Bangalore City Police Commissioner, M N Reddi. File Photo
Bengaluru: Nine persons, who had reached Istanbul on tourist visas from Bengaluru, were detained by Turkish authorities while they were trying to cross over to Syria, and deported to India.
These individuals had reached Istanbul on tourist visas on December 24 last from here and were sent back to India on January 30, by Turkish authorities, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner M N Redi said.
“On their arrival at BIAL, they (nine individuals) were questioned by the Bengaluru City Police along with central agencies regarding the circumstances of their visit to Turkey,” Reddi said in a statement.
Turkish authorities had detained these individuals at the Turkish border while they were trying to cross over to Syria, Reddi said. They have been identified as Muhammed Abdul Ahad (46) and his family consisting of his wife and five children, natives of Chennai, Javeed Baba (24) native of Khammam district, Telangana, and Ibrahim Nowfal (24) of Hassan, Karnataka, he said.
Ahad has a Masters in Computer Science from Kennedy-Western University, California, USA, and has worked in the US for more than ten years, Reddi said. Javeed and Nowfal are also engineers by qualification, he added.
Freed
The nine people who were picked up from the Kempegowda International Airport here late on Friday after being deported from Turkey for allegedly trying to enter Syria to join terror outfit ISIS, were released on Sunday.
The Bengaluru city police, Andhra Pradesh police and intelligence agencies interrogated them for over 30 hours before letting them off. The city police also questioned the family members of Nowfal. They said the group intended to join ISIS, but was not involved with the outfit in any way.
(With PTI inputs)
