ISIS releases two photos, claiming Indian fighters are joining group

Magnet Gas (‏@cihadci2) identified a group of men on a boat as fighters from India.

Sujay Ghosh, July 22, 2015, New Delhi, NewsCrunch

To  challenge the popular notion that Indian Muslims have stayed away from ISIS, a Twitter account of the terror group. released photos of Indian recruits on Monday.

Magnet Gas (‏@cihadci2) identified a group of men on a boat as fighters from India. The photo is a bit dated as one of the terrorists in the photo, Abu Turab al Hindi,  is already dead.

Abu Turab al Hindi, who was also known as Muhammad “Bada” Sajid, was an Indian Mujahideen commander who got killed in Syria.

Magnet Gas identifies another fighter in a separate photo as an Indian and names him, Abu Qaqa al Hindi. The whereabouts of this man is not known.

Magnet Gas identifies another fighter in a separate photo as an Indian, Abu Qaqa al Hindi.

The account suggested that it was releasing the photos to refute the claims of Indian media that there were very Indians in ISIS.

Indian Express reported that Fahad Shaikh, the Thane Youth who went to join ISIS last year with three of his friends, is the man behind the account.

Four youths from Thane had gone to Iraq and joined ISIS to take part in the jihad. Though one of them, Areeb Majeed, returned eventually, there are speculations about the lot of others in ISIS: Aman Tandel, Saheem Tanki, and Fahad Shaikh.

Fahad Sheikh, who was contacted  by NIA refused to return from ISIS, saying Muslims were not treated well in India.
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Fahad Shaikh, the Thane youth,  is reportedly the man behind the account.

Fahad Shaikh has a mechanical engineering degree from Kalsekar College in Panvel, where he met Areeb Majeed and Aman Tandel, fellow students. Tanki was a school dropout.

Areeb Majeed is currently in the custody of NIA.

There have been sporadic incidents of Indian youth trying to join ISIS. These incidents have been few and the security agencies have opted to intercept and counsel them, along with their families.

Related

Kalyani youth Fahad Sheikh won't return from ISIS, says Muslims not treated well in India 

Third Indian, Abdul Rahman, dies fighting for ISIS in Syria 

15 Hyderabad engineering students, one of them a girl, go to West Bengal to join ISIS. 

ISIS tweets on Indian fighters