Afsha Jabeen, first Indian woman 'recruiter' for ISIS, arrested in Hyderabad

A Dubai-based Indian woman allegedly recruiting youth for terror outfit ISIS in Syria and Iraq has been extradited, police said on Friday.

Hyderabad: An Indian woman, allegedly involved in carrying out recruitment for the dreaded ISIS terror outfit, was on Friday deported by UAE after which she was arrested here.

37-year-old Afsha Jabeen alias 'Nicky Joseph' hails from Hyderabad but had been portraying herself as a British national while luring youth for ISIS through social media, officials said.

She was deported along with husband and children.

Jabeen was tracked in Abu Dhabi and after initial questioning, she was deported to Hyderabad where sleuths took her custody at the airport and questioned her. Police then arrested her and registered a case against her.

"Today, on credible information, Afsha Jabeen is taken into custody at RGI Airport, when she arrived from Dubai. As she is a co-accused in Salman's case, she is arrested and produced in the court. Further inquiry is going on," police said here in a brief press release.

Salman Mohiuddin, also from Hyderabad, was arrested in January this year at the airport when he was preparing to board a flight to Dubai on way to Syria via Turkey.

After that arrest, Afsha came under the lens of Indian security agencies as Salman had allegedly confessed during questioning to have opened several Facebook accounts along with one 'Nicky Joseph' of British national living in Dubai.

He had said that she had influenced and invited him to join her in Dubai in order to go to Syria.

Indian security agencies had also informed their British counterpart about the claims made by Salman.

However, after painstaking investigations by the Indian security agencies, it was found that she was an Indian, official sources said.

Later it was found that Jabeen was somewhere in UAE after which the authorities there were informed.

Both of them allegedly indoctrinated and motivated several youth via social media to get attracted towards the activities of ISIS and Jihad, the officials said.

Jabeen and Salman allegedly used social media to attract youth from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar and other states towards the the banned terror outfit.

Jabeen had gone to Abu Dhabi as a child and completed her schooling there. She came to India and graduated from Shadan college in Hyderabad and later married Devender Kumar alias Mustafa, according to the officials.

Salman had earlier said that he had met a lady during his stay in the US and identified her as Nicky Joseph alias Nicky alias Nicole alias Ayesha, a British national and a neo-Muslim based in Dubai with a fundamentalist leaning towards Islam, the officials said.

In 2014, after the establishment of the caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Salman and Nicky started taking interest in development activities of the Islamic State. They created various Facebook groups under pseudo names and started attracting people who were interested in ISIS, it is alleged.

Is the Indian government doing enough to tackle ISIS threat? in Nation on LockerDome