Slain T'gana ISIS militant got attracted to 'Kashmir cause' on trip to valley

Hyderabad: The Telangana police found that Mohd Taufeeq, the slain ISIS militant, who was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kashmir, was lured into the militant group through social media, police officials said.

“He spent more time on social media including telegram. He befriended several persons with names Husne Mubarak – Sri Lanka, Trisha – USA, Haleema Sadiq – Pune, Mubashir Islam – Kashmir and Ziaul Khalid of Uttar Pradesh. It appears, these are pseudo names of recruiters who are based in different countries,” an official said.

He stayed in Hyderabad and worked with a construction company based at Nallakunta in 2015 where he devoted much of his time browsing literature about “Kashmir issue”.

In October 2015, Taufeeq went to Kashmir along with his friend Md Arif who is a native of the state. Taufeeq met Arif at ECIL in Hyderabad.

“During his visit, Tauseef met his telegram friend Mubassir in Kashmir and both decided to join ISIS in one year after obtaining passports and money. Nearly a year later, he went to the Kashmir and joined the group Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGUH),” the police dossier of the slain militant revealed.

According to the dossiers, the slain ‘militant’, Mohammed Taufeeq, got attracted to ‘Kashmir cause’, during his visit to the valley in 2012.

Taufeeq along with two other Kashmiris, Eisa Fazili and Syed Owais Shafi were killed in a gun battle with the security forces in Anantanag district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday night.

“In the year 2012, Taufeeq had gone for a tour along with his family for seven days. During his travel to Gulmarg valley, he took pictures of the banners put up to support “Kashmir cause” and inquired about the issue with the locals there. Since then he got inclined towards the Kashmir issue and followed it on facebook and other social media platforms,” an intelligence official said.

Taufeeq, according to the police, keenly followed Jammu and Kashmir-based newspaper and posted anti-national messages. He regularly heard the speeches of Maulana Masood Azhar and other separatist leaders from the valley.