The inside story of how Kalyan engineering student Areeb Majeed became an ISIS fighter before returning home and into the hands of Indian police
The inside story of how Kalyan engineering student Areeb Majeed became an ISIS fighter before returning home and into the hands of Indian police.
In 2010, Areeb Majeed, a resident of Kalyan, near Mumbai, was in the fifth semester of diploma in civil engineering he was pursuing from Father Agnel's Polytechnic College in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. That summer, he interned as a trainee civil engineer at a building project in Navi Mumbai. In 2012, during the eighth semester, he interned at a housing project on south Mumbai's Grant Road. Later, the same year, having cleared the course with 77 per cent marks, he got admission in A.R. Kalsekar Degree College, Panvel. This could be the story, or biodata, of any youth from a Mumbai suburb- mundane in its monotony, raring to break out of a middle-class existence. Only, it is not.
"I left Degree College in May 2014, when I left for Iraq," Areeb, now 23, said during his interrogation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Mumbai. Between May 24, when he flew out of Mumbai, and his return and subsequent arrest on November 28, Areeb had navigated Iraq, Syria and Turkey, fighting as a jihadi for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), received gunshot wounds, been reported dead, survived aerial bombings before two fidayeen attacks, and finally decided he had had enough of a life as a jihadi. This, then, is the story of an Indian jihadi. As narrated to his interrogators in the NIA- a disclosure INDIA TODAY has accessed.
THE INDOCTRINATION
Born in the family's ancestral house at Ansari Chowk, a Muslim-majority middle-class locality in Kalyan, young Areeb moved to the upscale Sarvodaya Residency in Kalyan (West) in 2007. His father Ejaz Majeed, a unani doctor, wanted to give his children a decent life. A student of Lourdes High School, Areeb finished school in 2008, scoring 83 per cent in Class X.
He was drawn towards religion right from his teen years-as a Class VII student in 2005, Areeb came in touch with a man he knew only as Mishal Bhai, a man who claimed to head the Kalyan unit of the Student's Islamic Organisation (SIO), at a local mosque. Areeb visited the SIO's office first in May 2005, and soon became a member. SIO organised a two-day trip to Matheran, a small hill station near Mumbai, the following month.
The boy turned extremely religious following this trip, which investigators say played a crucial role in his then nascent interest in Islam. Areeb claims he was inspired to
study more about Islam after hearing lectures of Dr Zakir Naik, president of the Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation and a globally renowned orator on the religion.
Somewhere around this time, the moderate Muslim gave way to a radical in the making. Just after he started college, in January 2013, news began trickling in about ISIS trying to establish a Caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Soon, it was flooding his Facebook. "I got contacts also from profiles connected to these pages. But no one would help me. I tried to talk to a lot of people from Australia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, America... but all they said was, reach Turkey first," Areeb says.
He also began reading voraciously and watching online videos about ISIS and jihad. But what actually drew Areeb to Syria was a lesson in Hadith, where the companion asks the Prophet where to go for Hijarat (migration), and he replies, "Go to Syria". The snag: he could not go alone, and not without a confirmed contact.
THE GROUP, THE PLANNING
As he toyed with the idea of joining ISIS, Areeb remembered his friend Fahad Sheikh, whom he had met at the local mosque a few months before. The two had immediately struck up a friendship-both in the virtual as well as in the real world. Fahad, who had studied mechanical engineering from Nagpada College in south Mumbai, had sound knowledge of Islam, Areeb says.
In February 2014, Areeb disclosed his plans to Fahad. The latter said two of his friends, Saheem Tankhi and Amaan Tandeel, also wanted to join ISIS. A fifth man had initially shown interest but allegedly dropped out later.
Having searched the route to Syria since 2013, though casually, Areeb knew the easiest way to get in was through Turkey. In March 2014, looking for visas to countries bordering Syria, he reached travel operator Thomas Cook's Kalyan office. An allinclusive 11-day package to Turkey, he learnt, came for Rs 80,000 per head-way too expensive. They hit a further wall with the documents required for the visa: six months' bank statements, salary slips and passport- all to be submitted a month before the date of travel.
Turkey was out. Working on Plan B, Areeb says, "the easiest way I found on the internet was to reach Iraq, and then on to Syria". Meanwhile, he found out that one can travel to Iraq on a Ziyarat (religious) visa that requires no documents. Areeb found a travel operator named Rahat Tours that offered an all-inclusive return fare of Rs 60,000 per head. They paid the money in installments.
As things began to fall into place, Areeb connected with Tahirah Bhatt, a Palestinian woman whom he had known through social networking sites, and asked for a contact in Baghdad to help them. But with most people unwilling to stick their neck out, Areeb says they finally got a contact-one Abu Fatima of Mosul- barely 10 days before they were to fly out.
NIA's interrogation report also puts to rest the speculation about Areeb's marriage with Tahirah. He says: "After my training was over (with ISIS) Tahirah and I spoke on the phone and we decided to do nikah. But after a few days, I had chosen a martyrdom operation in Iraq and she had chosen the same in Palestine. We both knew we were going to die but before going to Palestine she updated her Facebook profile (saying) she is married to Areeb Majeeb. The only purpose in this was to lure more Indians to send her 'friend requests', and (in turn) she would provide them help for migrating to Syria. "But, we never got married."
TO BAGHDAD AND MOSUL
On May 24, Areeb left home at 11.30 a.m. He took Rs 33,000 from his mother's drawer and exchanged it for $538 from a Western Union Money Transfer branch. Reaching Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport around 11.45 p.m., the four boarded Etihad Airways flight EY-205 at 4 a.m.
