Sirajuddin had formed closed groups of IS sympathizers, including boys and girls from Maharashtra, on Facebook and WhatsApp. He was allegedly spreading IS activities online and trying to recruit Indian youths for the terrorist group.

The girl, from an elite, city-based Muslim family, was deeply influenced by IS activities and radicalized online. She was in touch regularly with many sympathizers of the dreaded terrorist group, Barge added.

"We have kept the girl under surveillance. Efforts are on to de-radicalise her. Her parents, religious scholars and Muslim community leaders have been asked to help," Barge added. Religious scholars have been told to sensitise the girl about Islam and how the IS is wrong, he said.

Officials said the girl was in touch with Sirajuddin and was in the process of visiting Iran or Syria because the IS members were ready to bear her medical education and other expenses. They had told her that she should be in a position to do anything in her country for Islam, he said.

Technical investigations and contacts helped ATS identify the girl, a standard XI student of science in a city-based college. The girl has had a convent school education and also secured 90% marks in the secondary school certificate examination. She is the only child of her parents, but stays in a joint family.

The ATS team, during investigations, discovered that the girl has around 200 friends on Facebook and she was regularly interacting with IS sympathizers on WhatsApp, Twitter, exchanging emails with some people in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and those in Europe.

ATS additional director general of police, Vivek Phansalkar and special inspector general of police Niket Kaushik had received reliable information that some young boys and girls from Pune were in regular touch with IS through social networking sites.

Investigations showed that the girl was attracted to IS ideology while watching a television channel, four months ago. She began searching for more information IS on internet portals and established contact with an IS agent in Sri Lanka.

ATS officials said the girl started to think that the world should follow Islamic ideology and that Muslims residing in India should "do anything for the sake of Islam".

Her parents noticed a sudden change in her behaviour and she gave up wearing T-shirts, jeans and dresses to college and began to sport a burkha.

Barge told TOI, "We have not registered a complaint against the girl because she is a minor and she did not radicalize others. As a part of our national programme, we have undertaken an exercise to de-radicalise her with support from her parents for the past eight days."

He said they had prevented the girl from joining IS. "The girl has shown remarkable signs of improvement because she has realized that she has done something wrong. She will kept under surveillance till she is completely de-radicalised," he added.

Teams have been sent to collect more details of Sirajuddin and other ATS units have been alerted. They have information about IS sympathizers who were constantly in touch with the Pune girl.

The ATS, Pune unit has told parents with children in the age group of 14 and 20 years to contact them if they find a change in their behavior to prevent them from following the IS. Parents should monitor the activities of their children and keep a watch on their social media interactions.

(timesofindia.indiatimes.com)