MUMBAI: Areeb Majeed, suspected member of terror outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has revealed the names of the local contacts, who allegedly provided him the logistics to join the group to take part in the battle in Iraq, NIA officials said on Sunday.
Areeb Majeed was grilled for several hours on Sunday by the National Investigation Agency.
Majeed also disclosed how he was completely sidelined by the terror group as he had been asked to carry out menial tasks like cleaning toilets or providing water to those on the battlefield, instead of being pushed into the warzone.
“Majeed was today grilled for several hours when he revealed the names of the local contacts, who radicalized him and his three other friends here, and helped them fly to Iraq. We are verifying his claims and are trying to locate these local contacts,” a National Investigation Agency official said.
However, the officer refused to divulge the names of the local supporters here saying it would derail the probe.
Asked for how many months he participated in the battle on the ground, the 23-year-old ISIS “recruit” said he was completely ignored and asked to clean the toilets and arrange water for those battling with the security forces.
The photo of Areeb Majeed that was uploaded on a website for a short while.
He told the investigators that despite his immediate supervisor’s request, the ISIS cadres did not allow him to participate in the battle.
ISIS has attracted jihadists from all across the world. In this photo, a Chechen fighter appears along with other ISIS jihadists.
“Only after I begged them, I was taken to a hospital. I was treating myself, but the injury was worsening as there was no proper medication or food available in the camps,” Majeed told investigators.
“There was neither a holy war nor any of the preachings in the holy book were followed. ISIS fighters raped many a woman there,” Majeed said while responding to one of the questions, an NIA official said.
Admitting that he and his three friends from Kalyan underwent training on handling of sophisticated AK-47 and rocket launchers, Majeed claimed the Indians were considered to be physically weak.
Majeed was arrested on Friday on his return to Mumbai after spending nearly six months in Iraq. He was booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on charges of conspiring to commit a terrorist act and being a member of a banned foreign terror outfit, and under the stringent Section 125 of the IPC for “waging war against the nation”
Jihadists in Syria write home to France: ‘My iPod is broken. I want to come back’
Letters from French jihadists home to their parents have revealed the misery, boredom and fear suffered by Islamist recruits as the gloss fades from their big adventure.
In a series of letters seen by Le Figaro newspaper, some of the 376 French currently fighting in Syria have begged for advice on how to return. Others have complained that, rather than participating in a noble battle, they have been acting as jihadi dogsbodies.
“I’ve basically done nothing except hand out clothes and food,” wrote one, who wants to return from Aleppo. “I also help clean weapons and transport dead bodies from the front. Winter’s arrived here. It’s begun to get really hard.”
Another writes: “I’m fed up. They make me do the washing up.”
One Frenchman whinged that he wanted to come home because he was missing the comforts of life in France.
“I’m fed up. My iPod doesn’t work any more here. I have to come back.”
A third wrote fearfully: “They want to send me to the front, but I don’t know how to fight.”
Others were concerned, more prosaically, about the nationality of their baby, which was born in Syria and so not recognised by the French state.
And Le Figaro said that, among Islamist commanders, it had been noticed that some of the French were beginning to want to leave. One Frenchman was rumoured to have been beheaded when he explained to the emir that he wanted to follow his friend who had already left.
“Everyone knows that, the longer these people stay there, the worse it will be because having watched or committed attrocities, they become ticking time bombs,” said one lawyer, quoted in Le Figaro.
“But, when it comes to having a discussion about whether France is ready to accept repentants, no politician is willing to take the risk. Imagine if one of these ex-jihadis is involved subsequently in an attack?”
A group of lawyers in France are acting on behalf of the families of the young people to try and persuade the state to allow the jihadis to return. They told the newspaper that they are trying to make discreet contact with the anti-terrorist police, the directors of internal security and the office of the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve.
The lawyers said that nothing is ever agreed in advance, on behalf of the jihadis – and the advice is always: “Present yourself at the French consulat in Istanbul or Erbil (in Iraq). And then we will see.”
Of the approximately 100 jihadists who have returned to France, 76 are in prison.
And the report said that Britain was known as the global leader in reforming jihadists – so much so that some within the French system were asking to be seconded to MI5 – “famed for their art of debriefing”.
“Within the secret services, it’s said that British jihadis are more interesting because they have a higher intellectual level than their French colleagues, who are more often donkeys,” one expert told the paper.
The story of the French jihadis has parallels with that of an Indian man who spent six months fighting alongside Isis in Iraq, before becoming disillusioned with his job cleaning toilets,and returning to Mumbai.
Majeed, 23, was one of four young Muslim men from Kalyan, a city east of Mumbai, known to have journeyed to the Middle East to join the extremist outfit.
“There was neither a holy war nor any of the preachings in the holy book were followed,” Majeed is quoted as saying during his interrogation. Islamic State “fighters raped many women there,” he reportedly said.