SRINAGAR: The United Arab Emirates has deported a second Kashmiri, Irfan Ahmad Zargar, on charges of being a “sympathiser of the banned ISIS” terror group. Last year, Azhar ul Islam, from Ganderbal in central Kashmir, had been deported from the UAE on the same charge.

A third person, Afshan Parvaiz of Srinagar , was deported by Turkey on May 25 this year, again for being an ISIS supporter.

An engineering graduate, Irfan Ahmad Zargar, 36, a resident of Chattatabal in old Srinagar city, was deported from Dubai on August 14 after the intervention of the Indian consulate general in Dubai. The Indian mission acted on a request from Zargar’s family to locate him after he was picked up by Dubai police at the airport on April 28 for interrogation, official sources said.

Zargar had been entering Dubai from Oman when Dubai police arrested him and questioned him intensively about his activities on social networking sites, especially his appreciation of ISIS activities in Syria and Iraq, official sources added. Zargar was “quite active” on social media.

The Dubai police had even searched Zargar’s apartment in Sharjah, sources said.

Zargar was deported to India on August 14 following the intervention of the ministry of external affairs. A relative of Zargar had asked on Twitter for help from foreign minister Sushma Swaraj .

The minister had assured him help and the Indian consulate general in Dubai initiated a manhunt. The Dubai authorities initially refused to deport or release Irfan Zargar but finally did so after five months of persuasion by the Indian mission.

Various security agencies, including the National Investigation Agency , questioned Zargar for five days and finally handed him over to the Jammu & Kashmir police on Sunday, an official said.

There was no terror case registered against Zargar, sources said, but the J&K police are still looking into various angles.

The NIA found nothing incriminating against him and, therefore, handed him over to the state police, official sources said.

