The ISIS mirage: Second Indian fighter returns home disillusioned

In the muggy summer of April 2015, almost a year after self-anointed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged Muslims to immigrate to the land of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Tamil Nadu-native Subahani Haja Moideen sold his land and boarded a flight from Chennai to Turkey to perform hijrah—a Muslim’s duty as a faithful. 

According to investigating officers, the 30-year-old class XII graduate was not particularly religiously inclined; he was married and a low-skilled worker, sometimes in a store, sometimes in garment factories. Like millions of other Indians, he had access to the Internet. 

That is where he found religion, in the slick, sophisticated propaganda that ISIS is known for putting out in the hopes of adding recruits to its cause of expanding the so-called Caliphate. In what is now widely recognised as an ISIS tactic, Moideen also met a woman online—she claimed to be Swedish—while searching for guidance on hijrah. 

Moideen was a ready convert to the cause. Like thousands of others, he had spent time consuming the group’s propaganda and videos. In 2015, he made contact with ISIS supporters via the instant messaging app Telegram. Chats with accounts in the name of Abu Naisha al Maghrabi and Abu al-Swedi assured Moideen that if he travelled to Turkey, they would arrange his journey inside IS territory in Syria.

It was just the push Moideen needed. 

He sold ancestral property for Rs 1.8 lakh, paid off debts, and flew to Istanbul, Turkey. His family thought he was going for umrah—the pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site, Mecca. 

In the chosen land 

In Turkey, Moideen contacted handlers who took him to a safe house in Istanbul where foreign fighters from Morocco, the UK, Russia and Pakistan were awaiting their journey to the Caliphate.

Two days later, when they reached the town of Tell Abyad on Turkey-Syria border in Raqqa, Moideen was enrolled in a training camp for a 21-day basic course providing military, political and Sharia insights. In a second, 15-day round of training for physical combat, Moideen injured his knee and was unable to complete the course. “His training commander told him from the start, his performance as a fighter was poor,’’ said an investigating officer. Not accustomed to the gruelling physical endurance required, Moideen couldn’t keep up. “After taking a gun in his hand, his heroism faded away. His commanders made him guard tents in the camp,” an investigating officer said. He spent the next few days doing chores, with a monthly salary of $100.

In June, as Kurdish forces advanced into ISIS territory and seized the town of Tell Abyad, Moideen saw for the first time the horrors of battle in real-time as opposed to social media videos that portrayed ISIS as ‘baqiya wa tatamaddad’ (‘remaining and expanding’). While the Kurds were on ground, the US coalition forces were providing assistance from the skies. 

In one such attack, a drone-fired bomb hit a building where Moideen hid with other recruits. Two of his training comrades were charred to death. “This made him question his choice,” the officer said. This is reportedly when Moideen asked for his passport to leave Syria. Upon arrival into ISIS territory, foreign fighters are required to hand their passports to leaders. 

Since the beginning of the armed conflict in Syria, an estimated 40,000 foreign fighters from over 100 countries have joined ISIS, al Qaeda and other jihadi groups in the region. The large chunk of mercenary fighters are the life blood of the group, deployed on frontlines and in suicide attacks.

The souring 

Filled with the religiousness of jihad and lured by foreign fighters, it was only a matter of time before Moideen realised there was nothing Islamic about the state formed in the name of Islam, say investigators.

Illustration: Gajanan Nirphale

In September 2015, Moideen became the second Indian ISIS recruit to return back home, dejected and disillusioned, a mere five months later. Investigating officials who interrogated Moideen say his is a classic case of social media indoctrination. “It did not take him much time to realise there is a difference between the way ISIS portrays itself in its videos and how it operates on ground. He made attempts to flee from the very first month,’’ said a senior officer. 

Police officers from Tamil Nadu said Moideen did not take part in any armed conflict either in Mosul or Raqqa, because he was physically inept and also because he questioned IS strategies.

“From what he saw on the ground, ISIS maintained some form of Islamic law on its territory, but it was also killing civilians. There was no clarity on who the enemy is—the Assad government and Syrian military forces, other rebel groups or fellow Muslims,” an officer said. 

As a result, recruits like Moideen who came looking for a jihadist utopia to live an Islamic life have been shattered by the reality on ground. Killings of fellow Muslims, Shias, Sunnis as spies, capturing Yazidi women as sex slaves, atrocities against civilians for crimes such as smoking cigarettes, not performing prayers, corruption, and religious differences has led to many foreign fighters deserting ISIS. Those caught trying to escape have been jailed.

The flight 

Following Tell Abyad’s seizure, ISIS fighters, including Moideen’s group, fled to Mosul. He continued with security duties while pleading to be let go. Instead, he was jailed for up to 40 days, first in Raqqa and then in Mosul (Iraq). Moideen told interrogators that ISIS commanders suspected him to be a spy. For days, he was questioned about his motives. After confirming his innocence, senior ISIS leaders took Moideen along with other prisoners to an undisclosed location.

With other fighters in this group, Moideen realised he was not alone in wanting to return home. They had heard stories of other deserters. Moideen found allies in fighters from UK, Morocco, Tajikistan and Russia. A Russian fighter—likely a spy sent before Russia officially intervened militarily in Syria in the same month—had a GPS and knew the route from another fighter who had safely made it to Turkey a few days prior. They pooled in savings and used $600 as a bribe to a truck driver to another town. After walking for over 8 km, they reached Gaziantep, a Turkish border city. 

Once inside Turkey, the members went their own ways. With no other options, Moideen made his way to the Indian consulate in Istanbul. He did not disclose what he did since his arrival in Turkey five months prior. ISIS advises recruits travelling to Syria via Turkey to have a return ticket and if caught by security forces, to pretend to be just another tourist vacationing in resort towns.

At the Indian embassy, Moideen, too, pretended to be an Indian tourist who had lost his passport and luggage. The Indian embassy, after checking his background, issued him an Emergency Certificate that allowed him to travel back. He returned on September 22 to Mumbai and headed to his village in Kadayanallur in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. Although the Intelligence Bureau has issued a circular that states should be notified about any EC issued to any of their residents, senior officials from Tamil Nadu police said they were in the dark about Moideen’s journey to Syria and his return. 

Home, sweet home?

Once back, Moideen claimed his time with the ISIS frightened him. Fearing that security forces would catch up with his past sooner or later, he confided in his family and assured them he would start afresh. 

After settling back into a routine life, Moideen revived his encrypted Telegram account. The NIA alleges that Moideen was “planning to collect explosives and chemicals from Sivakasi at their (ISIS’) instance” and was conspiring on a terrorist attack. Tamil Nadu police officers who also interrogated Moideen say his testimony only reveals a motivation to make some money. 

“He was in extreme financial distress and thought he could get some money from the Islamic `brothers’ as help. He belongs to a poor family and had already sold his land,” a police officer said. 

ISIS social media supporters consider themselves a part of the baqiya (enduring) family. Researcher Amarnath Amarsingham, who co-directs a project on studying Western foreign fighters joining the conflict in Syria and Iraq at the University of Waterloo in Canada, finds them “a deeply connected group of youth who find a sense of community online”. Mushtaq Komari, another ISIS fighter from India on the app, offered aid. Coordinating with a contact in Chennai, Komari told Moideen to collect Rs 20,000. Moideen made the trips, but was not able to find the middleman. This was because the entire encrypted communication was done without making phone calls. On the third attempt, Moideen picked up Rs 20,000 cash kept under a statue in City Park, Chennai. On October 6, he was picked up by the NIA, becoming only the second known Indian to have returned home.