Nine persons travelling from Bengaluru were detained at the Turkish border while trying to cross over to Syria and were deported back to India. On their arrival in the city on Friday night, the police detained them to ascertain if they had any links with Islamic State (IS), a terror outfit which controls parts of Syria. The group comprised three men, a woman and five children.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the three men were working in IT companies in Bengaluru. One of them had worked in the U.S. for over a decade after acquiring a master’s degree in Computer Science there. The other men are computer science engineers.
The nine persons had travelled from the city on tourist visas and landed in Istanbul on December 24, 2014. They were deported to India on January 30, 2015 by Turkish authorities. Upon arriving at Kempegowda International Airport, they were questioned by the police, along with central agencies, about their visit to Turkey.
A senior city police officer, who has been questioning the group since Friday evening, told The Hindu that they did not have a “satisfactory explanation” for trying to cross over to Syria. “The men claimed that they were going to Syria to do social work for the Sunni Muslim community in the strife-torn country. However, they have no answer as to why they tried to cross over to Syria through Turkey,” the officer said, adding that they were surprised that one of the detained persons had taken along his children on the trip.
