Mumbai: An Indian engineering student who suddenly left for Iraq with three friends this spring, and who was believed to have joined the Isil, has been reported dead, a man whose nephew was part of the group said on Thursday.
The student, Arif Majeed, 22, left his home in Kalyan, outside Mumbai, in May, telling his family he was going to study, and next contacted them from Iraq, where he and his friends slipped away from a religious tour group and travelled to Mosul, a city now dominated by militants. The case has drawn the attention of the authorities because it is one of the first documented instances of young Indians being recruited online by an international jihadist group.
Iftekhar Khan, whose nephew Fahd Tanvir Shaikh was one of the three men who left with Majeed, said the news of Majeed’s death was conveyed in a phone call by another of the group who made the journey to Iraq, Shaheen Farooqui Tanki.
“Arif’s father requested Shaheen’s family to ask about their son Arif. A few days later, Shaheen called again and said Arif had died. He didn’t know how but he was crying,” Khan said.
Several Indian newspapers reported that Majeed had been killed in an explosion, possibly as a result of an airstrike. Tanki’s family gave Majeed’s father the news after evening prayers on Tuesday.
“Imagine the state of a father who does not even get to see his son’s body,” Khan said.
In a letter left behind for his family, Majeed asked for forgiveness and said that he would next see them in heaven. He said he was glad to leave India, which he described as “a sinful country.”
An announcement, in Urdu, Arabic, English and Hindi, on a website often used by Isil, said Majeed, shown holding a weapon, had been martyred in Iraq. It said that Majeed, who went by the name Abu Ali Al Hindi, had participated in the fight for the Mosul Dam and married a Palestinian woman from Gaza. The information could not be independently confirmed.
“This website is false. Anyone can make a website and send a wrong message,” Khan said. “Our boys were peaceful.”
— New York Times News Service
