Irfan Ahmad Zargar, the Dubai-based engineer, who had been detained by the Dubai authorities on suspicion of being an Islamic State sympathiser and then handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in India for further questioning, would most likely be released on Monday from the custody of Jammu and Kashmir police.
The 36-year-old Zargar from the Chattabal area of Srinagar was deported to India on August 14 on suspicion of being an IS sympathizer. He was interrogated by the NIA for days and later was handed over to Jammu and Kashmir police.
He will likely be released on Monday as the family has been called to Joint Interrogation Center, Jammu where is detained. Police sources said that he was taken into the custody by NIA soon after his arrival in New Delhi and interrogated by them thoroughly. “It seems nothing has been found against him during questioning by NIA and other people,” a senior police official told Greater Kashmir. “There is also nothing adverse against him in police records in Srinagar.”
Irfan, a computer engineer, shifted to Dubai soon after the 2014 floods where he got a job in a telecom company. In 2017 he visited his home for celebrating Eid ul Fitr and went back after spending one month in Kashmir.
His uncle Nazir Ahmad Zargar said that Irfan went missing from Dubai on 28 April, 2018 and after two days his cousin brother Aamanullha who is working in Dubai informed his family members telephonically about it.
He said that after about one month his brother Arshid Ahmed Zargar went to Dubai to search for him where he along with his cousin approached police station Sharjah for lodging a missing report, but they refused. However after repeated requests they entertained their application and registered a missing report in the police station.
His uncle said that on Shab-e-Qadar his mother received a call from an unknown number and it was his son Irfan Ahmed Zargar. He said Irfan informed his family members that he is good but he did not know where he is and in whose captivity. He said that Irfan was only allowed to talk in English and he told the family that they will release him after the completion of investigation.
“Today morning we got a call from JIC Jammu officials that Irfan is there,” Nazir said. “One of his brothers and his maternal uncle have already left for Jammu.”