The intelligence agencies suspect that the four Kalyan youths, who are now in Iraq have joined the terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The agencies also believe that they had planned their visit in 2013. The police suspect that these youths were radicalised via online chat services.
On May 25, the four youth identified as Arif Majid, Fahad Shaikh, Sahim Tanki and Aman Tandel, had left for Baghdad from Mumbai via Etihad at 5am. They were suppose to return on June 2. Forty persons, including them had gone on a pilgrimage.
As per police sources, on January 3, the ISIS had declared for an independent country and on January 4, Sahim and Aman had applied to the special branch office of Thane police, to procure their passports. On January 11, the Bazarpeth police had completed their verification process.
"If we go through their (two out of four persons) timeline, it appears that they had planned their Iraq visit in 2013. On May 27, they had visited Karbala and a few local sites. On May 31, they called for a taxi to be dropped at their hotel. The taxi driver was the last person to have seen them. We have the registration number of the taxi and information regarding the driver," said a police officer.
The officer added that, the local guide, who was accompanying these 40 people, informed the tour operator in Mumbai about the disappearance of these four youths. "Our inquiry has revealed that some unregistered religious organisation from Kalyan had reportedly sponsored the tour for these four youths and the payment was done in cash. The cost of tour per person was Rs58,786. The tickets were booked for them through three levels of agents," the officer said.
Arif had written a letter to his family before leaving. The police also suspect that someone helped him to draft the letter in a way that it doesn't become obvious why he left. The families of all were unaware about their pilgrimage.
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