Kashmiri woman arrested for luring youths into militancy through Facebook: Officials

In a first-of-its-kind case, a woman has been arrested by security agencies in Kashmir for allegedly luring youths through Facebook into militancy, especially the Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM), officials said Sunday.

Identified as Shazia from Naidkhai in the Sumbal area of Bandipora in North Kashmir, she was picked up after intelligence agencies zeroed in on her Facebook profile, through which she was "luring youths for jihad and picking up weapons", the officials said.

During interrogation, it was found that she had handed over some ammunition and magazines to two youths from Anantnag, one of whom has been picked up.

Shazia, who is in her early 30s and is a mother of two, had been on the radar of security agencies for quite some time. She would seek favours from senior officers promising them help in getting some terrorists arrested.

A video featuring Shazia had surfaced on Facebook a few months ago, and it was alleged that she was a police informer. On the basis of a complaint filed by her, two youths were picked up and later let off with a warning.

"It seems that she was being used by terror groups to extract information from police and other security agencies and pass it on to the militants," an officer, privy to the case, said on condition of anonymity.