ISIS uses its Indian recruits as expendables

The first reports from the terror ground of ISIS strongholds, covering vast swathes of land in northern Syria and western Iraq, have revealed that the terrorist outfit’s Arab fighters use South Asian recruits as foot soldiers and suicide bom-bers. Indians, Chinese, Pakistanis, Sudanese and Nigerians form the bulk of the ISIS foot soldiers and are guarded by the ISIS police. The Arab “officers” are putting the South Asians on the front line of war as they are treated as inferior fighters and casualties among them can be accommodated. They are also being tricked into dying as suicide bombers as they are not told before but given a destination and a number to dial which, when dialled, sets off explosives, killing them and others.

The shocking reports have been collated by Indian intelligence agencies with the help of their foreign counterparts at a time when the Indian government and the intelligence community are “worried” about ISIS ”indoctrination” and “radicalisation” within the country motivating many young men and women to join the ISIS ranks or work as foot soldiers.

“There is a clear trust deficit between the dominant Arab fighters and the fighters of other nationalities who are mostly attracted to ISIS through sophisticated propaganda techniques on the Internet,” warns the report.

The report talks of the “disproportionately high level of casualties among the South Asian and African foreign terrorist fighters who are being forced to the front lines of battle as foot soldiers”. It adds that the “Arab fighters with better experience are mostly positioned behind them”.

The intelligence report claims that the passports of Indians, Chinese and Pakistanis are burnt as soon as they arrive at an ISIS stronghold to prevent them from returning to their countries. They are warned that a “jinn”, or demon, will get angry if they return to their countries. The report has documented the deaths of six Indians so far in areas where the ISIS is fighting and 23 Indians who have travelled to join the ISIS in Syria.

“There appears to be a clear hierarchy wherein the Arab fighters are preferred as officer cadre and are provided better arms and ammunition, equipment, accommodation and salaries. The foreign fighters from South Asia are usually housed in groups in small barracks and are paid less than the Arabs,” the report states. “The so-called inferior fighter are also sometimes tricked into suicide attacks,” it adds.

While the gender ratio in ISIS-held territory is highly skewed, even here the preference for getting jihadi brides for the ISIS fighters is titled against the South Asian recruits. “They are lowest in priority for jihadi brides since they are considered ethnically inferior to breed the next generation of jihadi fighters in ISIS territory,” says the report.

The six Indians who have died in the ISIS’ service have been identified as Athif Vaseem Mohammad (Adilabad, Telangana), Mohammad Umar Subhan (Bengaluru, Karnataka), Maulana Abdul Kadir Sultan Armar (Bhatkal, Karnataka), Saheem Farooque Tanki (Thane, Maharashtra), Faiz Masood (Bengaluru, Karnataka) and Mohammad Sajid, alias Bada Sajid (Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh).