ISIS deserters: 4 of 20 beheaded may be Indians

New Delhi: Security agencies are verifying whether any Indians have been killed in the ISIS hotbeds amidst reports that four fighters could be Indians among the 20 ISIS fighters reportedly beheaded in full public view for trying to flee a war zone in Iraq’s Mosul city.

Official sources said there is no confirmation yet about the killing of four Indians. The Indian agencies are verifying the reports through different sources and trying to ascertain whether some of them were Indians among those beheaded, sources said. As per reports with the intelligence agencies, Indians have largely been used as foot soldiers by the terror outfit, putting them in the front while the Arab fighters consider themselves superior using those hailing from Asian countries as shields. The sub-human conditions in which the ISIS has kept the Indians has prompted many to return, intelligence sources said.

According to Indian intelligence agencies, a total of 23 Indians have so far joined the ISIS of whom six were killed in different incidents in Iraq and Syria. As many as 17 Indians are believed to be in different conflict zones of the ISIS-held areas.

Sending out a chilling warning to others in the terror group against desertion, the ISIS captured a group of its own militants who tried to escape the battlefront in Mosul city of Nineveh province, and executed them in public, Ara News reported quoting a local source citing an ISIS “official” as saying.

“The dissidents were arrested at a checkpoint in the vicinity of Mosul on Friday. After being identified as fighters who have left their positions at the fighting front in western Mosul, they were transferred to the Sharia court for prosecution,” the Ara News said.