Burning alcohol factories Attracted ISIS recruit Areeb Majeed, claims NIA

NEW DELHI: ISIS recruit Areeb Majeed was greatly influenced by the group’s media wing which “actively showed the work done by them in Iraq and Syria like burning of alcohol factories, burning cigarettes factories and punishing smokers according to Islam,” a 19 page NIA chargesheet has said.
NIA has charged Areeb and his three friends — Fahad Shaikh, Saheem Tankhi and Amaan Tandeel — under the stringent section of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC). The chargesheet identified a pro-ISIS account run allegedly by Fahad in the name of ‘magnet gas’. “Fahad had further told Areeb that his friends, Saheem and Aman were also eager to join ISIS. Thereafter Areeb and three others conspired…,” the chargsheet filed before a special NIA court in Mumbai on Wednesday, and accessed by ET, said.

“Investigations revealed that in furtherance of the above conspiracy, Areeb along with three others visited travel office at Mumbai on various occasion and chose a flight which would depart on May 25, 2014, by paying a total sum of Rs 2,39,500 on three occasions.”

The agency also established that the four travelled to Iraq on a ziyarat (religious) visa and “four accused had not returned to Mumbai with the touring group on the scheduled date of their return,” said the chargesheet.

NIA said that Areeb and his three friends slipped out from the group on religious tour to Iraq and checked into another hotel on the instructions of Abu Fatima, a propagator of ISIS. “They got picked up in a vehicle by Ali, a sympathizer of ISIS and stayed at the residence of Ali on the outskirts of Mosul.”

As first reported by ET, the chargesheet also provides details regarding Areeb’s training session with ISIS, his meeting with Umar Shishani, a dreaded chechen fighter and military commander of Iraq and Syria on whose recommendation he and his three friends were inducted for training. According to the chargesheet, the first training session was held at Jazira, a camp for ISIS fighters.

Forensic reports of the mobile on which Areeb downloaded most of the ISIS literature are also part of the chargesheet.