Bengaluru: Nine persons, who reached Istanbul on tourist visas from Bengaluru, were detained by Turkish authorities while they were trying to cross over to Syria, and deported to India with police here stating it is probing whether they have any links with terror group ISIS.
These individuals had reached Istanbul on tourist visas on December 24 last year from Bengaluru and were sent back to India on Friday, by Turkish authorities, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner M N Redi said.
“On their arrival at BIAL, they (nine individuals) were questioned by the Bengaluru City Police along with central agencies regarding the circumstances of their visit to Turkey,” Reddi said in a statement.
“Enquiry is going on into their background and motive behind travelling to Syria via Turkey,” he said.
Police sources said it was also being probed whether these people had any plan to join ISIS.
Turkish authorities had detained these individuals at the Turkish border while they were trying to cross over to Syria, Reddi said.
They have been identified as Muhammed Abdul Ahad (46) and his family consisting of his wife and five children, natives of Chennai, Javeed Baba (24) native of Khammam district, Telangana, and Ibrahim Nowfal (24) of Hassan, Karnataka, he said.
Ahad has a Masters in Computer Science from Kennedy-Western University, California, USA, and has worked in the US for more than ten years, Reddi said.
Javeed and Nowfal are also engineers by qualification, he added.