UP Police confirm, 2 suspected Indian Mujahideen fugitives in Islamic State video

The documentary, the first on South Asian jihadists in IS, also featured an interview with one-time Thane engineering student Aman Tandel, and included images of his friends Shaheem Tanki and Fahad Sheikh.

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In the video, the suspected IM fugitives — wanted for their role in various bomb blasts — speak out on their past terrorist operations, escape from India, and plans.

Former Mumbai eye-hospital worker Abu Rashid warns of revenge for the anti-Muslim communal violence in India. “I want to tell the government of India that we will avenge every crime that has been committed against Muslims there,” says Rashid.

Watch Video | Islamic State India Video: Identities Of The Purported Indian Jihadists Featured

“Do you not remember the serial blasts on the trains in Bombay? Have you forgotten the serial blasts in Gujarat? Have you forgotten the destruction in Delhi and in Jaipur?” he asks.

“We will deliver unto you a reckoning far more terrible than these, and will wage war upon you until polytheism is destroyed in India, and Allah’s rule is established,” says Rashid.

The NIA and several state police forces have named Rashid — a former resident of Azamgarh — as an alleged suspect in several blasts carried out by IM between 2005 and 2008.

Mohammad Sajid is also from Azamgarh and said to be one of the suspects behind the serial bombings in Ahmedabad and Jaipur, sources said.

In the documentary, Sajid says: “Allah told us war is an obligation upon believers until the world is rid of disbelief, apostasy and infidel regimes… For us to live a life of honour and dignity, we must adopt the path of war in the way of Allah.”

Mohammad Sajid from Azamgarh is one of the suspects behind the serial bombings in Ahmedabad and Jaipur. The left image is from the video while the right image is from NIA files.

The Ansar-ul-Tauhid fil’Bilad-ul-Hind, an organisation of former IM jihadists fighting with the IS, had last year issued an obituary for Sajid, saying he had been killed in combat. The statement mourned “the martyrdom of our brother Abu Turab al-Hindi on the forefront of the war for Islam in Kobani”.

Intelligence sources said the interview with Sajid is one of several clues, which suggest that the IS documentary was assembled from video footage shot over several months — among them, images of the jihadists training in boats were first released online last summer.

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The documentary, however, provides the only first-person accounts to have surfaced of the IM’s journey after 2008. “Following the Batla House encounter, the land of India became hostile to us. The intelligence agencies and the ATS (Maharashtra Police Anti-Terrorism Squad) pursued us. It became difficult for us to carry out armed actions,” Rashid says of his journey to the IS.

Rashid claims the group made “hijrat” — or exile — to Khorasan in the Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands. There, he says, “we had many opportunities to participate in actions with the mujahideen”.

Following this, the group made a “second hijrat”, to the IS, claims Rashid.

However, the interview with Sajid suggests a broader discontent. “Hindustan is the citadel of shirk [polytheism]”, he says.

“We see that cows, trees, the sun, the moon, all these are worshipped. Even though Allah has us from these practices, we see that the Muslims of India maintain social relations and business with these unbelievers,” says Rashid.