In a chilling video released by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Friday, Indian jihadists issued a warning and swore to take revenge for the Babri Masjid demolition, and the alleged killing of Muslims in Muzaffarnagar, Kashmir and Gujarat. According to a report in The Indian Express, this is the first video from ISIS which focuses exclusively on India and South Asia.
The only individual conclusively identified in the video is Thane engineer Fahad Tanvir Sheikh, who reportedly left for Syria in 2014 along with three other men. Sheikh used the pseudonym Abu Amr’ al-Hindi, according to The Indian Express.
We will return, but with a sword in hand, to slice your throats, to avenge the Babri Masjid, and the killings of Muslims in Kashmir, in Gujarat, and in Muzaffarnagar.Fahad Tanvir Sheikh in the ISIS video
Sheikh added that life in India became hard after the Batla House encounter as the ATS, police and investigation agencies clamped down on “them”. According to the report, Sheikh said he and his companions worked with the Mujahideen and reached Khorasan after fleeing from India.
A large part of the video justified the presence of the Indian jihadists in ISIS, the report says.
Hindus are striving to convert you Muslims to their faith. Have you forgotten Bombay train blasts, have you forgotten Gujarat, have you forgotten Delhi. We will avenge everything.Jihadist in the ISIS video
The video also calls Muslims in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to come together and establish the Islamic Caliphate, reports Business Standard.
Several other members of the video, who are yet to be identified, could be former members of the Indian Mujahideen, the Business Standard report added. According to the report, out of the four youths who had fled along with Sheikh in 2014, one (Aarif Majid) is already with the NIA. Another, Shahim Tanki, was supposedly killed in a bomb attack in Raqqa last year, Sheikh claimed in the video.
“Families of the surviving Thane men, as well as members of the Indian Mujahideen known to have left Pakistan for Syria, are being contacted to identify the individuals featured in the video,” a government source told The Indian Express.
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