Areeb informed his father from Abu Dhabi airport the following morning that he had left for Syria on Hijarat. Majeed senior tried to convince him to return, but in vain. They reached Baghdad at noon, May 25.
In Baghdad, multiple calls over the next few days to their two contacts- Rehman Daulati (Saheem's contact) and Abu Fatima, suggested by Tahirah- elicited the same response: please be patient. The four decided to go to Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.
After a futile first day in Mosul, on June 1, the four got word from Fatima: they were to wait at Sabunji Masjid after Zuhr prayers. While waiting armymen caught them-"because we were standing with our bags and (clearly) looked outsiders"-and took them to the headquarters nearby for questioning. They were released after two hours. "The moment we came out, Abu Fatima contacted me and asked us to return to the Masjid gate and wait. Soon, a white Hyundai car with two persons arrived. The driver, who asked us to get in, said his name was Ali."
A 20-minute drive later, they reached Ali's house on the outskirts of Mosul. A father of three young children, Ali, Areeb says, lives in a plush duplex house. "He checked our bags, removed SIM cards from our phones and took them away, except my Samsung Note 1." Areeb was allowed to keep the phone without a SIM card to access Google translator, as few there could speak English. They stayed at Ali's house for two days, during which he checked their knowledge of Islam. "He asked us about Tazkiya, which means a mandatory recommendation for joining ISIL (or ISIS) from an existing ISIL member. Since we did not have any Tazkiya, Ali took us to another house nearby (owned by) a young person, Abu Yusuf."
They stayed in Yusuf's house for four more days, until June 6, and all their requests for a recommendation came to naught. At one point Ali even advised them to return to India. As a last resort, Areeb says, Ali spoke to Umar Shishani, a dreaded Chechen fighter and military commander of Iraq and Syria.
THE TRAINING
On Shishani's instruction the four were sent for training to a place called Jazira, a small village with 10-12 mud houses and a total population of 25-30 people. "These were ISIS fighters; it was like a camp. The fighters living in the village were all from Iraq, barring a media representative from the UK." After training for 10-12 days, during which the ISIS captured Mosul and the Iraq-Syria border, the four were moved to Raqqah, a city in northern Syria. In Raqqah, ISIS had converted a school into the group's registration centre-it's called Hudood Centre, according to Areeb-for foreign ISIS members. After staying there for a day, the new members-some 200 of them- were dispatched to different places in buses for further training on June 19.
The four Indians were among 60-odd taken to a nearby camp called Sharai Moaskar, which had around 300 ISIS members from various countries. For two weeks, they were trained in handling weapons.
A second training camp was organised at Moaskar Fallujah where they underwent physical and weapons training. The 15-day camp ended on July 16, after which a third session was held at Abdullah Azzam Moaskar. Here, the recruits were taught how to make landmines (Ubwa) from fertiliser, formation tactics, close-combat training etc.
THE OPERATIONS
Post-training, Fahad, Amaan and Areeb, all engineers, were kept with other engineers, doctors and programmers. They were allowed to retain the AK-47 provided during training and issued 30 rounds each. Saheem was sent to Ravia city, on the Syria-Iraq border, to work as a guard. But this wasn't what Areeb had joined ISIS for. "I decided to go for a fidayeen attack. On August 3, I went to Iraq on a minibus."
The suicide attack, though, was not to be. Late that night, Areeb sustained a leg injury in US airstrikes on Baaj city, Iraq. He reached Mosul on August 4 and, after a 10-day rest, was ready for his maiden fidayeen attack.
Eight more days went by before the Amir of the fidayeen squad, Nizaar, told Areeb that his turn had come. They planned to capture Mosul Dam, and he was to be an "Isteshaadi"-a suicide bomber.
The plan was to catch the Kurdish army guarding the dam napping, and drive a civilian van loaded with 2.5 tonnes of explosives into them. It was not be. Again. "Two days before the execution of the plan, the car was bombed in an airstrike," Areeb says.
A day later, Areeb claims, he went to Tal Afar, a city in northwest Iraq, to receive training as an IGHIMASI. It means fighting with as many weapons and ammunition one can carry, and when the ammo runs out, become a martyr. "After three days, I and 11 other IGHIMASI (fighters) returned to the Mosul Dam battle," Areeb says. "Each one of us was provided with AK-47, Dragunov (sniper rifle), PKC machine gun, RPG, 1,000 rounds of PKC, 300 rounds of AK-47, four hand grenades, Glock 19 (pistol), 50 cartridges of .9mm (and) a knife."
Areeb suffered a bullet injury during this fight and was unconscious for eight days in a hospital. After recuperating, he again decided to volunteer for a fidayeen attack. This time in Zammar, near Kurdistan. But the enemy never attacked the area for 20 days. Areeb returned to Raqqah.
RETURN TO INDIA
On October 21, Areeb contacted his family. They had believed Areeb had died fighting in Syria. Having already missed his sister Rushna's wedding when he was fighting, "I felt my parents were right-I had actually achieved what I wanted. I was content; I did everything I could and now, I wanted to return."
On November 21, Areeb asked his commander permission for leave on grounds of medical and family problems. "If you go back to India, there is only one place you are going: jail," was the reply. But he was adamant. Areeb was then allowed to go to a safe house, where 15 others from different countries were waiting to return home.
They were taken to Jarabulus, Syria, and then to Gaziantep, across the border in Turkey. Then on, he says, "we were on our own". Areeb got on an Istanbul-bound bus on November 26 and reached the metropolis around 2 p.m. the following day. He rang up his father, who contacted Indian authorities to bring Areeb back.