The Islamic State has released a new video of what it claims are Indian terrorists in its ranks who allegedly joined the terrorist organisation, and are fighting in Iraq and Syria. The 22-minute Arabic-language documentary is the first propaganda the Islamic State has produced with content focused on India and South Asia.
The five men in the video include an engineering student from Thane, Fahad Tanvir Sheikh. He is reportedly using the pseudonym Abu Amr' al-Hindi. In the video, he reportedly warns ISIS fighters will return to India to avenge the killings of Muslims in Kashmir, in Gujarat and in Muzaffarnagar.
As reported by the Indian Express, the video also features several still-to-be-identified members, suspected to be associated with Indian Mujahideen once.
Large parts of the video seek to provide context to the presence of Indian jihadists in the Islamic State – men it describes as jihadists from “Hind wal’Sindh". The video begins with medieval warlord Muhammad Bin Qasim’s conquest of the region, saying it laid the foundations for Islamic rule in India.
The video mostly consists of interviews, conducted at an unidentified coastal location. There is no combat footage of Indians, bar one sequence involving several men in two boats, first released by the Islamic State’s Indian affiliate, Junood Khilafat-al-Hind, in 2015.
Explaining his personal journey, one jihadist says he was forced to leave Mumbai for the Khorasan region, or the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, after the 2008 shootout at Batla House in which Indian Mujahideen commander Atif Amin was killed.
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