Islamic state suspect Subahani Haja Moideen claims stay in Mosul

NEW DELHI: Islamic state (IS) suspect Subahani Haja Moideen (31) arrested early this month told NIA that he spent two months in the territory held by IS and was “neither a free-bird nor a captive”. Moideen claimed that while he waited for an assignment, he and other fighters had independent houses and access to gymnasiums, swimming pool and wi-fi centres.

A resident of Tamil Nadu, Modern is presently under judicial custody. He claimed that while staying in Mosul, Iraq he attended the same training camp with a Pakistani national who was later arrested by the French police for the November 2015 Paris attacks, said official.

The Pakistani man was identified as Mohammad Usman. He said he shared “good rapport” with Usman. Moideen left India in April 2015 but came back in September 2015 after informing Indian authorities in Turkey that he had lost his passport. He was arrested on October 6 and an NIA official said they were not aware about Moideen's presence in the war-zone till the time he was arrested.

Usman as per media reports was arrested with an Algerian suspect in Austria on December 10 last year.
Moideen told interrogators that after making it to Mosul- after clearing rigorous religious and physical tests- he was kept in an independent house with 150 other fighters including the Pakistani suspect. The Pakistani was the the only one with whom he could communicate in English and broken Hindi as the group comprised mainly Tajikis.

“He says the Pakistani man mysteriously left the camp in Mosul in September. He says it was not easy to ask questions there so he didn’t enquire much,” said an official.

Moideen said the name of his group was Umar Ibnu Khatab Khateeba and his leader was Abu Suleiman Al Francisi. Moideen said he was rechristened as Abu Jasmine by his group leader. There were two other groups- Gurba Khatiba comprising mainly European and Arab fighters and Ibnu Ziyad Khateeba, mostly English and Arab speaking fighters.

Moideen claimed he was radicalised and recruited in IS through social media platforms and had a Swedish handler. He had left India for Istanbul from Chennai in April 2015 on the pretext of performing umrah.

After reaching Istanbul he crossed over along with other people who hailed from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraqi territory under control of IS. However, he told interrogators that he could not withstand the violence and war misery in Mosul and decided to leave especially after he saw two of his friends getting charred during shelling. Following this, he was put in IS prison twice.