Alleged IS Recruit Arif Majeed Arrested After Return to Mumbai

[Singh]

Mumbai: Six months after he left his home in Kalyan near Mumbai, allegedly to fight with the Islamic State, Arif Majeed returned home on Friday and was arrested after been extensively interrogated by intelligence officials.

The 23-year-old reportedly said that he was trained in Iraq for 15 days by the IS before being sent to fight in Syria and Turkey. He was shot twice, he told interrogators, and managed to escape to a safe part of Turkey about a month ago. Part of the reason he left the IS was because he wanted medical treatment for his injuries.

Mr Majeed had left his home along with three other young Muslim men from Kalyan on the Eastern outskirts of Mumbai to travel to Iraq. In late August, one of the men told his family over the phone that Mr Majeed had been killed. His family had then performed special prayers. Mr Majeed has reportedly said today that his three companions are alive.


After landing at the Mumbai airport early Friday morning on a flight from Turkey, Mr Majeed was taken away for questioning by intelligence officers. Members of the country's main counter-terrorism arm, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), had been in touch with his parents for months. The officials flew to Turkey last weekend to meet with Mr Areef and issued emergency travel documents to him; it reportedly was not easy to persuade him to return home.

The NIA, which arrested him late on Friday, had filed criminal charges for waging war against a foreign government against him. Investigators want information on how he entered Iraq, how he managed to escape, and whether he has any details on the 40 construction workers from India who were kidnapped from Baghdad in June, allegedly by IS militants.

In May, Mr Majid, along with three other young Muslim men, left their homes, informing their families that they were on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East. Later, they revealed that they had joined the IS.

Intelligence agencies believe they were recruited over the internet.

Alleged IS Recruit Arif Majeed Arrested After Return to Mumbai

 

[Blackwater]

chuje ki shakkal dekho

give him to punjab police ,60 second me isis ka bhoot uter jayega

 

[Singh]

'Kalyan youth killed 55, then left ISIS because he was not paid'

'Kalyan youth killed 55, then left ISIS because he was not paid' - News

WTF WTF WTF WTF

 

[topgear]

In jagran news article, it states that he was being raped by isis men, So he left.

He got 72 virgins of a different kind

 

[Free Karma]

There seems to be some difference in reporting between papers.

Here is DNA's version:

The full story of the Kalyan youth's radicalisation, his trip to the ground zero of a terrorist outfit, his trauma and his return

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.

Conflicting versions, changing names, and saying he did not participate in killing/fighting... are they allowing him to make a fresh start?

 

[DingDong]

This guy must be made to commit suicide in jail.

 

[Bangalorean]

I am pissed that this guy was even allowed to return. What sort of precedent are we setting here?

 

[thethinker]

He has an anti-ISIS propaganda value from Indian standpoint. Make him narrate his own "jihadi experiences" over and over and over to dissuade others from joining ISIS. Especially among Owaisi strongholds and thereabouts.

Rinse and repeat till desired psy-ops outcome is reached. After that, deal with him as seen fit.

 

[Manas7]

Yesterday i saw IBN7 claiming Arif Majeed suffered sexual torture in ISIS camp before he escaped out .

 

[warrior monk]

This guy is telling total hogwash he probably has killed and raped there then he got himself raped , as all daesh ( ISIL) militants are drug addicts proper intravenous drug users this joker should be checked for Hep-A,B,C,D and E and also for HIV . He is probably here to recruit more meat for the grinder ( jihadi recruits) or to attack more kaffirs.

 

[JBH22]

Islamic State has 'Special Plans' for India, Majeed Said: Sources to NDTV

Areeb Majeed, one of the four youths from Mumbai who allegedly went to fight for the Islamic State and returned last week, has told investigators the IS was looking east towards to India, for which it has "special plans". Also he said the "new world order" under the IS was something "everyone should fight for", sources have told NDTV.

Majeed has said his joining the IS was willed by God and he does not regret it. His parents, he said, should not have asked for New Delhi's help to get him home, sources said.

His questioning had provided ground for the security agencies' concern that hardline Islamists were out to make India their happy hunting grounds.

"Areeb's level of radicalisation is scary," a senior intelligence officer questioning him told NDTV. "The only ones who come close are the foreign terrorists - mainly from Afghanistan - of the now defunct group Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami, who were arrested from Jammu and Kashmir in the mid 90's," the officer added.

A 23-year-old, Majeed was arrested after he landed in Mumbai on Friday. He reportedly said he left because he wanted medical treatment for the bullet injuries he had sustained while fighting in Syria and Iraq. Indian agencies had provided him with emergency travel documents to get home.

But investigators suspected that the IS had a motive in releasing him - that the youth had been tasked with spreading jihadi doctrine in India.

