Images of Thane youth who joined IS surface on the internet

A few days after reports surfaced that Thane’s  Shaheen Tanki who had joined the Islamic State in Iraq could be dead, images of the call-centre employee have appeared on the internet, allegedly just before he launched a suicide bombing in Syria.

An Indian Express report says that the images of Tanki are from “shortly before he reportedly launched a “suicide bombing” in the northeastern Syrian city of al-Hasaka earlier this month. The images were released on multiple platforms linked to Islamic State and appeared online late on Saturday night.”

Tanki’s family had recently received a message from Iraq to inform them that he was dead. Tanki had not called his family  for many months.

A Times of India report quoted a security official as saying , “Generally these boys call their family randomly once a month. However, Tanki hasn’t called for almost two months. Now this message has arrived that he is dead. We are trying to verify the information.”

Meanwhile, according to The Indian Express, “The photographs appear to resemble earlier images of Tanki but there is no means of corroborating their authenticity. NIA sources familiar with the case said they had not yet arrived at any conclusions about Tanki’s whereabouts or status.”

The newspaper also reported that several Islami State supporters, in his last message, had said,  “Tell my mother to come on correct creed so we can meet in jannah (paradise, sic).”

Tanki was one of the four people, along with arrested jihadist Arif Majeed who had flown to Baghdad on 23 May, 2014 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.

In fact, a family friend Ateek Khan had told reporters in December that it was Tanki who had called Arif’s parents to tell them he was dead. This was, of course, before Arif’s return and arrest. Khan had said, “On 26 August, 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.”

With PTI inputs