indian.
The recent bombings by western forces in ISIS areas got the young man scared and prompted him to contact his family asking them to arrange for his return.
The family approached the security agencies for help and the agencies are trying to get in touch with the youth, who is in ISIS-held areas in Iraq, bordering Syria.
The point is: Should we encourage these people to return who joined terrorist organizations without any provocation and given their proclivities, is it not a matter of time before they funnel their frustrations to religion-based issues back home?
One could argue that they were misguided and hence deserve a second chance. But is their reformation truly genuine? How can they be trusted once they are back home? What guarantee is there that they are not coming back as brainwashed ISIS cadre?
It might seem unfair not to allow them back on the basis of such assumptions but the safety of our fellow countrymen is of paramount importance rather than the careers of such individuals. Is it not? Can we afford to take the risk?
