Family of Kalyan youth rubbishes ISIS video

KALYAN: The family of Kalyan youths Fahad Shaikh and Amaan Tandel who have allegedly joined militant outfit Islamic State (IS) opposed a propaganda video put out by ISIS showing the two youths.
The video shows them with some people in which they claim that Muslims are not safe in India and if the two of them return to India, they will come with a sword to seek revenge for the demolition of the Babri Masjid and killings of Muslims in Kashmir and Gujarat.
The family members of the youths, however, said on Saturday that IS should not indulge in our country’s affairs. The uncle of Fahad Shaikh, Iftiqar Khan, said he had learnt about such a video. “But I would like to tell them not to interfere in our country’s internal issues. Every family has its share of disputes but it is for the family members to sort them out. So, we as Indians will sort out our problems internally. There is absolutely no need for IS or any other outsider to teach us what we should do.”
Khan said Muslims are “safe” in India. “In our country, if something happens to us, our Hindu brethren have come to our aid,” he said, adding that Fahad had not contacted his parents or any other family member for the last six months.
The IS released a new 22-minute video in which another youth from Kalyan, Amaan Tandel, is also seen claiming that “here [he is believed to be in Syria], we [Muslims] are happy with IS. Tandel’s father, Tanveer, was unavailable for comment but a friend of the father told TOI, “Tanveer is unhappy about the latest video.”
Besides Fahad and Amaan — Areeb Majeed and Shaheem Tanki — had allegedly gone to Syria to join IS. While Areeb returned to India in 2014, and was arrested, Shaeem was said to have died there. There had been no news of Fahad and Amaan.
Meanwhile, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said in New Delhi that the Centre was taking all steps needed to protect the country and that citizens cutting across religions would fight the forces of terror “with all their might”.