Bindu Sampath, the mother of Nimisha Fathima, has pleaded with the Indian government to help her daughter and four-year-old granddaughter to return from Afghanistan. This comes just days after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
Nimisha Fathima had left Kerala to join the terror organisation ISIS. She was among over 400 terrorists who surrendered to Afghan soldiers in 2019. Since then, Fathima and her daughter have been detained in Kabul. Her husband was murdered in an airstrike by the United States on an ISIS base.
Fathima, along with three other women allegedly left Kerala a few years ago to join the militant organisation Islamic State (IS). The four Kerala women are now thought to be stuck in Kabul after a Taliban released prisoners from jail.
She and other Kerala women had been offered deportation by Afghanistan. But since the jailbreak in Kabul, the whereabouts of these four women are unknown.
Bindu Sampath expressed concern that Nimisha and her daughter could fall into the Taliban's clutches.
"I was overjoyed when I learned that they had been released. However, by the evening, I got to know that they had not been released and had instead been handed over to terrorists by the Indian government," said Ms Sampath.
"If she has done anything wrong to my country, let her go through Indian law. That is what I have been saying for over four years. If she is deported from Afghanistan, I can take care of my granddaughter. Otherwise, she will become prey to these terrorists. I don't know why the Indian government is not allowing her back," Bindu was quoted saying by NDTV.
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Bindu Sampath claimed her daughter was "brainwashed" after she went missing in 2017. She claims to have approached Kerala Minister Muraleedharan and others with her request. On August 24, her appeal in court for her daughter's return will be heard.
"Terrorists and a doctor who was with her in a coaching centre in Thiruvananthapuram brainwashed my daughter... Abdul Rasheed and four others were the masterminds of the disappearances of 21 Kerala people in 2017," Ms Sampath explained.
She further claimed that a disagreement among intelligence personnel had prevented her daughter from returning home.