Hyderabad engineer Salman Mohiuddin, who was arrested in January for his alleged inclination towards the Isis, wanted to join the Islamic State in Syria and later return to wage war against India.
He was arrested on 16 January, 2015. During interrogation, Mohiuddin told the interrogators that he was attracted to the Isis after he faced discrimination in the United States, where he was working as a desktop support engineer, The Indian Express reported.
The 32-year-old had decided to "proceed to Syria to join the IS and later return to wage war against India". He was arrested at the Hyderabad airport, where he was about to board a flight to Dubai. He had further planned to join Isis in Syria after crossing the borders in Turkey, Cyberabad Police said.
"I am religious, and during June 2014, after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (the IS chief) declared Caliphate, I observed the posts released by Al Hayat — a media centre of ISIS — and was attracted towards ISIS as I was facing indiscrimination (sic) in USA. I learnt more about the Caliphate, ISIS and made research over ISIS by browsing Net," Mohiuddin told interrogators.
Mohiuddin had returned to India in 2014 after the US authorities did not extend his visa. After returning to India, he started learning more about the ideologies of the Islamic State and became intensely active online. He became firm about joining the jihadist group after interacting with the Isis sympathisers, including "Abu al Barra al Sami, an IS sympathiser based in Syria, and Abu Mohammad of Turkey, a facilitator with links to IS".
A father-of-two, Mohiuddin had established contact with one Nicky Joseph alias Ayesha and claimed that they had planned to join Isis together, reported The Indian Express, which claims to have a copy of Mohiuddin's interrogation report, reported.
"While I was in Texas (2011), I came in contact with a lady, Nicky Joseph (a British national), staying in Dubai through YouTube... I came to know that she converted to Islam from Christianity... I learnt that she married one doctor and intended to marry a Muslim. I proposed her to marry... she agreed," Mohiuddin told interrogators.
"I and Nicky Joseph alias Ayesha decided to join ISIS to fight in favour of ISIS through illegal border crossing of Turkey," he added.
However, Ayesha, who was later identified as Afsha Jabeen (Indian-origin), told the interrogators that she had never planned to travel to Syria with Mohiuddin.
The Cyberabad Police had arrested Mohiuddin based on inputs from the US intelligence, which was reportedly keeping a track of his activities online.