Social media posts claim missing Kashmiri student has joined militant ranks
Pictures of a Kashmiri youth, who had gone missing from a private university in Uttar Pradesh, are being circulated on social media. The youth, who has been reported missing since October 28, is claimed to have joined militant ranks in the Valley, according to the posts on social media.
Ahtesham Bilal Sofi (17), a resident of downtown Srinagar, was a first-year graduation student at Greater Noida's Sharda University.
After taking permission from an official, Sofi had left for Delhi from the university, days after he was mistakenly roughed up during a scuffle between Indian and Afghan students in the campus.
A missing complaint was registered in the case at the Knowledge Park police station in Greater Noida as well as at Khanyar police station in Srinagar, officials said.
The pictures on social media showed Sofi dressed in a black outfit and claimed he had joined militant group ISJK, an outfit influenced by ISIS ideology.
According to UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), the case is being tracked since October 28.
"We are in touch with Jammu and Kashmir police. We are tracking the footprints of the boy from Greater Noida to Kashmir," said Inspector General, ATS, Asim Arun.
The Jammu and Kashmir police said they were "ascertaining" Sofi's presence in the Valley.
The case is also being probed by the Gautam Budh Nagar police, who had traced the last location of Sofi's mobile phone to militancy-hit Pulwama district in South Kashmir.
"A missing complaint was registered and police teams are working on the case," a senior official told PTI.
According to the police, Sofi had left for Srinagar from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport in the afternoon of October 28 and reached Pulwama a few hours later.
