Islamic State jihadis just rape and butcher: Areeb Majeed tells NIA

Areeb Majeed, who was brought back from Turkey on Friday after his failed adventures with the dreaded Islamic State (IS, earlier known as ISIS), has revealed startling details of how he managed to get in touch with the organisation and travel to Iraq and why he finally decided to come back to India. The 23-year-old was questioned for over eight hours by a joint team of central intelligence agencies and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

With the help of exclusive information and interrogation details, dna has been able to piece together a profile of the Kalyan boy whose story is that of an average lower middle class boy, who, inexplicably, veered towards terrorism and got completely self- radicalised after reading jihadi literature from about 20,000 websites he accessed.

Areeb has revealed that he and his six friends, during their evening prayers near a mosque in Kalyan, would often discuss ways of becoming more devout Muslims. As their discussions got intense, Areeb began an online search to help their cause. As he got more and more involved, he began reading about ISIS and started getting influenced. Utterly fascinated by the emerging terrorist outfit, Areeb began looking for ways to get in touch with them.

Areeb (not Arif as reported earlier) has told his interrogators that he was self- indoctrinated and surfed more than 20,000 websites in an effort to reach the ISIS camps in Iraq. He finally managed to get a phone number on one of the websites.

After several attempts on that number, he was given another number of a man who was a resident of Bhiwandi, near Kalyan. Areeb then told his friends about this development. Then, three of his close friends Fahad Sheikh, Amaan Tandel and Saheem Tanki agreed to travel with him to Iraq.

Following this, Areeb got in touch with the Bhiwandi contact, who readily agreed to arrange for the money needed for their travel. Then they got in touch with a travel company based near Kalyan and enquired about their travel to Iraq. They were directed to Rahat Tours and Travels in Bhiwandi, which arranges pilgrimage tours to Iraq. Since the situation in Iraq was deteriorating, only pilgrims were allowed to go there.

Areeb and his friends decided to tell the company that they wish to go on a pilgrimage to Iraq. Through the Bhiwandi contact, they managed to gather the money required for their travel.

In April this year, they paid Rs 60,000 per person to the travel company as pilgrimage expenses to Iraq. Following this, their visa was arranged and tickets booked for May 25. Areeb was asked to collect visa and other documents from Ajmeri Tours and Travel, in Dongri, south Mumbai.

On the morning of May 25, all four of them left from Kalyan separately and travelled by local trains and met at the Mumbra station. At Mumbra, their Bhiwandi contact met them, gave them some more cash and wished them luck for their journey.

From there they travelled to the Mumbai international airport and boarded an Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi and from there to Iraq. On May 27, they reached Karbala and travelled directly to Baghdad where they reached on May 30. Since they were travelling with a big group of pilgrims they had to stop over at certain places.

On May 31, during an outing in the local market, Areeb and his friends tricked their local guide, separated from the group and escaped.

Areeb's friend Tanki was asked by a IS contact to hire a taxi to Fallujah, which is close to Mosul. Before leaving, they decided to speak to their families for one last time before they joined the IS camp.

After reaching Mosul, they contacted their Iraqi contact, who sent his associate. The associate helped them reach the Hind camp. At this camp, for a few days, they were educated about the missions, ideology and aims of ISIS. Interrogators believe that they were brainwashed completely at this camp.

After that, they were shifted to training camps. Here, they were told that the IS chief considers men from India to be physically weak and not fit for the battlefield. Only Tanki managed to clear their stringent physical training and was given weapons training.

The other three, including Areeb, were asked to join IS social media team and were also given the task of cleaning and collecting water. At no point was Areeb allowed to go to the war front for direct combat.

It was during this period that his mindset started changing against the IS because there was no place for the teachings of the Holy Quran in the IS camps. The jihadis simply butchered people and raped women.
 
All the four friends soon got scared, stressed and depressed about their situation. Their imagined jihadi heaven had become hell. In July, Areeb got injured in random firing and sustained bullet wounds on his back and shoulder. He was getting himself treated but his condition was worsening because there was no proper medication or food available in the camps.

Areeb somehow convinced his handlers that he needs treatment and travelled to Turkey through a less inhabited route. On reaching Turkey, he contacted his family and expressed his willingness to come back to India.

Areeb's three other friends are also expected to come back to India in the next few days, according to the NIA.

If all three return, Indian agencies will be in possession of some crucial evidence about the modus operandi of IS and may be in a position to bust some modules here and provide valuable inputs to other global agencies working against the dreaded outfit.