Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police say they are yet given a “clean chit" to Sadia Anwar Sheikh, an 18-year-old girl from Pune who has been arrested a few days ago on suspicion of being a “human bomber”. Her interrogators will continue to “grill her about some unsatisfactory answers she provided during questioning”.
Kashmir's Additional Director General (ADG) of Police Muneer Khan told News18 there were a few questions the police want answers to like “why she was here and why did her mother leave immediately after dropping her in Kashmir”.
"The girl will remain with our women police personnel and will continue to be quizzed till we are satisfied with all her answers," he said.
Police said she was picked up on January 25 from Pazalpora, Bijbehara where she had apparently gone to stay with an acquaintance. Khan said he had got inputs from other agencies that the girl would “blow herself up near or inside the Republic Parade venue in the Valley”.
“Based on intelligence, we activated all sources and looked at her social media contacts and with whom she was in touch. We found she was friends with at least four boys — one each from Sopore, Pattan, Srinagar and Anantnag. We finally got information about where she was staying and nabbed her," he said, adding that no arms or ammunition were found on her.
Police also sifted through the conversations the girl had with the Kashmiri boys and found out that they were radicalised as there was mention of Shahadat or martyrdom and other “aazadi” propaganda material.
"We will gradually get the boys and seek answers from them, but prima facie it looks like they were lovelorn or wanted to be friends. Boys are boys after all," said a police officer investigating the case.
The officer said the girl and her mother flew to Srinagar a few days ago and they were seen at a railway station from where they travelled to Baramulla and Anantnag.
The girl had told the investigators that she had come to get enrolled in a nursing college and study a course, but could not give a satisfactory answer as to why her mother left immediately.
“Our women police personnel are talking to the girl's mother and will get her here to clear the doubts. That will give us an idea as to what she was upto... It requires holistic investigation and only then we will be able to come to any conclusion,'' ADG Khan added.
Police sources said Sadiya was a pharmacy student who also worked briefly with a call centre. She was arrested by the Maharashtra ATS and National Investigation Agency and was made to attend a de-radicalisation course.
Sources say she has been under the scanner of anti-terror agencies since 2015 and had over the last two years become "highly radicalised" through online propaganda on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram.
At one time, the Maharashtra ATS had provided counselling to Sadia who was found willing to go to Syria and join the Islamic State.
In July 2017, investigators nabbed her in Delhi while she was on her way to J&K. She was suspected be in touch with a person in J&K, with whom she wanted to get married and go abroad.
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