Sources in the security establishment, on Friday, said 23-year-old Kalyan youth, Arif Majeed, who had returned from Turkey could be a mine of information about Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its operations. It was in May that Majeed had left for Iraq to join ISIS.
Majeed was brought to Mumbai from a Turkish airline on Friday morning by the sleuths of National Investigation Agency (NIA).
"As of now, security agencies in India do not have much information on ISIS. Majeed and his friends have spent many months in Iraq and been associated with ISIS. He could give us loads of information on the outfit and its operations," said an officer in the security establishment.
While grilling Majeed, security agencies first asked him questions on how he had been indoctrinated. Majeed reportedly told them about how that had been done, what he did in Iraq, what made him ditch ISIS, and how he landed in Turkey. Security agencies are however tight-lipped on what Majeed had revealed.
"At this point we want to extract as much information as possible from him. We want to know how ISIS operates, its main leaders, whether he had met ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, and how other people associated with the outfit had been radicalised," said the officer.
On May 25, Majeed and other youths from Kalyan—Fahad Shaikh, Sahim Tanki and Aman Tandel—left for Baghdad (Iraq) from Mumbai airport on an Etihad flight at 5am. The four were supposed to return on June 2, but never did. Forty people, including these four from Kalyan, had gone to Iraq on a pilgrimage.
On January 3, ISIS declared the formation of the Caliphate. On January 4, Sahim and Aman applied for passports at the special branch office of Thane police. On January 11, Bazarpeth police completed the passport verification process.
On May 27, the group visited Karbala and a few local sites. On May 31, they left their hotel in a taxi driven by an Iraqi national. The taxi dropped them at Mosul, which ISIS invaded a few days later. The taxi driver was the last person who had seen these youths.
Their local guide in Iraq, who had accompanied the pilgrims, then informed the tour operator in Mumbai about the disappearance of these four youths. An unregistered religious organisation in Kalyan had reportedly sponsored the tour of these four, and the payment had been done in cash. The cost of the tour per person was Rs 58,786. The tickets for the youths had been booked through three levels of agents. And Majeed had written a letter to his family before leaving for Iraq.
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