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How he escaped, died — IS magazine details story of Kerala student Najeeb, missing since 2017

Najeeb, a resident of Malappuram, went missing from his home on 15 August 2017. He later messaged his mother saying he had reached his 'destination’.

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New Delhi: Five years after Najeeb Kunduvayil, an MTech student at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), went missing from his hometown in Kerala, a new issue of the Islamic State (IS) magazine — Voice of Khorasan — has published a story about him.

The story includes purported details of how he reached Khorasan to join the terror group and attained “martyrdom in battlefield” on the day he got married.

“He never complained of difficult life of mountains and the only thing on his mind was shahadat (martyrdom),” the piece published in the magazine read.

Najeeb, a resident of Malappuram, went missing from his home on 15 August 2017.

According to sources in intelligence agencies, Najeeb left for Dubai from the Hyderabad airport on 16 August 2017, by flight EK-525, and from there went to Syria/Iraq.

“He went missing on 15 August and took a flight out of India the next day. We suspect he stayed in Dubai for some time, before leaving for Khorasan (a region covering parts of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan). Then there was no news of him for so long, till this piece was published in Voice of Khorasan. The piece has Najeeb’s photo — the same that his passport carried,” a source said.

On 17 August, Najeeb reportedly messaged his mother on Telegram app, saying that he has reached his “destination”, and no one should make attempts to search for him.

“Before he left home, Najeeb made his mother download Telegram app on her phone and showed her how to send and receive messages. Two days after he went missing, he sent his mother a message saying that she should not make attempts to find him and that she should not approach the police,” the source said.

According to a report in The News Minute, it was after receiving the messages that Najeeb’s mother went to the local police and registered a complaint saying that she suspected her son had joined the terror ranks.

“No need to search for me… I have reached my destination. Here people are like Sahaba. No other land is worth. Do not go to police. It will be trouble for you, not me. This is the last message, Inshah Allah,” one of the messages quoted in the report said.


Also read: Peshawar attack shows Islamic State has come home — in arms of jihadists Imran Khan embraces


The draw of IS

According to sources in security agencies, more than 150 individuals from Kerala either joined or attempted to join the IS in the last eight years. Many, including women, left in groups.

At least 40 other Indian nationals, members of the diaspora in West Asia, and around half of them children or women, are thought to be held in al-Shadadi and other camps such as Ghweiran and al-Hawl run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as well as in jails in Turkey and Libya.

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, they broke open various jails in Kabul, letting out prisoners, which gave some hope to their families back in India, who thought the government might do something to ensure their return.

But like several other countries, India has chosen to provide no diplomatic assistance to Islamic State prisoners — a policy helped by the lack of formal recognition for the SDF regime.

‘Allah guided him’

According to the Voice of Khorasan article, Najeeb had reached Khorasan “all alone”, and not in a group and always had “a smile on his face”.

“Najeeb was from the few among the few whom Allah chose for his religion. He left his worldly comforts and all his luxuries for the sake of Allah and did hijra to the mountains of Khorasan. Allah guided him,” the piece read.

“He came all the way from India to Khorasan alone. No one accompanied him. He was all alone and was 23 years old,” it said.

Najeeb moved towards the land of “Khilafah (Caliphate)” and finally arrived in “Khorasan with a big smile on his face”, the piece said.

“He met other muhajireen (emigrants) who came from his own place and from different parts of the world. He was very happy to reach Darul Islam,” it added.

“He was a bachelor, so he used to stay in a guest room. He was very quiet and spoke when needed, with always a smile on his face. Never complained of difficult life of mountains and the only thing on his mind was shahadat,” it added.

‘Killed on the day of his wedding’

According to the article, after a few months of his arrival in Khorasan, Najeeb’s friends decided to “get him married” but he was not ready. He finally agreed, but on the day of his wedding, “bombardment began”.

“Months passed and his friends decided to get him a bride but he was not ready at all,” the article read. “His friends managed to get a proposal for marriage from a Pakistani family and everything was decided,” it said.

“But on the day of the wedding, unexpectedly the kuffar (infidels) began to advance in our area and bombardment started,” the piece added.

Najeeb and friends, the piece said, were “sitting in a guest room as it was his wedding day”, but Najeeb said that he wanted to join the fighters in battle.

“One side the kuffar was advancing and on the other hand marriage, he refused. Najeeb said — I don’t want to marry right now. I want to go for inghimasi (trained suicide fighters), I want to go to the battlefield,” the piece read.

According to the piece, Najeeb’s friend convinced him to get married but when their leader came asking for volunteers to go to the “battlefield”, Najeeb stood up and said “I am the one”.

“Everyone said no need to go… but he said with a smile on his face — ‘No No, I want to go for the inghimasi now’,” the article said.

“Finally, all agreed. And then he got what he wanted and left the perishing world for the eternal life by attaining shahadat (martyrdom),” the piece read.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)


Also read: Pakistan: Islamic State claims responsibility for suicide bomb attack in Balochistan’s Sibi


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