ISIS recruit Tanki's kin reject news about his death

A day after reports suggested that Shaheen Tanki, one of four youths from Kalyan, who allegedly joined the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq could be dead, Tanki's relatives and neighbours refuted all such claims.

Though Tanki's parents have refused to talk to anyone from the media ever since security agencies claimed that their son could have joined IS, some neighbours and others in the locality claiming to be Tanki's relatives said that his family hoped Tanki would "return to safety just like Areeb Majid did."

According to the authorities, in May 2014 Tanki, along with three other youths from Kalyan - Areeb Majid, Fahad Shaikh and Aman Tandel - had left for Al Raqa. On August 26 last year, Tanki had called up his family from an unknown location to tell them that Areeb had died in a bomb blast. However, on November 28 Areeb was brought back to Mumbai and taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency.

Going by that the locals of Doodh Naka, Chaudhary Mohalla - where Tanki and the other three youth lived, say that his family too believes that the news of his death might not be true. Tanki's parents and his brother Fayyaz still live in the same house but they refuse to talk to anyone.

The news of his death spread after "one of the boys" received a message on January 14 from an unknown number in Iraq stating that Tanki had died, locals said. However, no one is sure about the boy's identity. "We got to know about Shaheen's probable death only through the media. Even his family does not know how the news spread. They are yet to get any official confirmation and till Thursday evening, no one from NIA or the government had communicated anything," said Ifthikar Khan, Areeb's uncle.

"It is true that Shaheen used to call his family at regular intervals earlier and he has not called them for almost two months now. This is a small locality and everyone knows each other. We also keep bumping into Shaheen's family members and they had not received any news from Shaheen, but they have no news of his death," Khan added.

During his interrogation by NIA, Areeb said he was made to do menial jobs by his recruiters in Al Raqa. He had also said that Tanki was employed at a medical campcum-hospital. And it is this that the locals want to believe.

"His brother told us that Shaheen works in a hospital in Al Raqa. He is not a terrorist," said Usman Shaikh, a local. Shaikh also said that while Tanki was in Kalyan, his life revolved around the Islamic Guidance Centre, and the mosque in the colony. According to the authorities, it is at this centre that the four boys were allegedly indoctrinated.

Khan said that the night before his departure, Tanki informed his family of his plans to visit Mahabaleshwar with friends. After that days passed but he didn't return. His family tried calling him but his phone was switched off. On May 26, the family filed a 'missing person' complaint at the local police station. Tanki called his brother in the end of July last year. It was from a private number and Tanki said he was fine and his work would take his entire family to heaven.