ISIS recruit sent to NIA custody till December 8

A special National Investigation Agency court on Saturday remanded alleged Islamic State recruit Arif Majeed in the probe agency’s custody till December 8, observing that his custodial interrogation was necessary.

The NIA on Saturday told the court that they want to unearth the entire conspiracy from Majeed’s ‘recruitment’ to the role played by him in the ‘war for an Islamic state.

The agency also told special NIA judge P R Deshmukh that three other youths, who had joined the United Nations banned terror outfit, along with Majeed are shown as wanted in the case.

“We also want to investigate the kind of training that Majeed was imparted before joining the ISIS forces,” NIA’s prosecutor told the court.

In the court, when asked by the judge, Majeed told his name and replied in the negative when asked whether he had any complainants against the NIA.

The 23-year-old youth from neighbouring landed in Mumbai on Friday following which he was immediately detained by the security agencies, and later arrested.

A case under sections of Unlawful Assembly Prevention Act and section 125 of Indian Penal Code which deals with waging war against any Asiatic country which has friendly ties with India, was registered against ISIS, Majeed and other three other youngsters.

According to police, the four engineering students flew to Baghdad on May 23 as part of a group of 22 pilgrims to visit religious shrines in Iraq.

The next day Arif had called his family from Baghdad and apologised for having left without informing them. Upon returning to India, other pilgrims had told police that Arif, Fahad, Aman and Shaheen had hired a taxi to Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad which had emerged as the epicentre of Iraq’s deadly insurgency.

On August 26, Shaheen Tanki called up Arif’s family and told them that their son had become a ‘martyr’ claiming that the latter died fighting for ISIS in Syria.

Accordingly the next day, Arif’s family performed ‘Janaza-e-gayabana’ (prayers for the departed soul in absence of the body) in Kalyan.

Recently, Arif’s father Ejaz Majeed had reportedly met the NIA and told them his son had fled from the IS-controlled areas to Turkey after fighting for the militant group for nearly three months and wants to return to India.