NEW DELHI: As an estimated 20 to 30 per cent of 27,000 foreign terrorists of ISIS returned home by March this year, the terror organisation, for the first time have targeted India, looking for fresh recruits. The outfit’s media wing on Thursday released a propaganda video to indoctrinate and recruit Indian youth to fight in Syria against the regime forces.
The IS propaganda video features six alleged Indian recruits, including a suspected Mumbai-based youngster who had travelled to Iraq in May 2014. The suspected youth could not be identified but sources from security agencies said he could be among the two — Aman Naeem Tandel and Fahad Tanveer Shaikh — who are said to be alive.
Using the alias ‘Abu Umar al-Hindi’, the Mumbai youth in a 22-minute video speaks in Hindi and calls for young Muslim men to come to Syria for ‘Hijrah’ (migration to Islamic State). He said, “We are doing just fine and not at all distressed in the Islamic state. One of our friends, Sahim Tanki, carried out a suicide attack recently.”
Although, he appears tense and stressed in the video, al-Hindi said, “This land provides ‘dignity’ to Muslims. We won’t leave this land. But we will come back one day to take revenge for Babri Masjid and Gujarat.”
Another suspected Indian recruit, known as Abu Salman al-Hindi, claims that he left India because of oppression and persecution against Muslims by the government and the Hindu majority. The footage has clippings of alleged oppression and killing of Muslims in the Middle East, including in Syria and Iraq. Of the six suspected Indian terrorists, Abu Salman al-Hindi is the only one who speaks in English.
The propaganda also slams Indian Muslim clerics for “deceiving” the masses.
The two alleged Indian terrorists also sang a song in Hindi in a bid to lure gullible youths.
Sources in the agencies said this shows a desperate attempt by the terror outfit to lure Indian youths as many are deserting the outfit. Despite their spectacular online media campaign, ISIS has been able to influence very few Indian youths.
Government sources said only 23 youths have joined the terrorist organisation which controls certain territory in Syria and Iraq. Of these, six Indian nationals have been killed.