The Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Telangana police differ on the strategy they should pursue to deal with the youth who are in touch with terror outfits such as the Islamic State (IS). While the IB wants stern action against these youth, the police is being accused of handling them with kid-gloves under pressure from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi-led state government. They first took into custody several youth including a former Google techie in the last two weeks for their alleged links with the IS, but let them off subsequently. The IB top brass is agitated over the intense activity by a slew of outfits to lure Muslim youth into the terror network and thinks that the state police should book cases against the arrested persons. But the K. Chandrasekhar Rao government prefers a soft approach on the ground that any harsh measures would be counter-productive.

"The situation is serious, with more than half a dozen outfits luring the youth with the propaganda that Islam is in danger. Social media, religious gatherings and community functions are being used to spread this falsehood. It was not right on the part of the police to release those who were found to have contacts with the IS," a source in the IB said.

Hyderabad police commissioner M. Mahender Reddy claimed that the police released the youth as they had regretted planning to join the terror outfit. "We have conducted counselling sessions for them in the presence of their family members. We know their movements," Reddy told this newspaper.

In the last one month, the police in Hyderabad has arrested eight persons who wanted to join the IS. It has also tracked down another 300 youth in the age group of 18-35 years who were regular visitors to radical websites.

In particular, the police was surprised to hear former Google software engineer Munawad Sultan (30) admit that gave up his job to join the IS to save Islam. Sources in the Special Investigation Team of the city police said that Munawad received several calls from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. Some unidentified persons also deposited Rs 1 lakh in his account for his travel to Iraq through Saudi Arabia.

Munawad gave up his Google job in February so that he could devote his life for the cause of Islam by joining the IS. This Tamil Nadu born techie told the police that it would be a matter of days before the IS reached India through Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The police had also taken into custody two youth, Shah Mudassir and Shoeb Ahmed Khan, who belong to Aurangabad in Maharashtra, but came to Hyderabad to join a network which propagates the Al Qaeda cause. They were released after their family members assured the police that they would take care of them.

The city police also wanted to release four youth, Ejaz Ahmed, Zakir Hussain, Aslam Shaik and Amzad Khan, who were suspected to have sent money to the Burdwan bomb factory in West Bengal, after robbing a bank in Karimnagar. However, the National Investigation Agency prevailed upon the police to keep the youth in custody. These youth were in touch with several IS and Al Qaeda moles.