U-turn: Afshan Jabeen has no links with ISIS

Hyderabad: The case of Afshan Jabeen, the women alleged to be a recruiter for the ISIS has taken a new twist.

According to a report published in The Hindu, the investigators have found no direct link between Afshan and militant outfit Islamic State (IS), highly placed sources said.

37-year-old Afsha Jabeen alias ‘Nicky Joseph’ was deported from the UAE for allegedly recruiting youth on behalf of the IS was largely into motivating people to convert to Islam and any direct link with the IS leadership has not become apparent so far.

Jabeen was popular on Facebook and the accounts she ran had over 60,000 followers. According to sources, she was mostly into motivating people to convert to Islam. She was running pages like ‘Islam vs Christianity,’ ‘Who is real Islamist?’ ‘Daula Islamic’ and ‘Real Jihadi.’

A senior government official said, “she was mostly into conversion and radicalisation but to say that she was doing so at the behest of IS would be exaggerated.”

Moihuddin, who was detained in various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is in contact with Jabeen and he planned to travel to Syria via Turkey with her.

“There were others who she was in touch with and she motivated them to travel to Syria but Moihuddin told her categorically that he would not proceed without her. It was due to this reason that he planned to go to Dubai first and meet her there, before both of them went to Syria together. She had no such intention however,” said the official.

She was deported along with husband and children on September 11 from the Hyderabad airport.