Earlier today, at a conference on internal security in Guwahati, Director of the Intelligence Bureau Asif Ibrahim told Prime Minister Narendra Modi the emergence of the IS "to form a caliphate, in support of which youth and fringe elements have gathered, poses a serious challenge when the Al Qaida has created a separate wing for the sub-continent."

"These developments are disturbing and indicate the development of global jihad mindset in India," he said.

For now, the government has decided to take a soft approach. The security establishment is concentrating on counselling young men who have come under the influence of jihadi doctrine and preventing them from leaving home to join the IS. At least 20 such youths have been stopped so far, sources said.

In case of Majeed too, though the NIA filed criminal charges against him, officials said they were taking a "humane view of the situation" and providing him with psychiatric help.

Islamic State has 'Special Plans' for India, Majeed Said: Sources to NDTV
A lost decade of defence modernisation and appeasement to minorities of UPA has damaged India so much that only time will tell if we would be able to save our ar$e.

Its a matter of time only that we face another war.

 

[Kshatriya87]

Put him in jail, have him raped some more.

 

[Free Karma]

Mumbai's ISIS recruit a trained suicide bomber - The Times of India

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: ISIS recruit from Kalyan, Areeb Majeed, is a trained suicide bomber who made as many as three attempts on security forces at different vital installations in Syria without any success, it has now emerged. His bullet injuries too were sustained in one of the many battles, including the August offensive on Mosul dam in Iraq, he participated in as an ISIS man against Iraqi and US forces.

These are some of the revelations Majeed made during interrogation, confirming the worst fears of security agencies that the engineering student from Mumbai's suburb is more than a boy gone astray. Until now, Majeed had maintained that he had not participated in any ISIS battle. He had also said that the two bullet injuries he sustained were during practice firing and that ISIS made him work as a mason.

Security agencies, which always suspected his statement, recently subjected him to lie detector test which only confirmed their suspicion that he was not telling the truth. When confronted with test results and sustained interrogation, Majeed is learnt to have broken down and told interrogators that he is less innocent than he attempted to appear initially.

Majeed has been interrogated for the past over one week by NIA and Intelligence Bureau. He has revealed that apart from weapons training, he was also trained to be a suicide bomber. "He says he attempted to take an explosive-laden vehicle near a few vital installations in Syria with the aim of attracting security forces towards him. The idea was to blow up the vehicle when enough men in uniform were around him. However, the suspicious security at these places completely avoided him, defeating the purpose. We are trying to verify his claims," a security establishment officer said.

The photo of Areeb Majeed that was uploaded on a website for a short while.

The officer added that among the many battles he participated in was the August fight for Mosul dam. Majeed fought alongside ISIS against Kurdish Peshmerga and US forces who eventually took over the dam.

"After sustaining bullet injuries, he was given $2,000 by ISIS as reward and medical assistance before he fled to Turkey and decided to come back home," said the officer.

Majeed also revealed that while he was put off by ISIS looking down at him and his friends and engaging them in menial jobs initially, what disillusioned him was the way the rebels treated women in areas controlled by them. He told interrogators that he felt disgusted that ISIS forced women to sleep with its recruits and executed forced marriages. "He says such treatment of women is prohibited in Islam and he didn't like it," said the officer.

The development has diminished the chances of agencies taking any lenient view of Majeed's ISIS indulgence given that he is remorseless and deeply radicalized. It had been earlier discussed within the home ministry that Majeed could be looked at with compassion if he was not found to be involved in any attack, cooperated with investigations and desired to reform.

Hmm...so many different versions. From Fighter to Toilet cleaner to Suicide bomber.

 

[Ray]

The man is a scoundrel and he should be locked up so that he does not embarrass the Muslims with terrorist acts and also endanger the Nation in the bargain.

 

[Kshatriya87]

Lock him up. We shouldn't take risks by letting him walk free and then blow himself up somewhere.

 

[maomao]

Secular forces will plant news on lines of poor child (son of a doctor, then how is he poor?), radicalized himself on internet (how? if he is poor?), cleaned toilets did not kill anyone (then how has he got bullet marks and battle scars? how was he able to kill so many people while cleaning toilets?), he is in remorse (then how is he still stating that ISIS is doing allah's work?) etc etc (but they will never address the core issues of fundamentalism in Islamic communities and islamic upbringing based on hatred of Kafris throughout India); however barring the news planted by commies / secularists truth is coming out in the open with IS plans and this jihadi majid could be a ploy to further make India a breeding ground for islamic jihadis....we need to be careful when dealing with this deadly combo of islamists and commies/secularists (remember they had declared 26/11 as some RSS conspiracy, AR Antulaye and Diggiwijay singh went all goo-gaga)!