KARACHI: Caught in Iran while travelling illegally to Syria to join the militant Islamic State group before being repatriated to Pakistan, two youngsters have turned away from ‘armed struggle’ after being ‘rehabilitated’ with the support of their families and security administration, officials said on Friday.

Although still under surveillance, the men in their early 20s have no more militant tendencies according to the psychiatrists who evaluated their condition, said official in charge of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Raja Umer Khattab.

The two men belonging to the middle and upper middle class families of Karachi were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) by the Iranian authorities before being given into the custody of the Quetta police.

Also read: Police claim tracing 53 ‘IS-inspired’ militants

The CTD officer, who had been handed over their custody in Karachi, said they had suffered so much hardship for over one month during their attempts to reach Syria that they were unable to repeat such an arduous job.

They had no Jehadi background until they came into contact with Abu Khalid aka Abu Uqba through separate Twitter accounts, he said.

This Middle East-based militant arranged their meeting in Karachi and asked them to reach the Turkey border from where they would be picked up to facilitate their recruitment in ISIS.

Each of the two youngsters, whose identities have been kept secret, gave Rs260,000 to human smugglers in Balochistan to arrange their travel to Iran.

Finally, they along with some 25 other people trussed up with a piece of rope were taken in a Vigo vehicle across the border through the hilly terrain.

Having little idea of directions, they roamed around for a month without success in reaching the Turkey border. It was during this time that the Iranian authorities arrested them and handed over them to the FIA, he said.

“Their case is the only authentic evidence indicating attempts of youngsters to join IS militants in Syria willingly,” believed the CTD officer. So far, he added, no other evidence had emerged about people going to join IS militants.

As they had no previous militancy record, they were released after being ‘rehabilitated’ with the help of psychiatrists and their families, said Mr Khattab.

The police officer further said: “So far, no link has been established between IS-inspired militants held in Karachi after the Safoora carnage and the recent arrest of such elements in Sialkot, Punjab, and IS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi-nominated IS leaders Hafiz Saeed and Shahid Shahidullah in the country.

“These are small self-styled IS-inspired militant groups, operating separately. They had no single platform under which they could unite to carry out terror acts.”

Read: IS cell busted in Sialkot, claim officials

These IS-inspired militants were mostly splinter groups of religious organisations such as Tanzeem-i-Islami though “TI’s direct link with terror has not yet been found,” said the CTD official. But its splinter group comprising Hafiz Umer, Hafiz Nasir, Ali Rehman, Akhter Ishrat and Asad Rehman and others were found inspired by IS, he said.

Some of them were held for their alleged involvement in attack on the Ismaili community bus near Safoora Goth, Bohra community, Imambargahs and killing of policemen and social activist Sabeen Mahmud.

Mr Khattab admitted that the IS-inspired group after the arrest of their accomplices in the Safoora case killed the driver of Ms Mehmud and Sub-inspector Malik Ashfaq, who had collected evidence against Tahir Minhas, one of the suspects in the Safoora case.

But he said: “With these attacks, they just wanted to make their presence felt, as the killing of the driver and the officer will not harm the two cases.”

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2016