Lesson for jihadi aspirants? ISIS says Indians not good enough as 6 out of 23 fighters from India are killed

New Delhi: Exposing the ISIS-Indian link, intelligence sources on Monday revealed that six Indians who were fighting for the dreaded terror network group have died.

A total of 23 Indians have so far joined the ISIS of which six have reportedly been killed in different incidents.

Among the six Indians who are reported to have died after joining the IS are:

Athif Vaseem Mohammad (Adilabad, Telangana), Mohammad Umar Subhan (Bangalore, Karnataka), Maulana Abdul Kadir Sultan Armar (Bhatkal, Karnataka), Saheem Farooque Tanki (Thane, Maharashtra), Faiz Masood (Bangalore, Karnataka) and Mohammad Sajid alias Bada Sajid (Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh).

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In August, 17 youths who intended to leave India to join the IS were stopped by intelligence agencies and police forces. The youths hailed from Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and other states, media reports had said.

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Twitter accounts of known IS sympathisers had reported the deaths of two other Indians in Syria earlier in July. They were identified only by their pseudonyms, Abu Talha and Abu Muhammad.

The intelligence report further said that there is information that foreign fighters of Chinese, Indian, Nigerian and Pakistani origin are housed together and are monitored closely by the ISIS, PTI reported.

Notably, the dreaded terrorist group ISIS does not consider South Asian Muslims, including Indians, good enough to fight in conflict zone of Iraq and Syria and treated as inferior than Arab fighters but often tricks them and push into suicide attacks.

According to an intelligence report prepared by foreign agencies and shared with Indian agencies, fighters from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh as well as certain countries like Nigeria and Sudan are considered inferior to Arab fighters.

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There appears to be clear hierarchy wherein the Arab fighters are preferred as officer cadre and provided better arms and ammunition, equipment, accommodation and salaries.

"The fighters from South Asia are usually housed in groups in small barracks and are paid less than the Arab fighters and are provided inferior equipment," the input says.

Hence, there is a clear trust deficit between the dominant Arab fighters from other nationalities, who are mostly attracted to ISIS through its sophisticated propaganda techniques on the Internet.

There is also information, the intelligence input suggests, that the ISIS considers Islam, as it is practised in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh .., as apostate and a departure from the original teachings of Quran and Hadith, which makes them less motivated towards Salafist Jihad.

(With PTI inputs)