A Sri Lankan national has been identified as an Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) recruiting agent in Sri Lanka by the Indian Police. Last week, a 16-year-old from Pune had wanted to join the IS after being ‘radicalized’ by IS sympathizers and radicals on several social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook ,Whatsapp and other human resources via which she managed to trace an ‘IS recruiting agent’ in Sri Lanka. Assistant Commissioner Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Bhanupratap Barge in Maharashtra told Ceylon Today over the phone that the Central Agency has provided all information pertaining to the ‘Sri Lankan agent’ to the Sri Lankan Consulate and ‘action has been already taken’. He said the girl is in the process of being ‘de-radicalized’ at the moment. “The matter is of serious concern but we have traced the persons and inquiries are proceeding” he said. “Mohamed Sirajuddin, an employer of the Indian Oil Company allegedly had given details of the Sri Lankan man to the girl and is under surveillance now” he said. Reportedly the girl was assured by ISIS sympathizers that she will get admission to a medical college in Syria. During investigations, the anti-terrorist squad had discovered that she was regularly interacting with IS sympathizers on WhatsApp and Twitter and exchanging mail with people in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka, and countries such as the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and some in Europe. The girl has been moved to her family and religious leaders are constantly helping her to ‘recover’. In July this year, a karate instructor named Sharfaz Nilam Muhshin (37), an IS radical, managed to obtain a tourist visa to Turkey from the Embassy of Turkey in Colombo and joined the IS in Syria. “The usual route to enter Syria is Turkey and one of the ‘gateways’ to Syria is Sri Lanka” the source said. The Turkish Embassy in July told Ceylon Today that Nilam Muhshin and his entire family entered Turkey as he showed ownership of a company and had sufficient funds to travel to Turkey. The IS are funding people who would want to enter the Islamic State and many youngsters after being radicalized through various sources are trying ways and means of going there, a senior member of a Muslim institution said. He pointed out that such visas are usually obtained by travel agents who are ‘capable’ of ‘producing relevant documents’ to obtain visas to go to the Islamic State. He pointed out that no one could cross the borders of Saudi Arabia or any other Middle Eastern country due to installation of high surveillance equipment. The IS are targeting South Asians and South East Asians.