Pune: Sadiya Shaikh de-radicalised twice but joined Islamic State again says NIA in chargesheet

Pune: Sadiya Anwar Shaikh (20), a resident of Yerawada, was de-radicalised twice by the intelligence agencies in the past five years, but she joined the Islamic State despite these efforts and aspired to be a suicide bomber in the ISIS. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed this important information in the chargesheet filed, said a report by TimesNow News.

Sadiya was arrested in July month this year by the NIA and a chargesheet was filed in this case last month. Sadiya first came on the radar of the intelligence and investigative agencies back in 2015 when she was just 15 years of age. Sadiya was posting radical contents on social media platforms and drew inspiration from radical Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik. She was arrested from the airport while allegedly attempting to fly to Syria to join ISIS. Sadiya was counselled and de-radicalised by the Pune unit of Anti-Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra State.

Sadiya, however, continued with her radical activities after being let off. In 2018, she was counselled by the Jammu and Kashmir police and handed over to her mother. NIA’s chargesheet says that Sadiya is in touch with various terror groups like the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK), al Qaeda, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, among other countries, since 2015. She was also in touch with a key IS “online motivator” from the Philippines, Karen Aisha Hamidon, who radicalised several Indian youngsters.