How a convent educated girl from Pune became a suicide bomber idolising Burhan Wani

Following the arrest of an 18 year old Pune based woman suspected to be a suicide bomber, the sources revealed DNA that the woman with radical thoughts was fascinated with Kashmir and she considered terrorists like Burhan Wani and Zakir Musa as heroes. "Last year also she had reached Kashmir, but she was sent back to Pune by agencies," sources told DNA. 

Security agencies in Kashmir were on alert following the inputs about a Pune based woman planning suicide attack in the valley on or around republic day and on Friday, Sadidya Anwar Shaikh, a Pune resident was apprehended in Kashmir who according to security agencies is suspected to be a suicide bomber. DNA had reported that Sadiya is the same woman who was stopped from joining ISIS by Maharashtra ATS in 2015 when she was still minor. 

Following her arrest in Kashmir, more details are emerging about the woman who according to security agencies voluntarily got radicalised. "No one influenced her but she herself chose the wrong path and developed radical thinking. She started idolising terrorists like Zakir Musa and Burhan Wani. She wanted to marry a Kashmiri man and in July last month, she had travelled to Kashmir. That time she was minor and security agencies sent her back to Pune," a senior officer told DNA on the condition of anonymity. 

According to sources, the woman has completed her schooling in convent school and till tenth standard she was a girl of modern thinking. "She was good in studies and she secured nearly 90 percent marks in her tenth board exams. However, during the vacations after board exams, she started spending more time on social media where she got attracted towards radical literature available on internet which changed her thought process," one of the officers said. 

"That was the period when ISIS was spreading its wings in Iraq and Syria. The woman would spent ten to twelve hours on social media, reading about ISIS and soon she became sympathiser of ISIS. Meanwhile she started learning Arabic language which helped her to understand radical literature posted by ISIS on the internet," the officer told DNA.

According to sources, her family members never thought that she had developed radical thinking and they would blame the police officers who were counselling her that they were harassing her.  When media persons contacted her mother on Friday, she maintained that her daughter does not have any connection with any militant organisation. "My daughter is not a terrorist. It is very wrong on the part of police and media that they are linking her name with organisations like ISIS. Thought the security agencies are claiming that they have arrested my daughter, I am not ready believe until I speak to my daughter," her mother told media persons.