NEW DELHI: Mumbai journalist Zuber Ahmed Khan who wanted to join the Islamic State (IS) terror group, detained here on Thursday after he approached the Iraq Embassy to get a visa, was let off on Friday afternoon when Central intelligence agencies and the Delhi Police during interrogation found he was “mentally unstable” since he lost his job in 2007.
“No case has been registered. He was detained and questioned for hours. We found he was mentally unstable and let him off,” said a senior police officer. He said Khan cooperated during questioning though some of his arguments were contradictory. “He has little money, about Rs 2000 - Rs 3000, which is insufficient for his stay in Delhi or his plan to go to Iraq,” said the officer.
He said the Mumbai Police Crime Branch were looking for him as he had used a social site threatening to join terror outfit IS after 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon was hanged and had termed him a “martyr.”
Police said in 2007 he lost his job in a hospital in Mumbai. After Yakub’s execution, he wrote a post on his Facebook account stating that he wanted to join the ISIS.
In the posts, Khan claimed to be the editor-in-chief of a newspaper called ‘Journalist for International Peace.’