To attract more recruits, pro-IS channel owns up Saifullah

Calling him a soldier of the caliphate from India, pro-Islamic state Telegram channel have released the picture of Saifullah killed in an encounter with the UP-ATS on February 7 in Lucknow. Released on mobile application Telegram, the picture accompanies a message in the form of a verse, which means that those who have died in way of religion aren’t dead.

The use of Saifullah’s only picture in circulation give credence to the ATS claim that he was not a direct IS recruit but belonged to the group that was inspired by it.

The IS normally uses the pictures and videos taken before any terror strike by its members. Apart from UP ATS, the central security agencies were verifying the veracity of this post. UP police, which had earlier claimed that the module was a part of IS-Khorasan, had retracted and said that the members were selfradicalised and were planning to launch major attacks on shrines of Sufis in the state and beyond.

The members of this arrested gang in MP and UP have told cops that they had sent a video of a murder to IS channel professing allegiance to the group but did not get any acknowledgement. “Use of the picture makes it clear that the boys were inspired by the terror group,” said an official while revealing that IS modus operandi has been to release pictures and videos of all Indian boys fighting for it in Syria. “The group has merely owned up Saifullah to attract more recruits,” said the official. This group was led by a retd IAF airman Ghulam Mohd Khan who recruited Atif Muzaffar Nadvi and Saifullah, his two cousins and others. All the boys were in touch with Muddabir Sheikh of Maharashtra.

ATIF HAS TOLD HIS INTERROGATORS THAT SAIFULLAH HAD KILLED A RETIRED PRINCIPAL AND A SCRAP DEALER, RANDOMLY TO MAKE HIMSELF STRONGER.