According to the latest issue of a publication of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP), an Indian member of the group has died in Afghanistan, allegedly in a suicide attack. Voice of Khurasan, the ISKP’s publication, identified the Indian fighter only by his name, Najeeb Al Hindi, and described him as a 23-year-old ‘engineering student from Kerala’ in an article about his death. The article didn’t mention how Najeeb died or what the specific circumstances of his death were.
Najeeb was compared to Hanzala Ibn Abi Amir, one of the companions of Prophet Mohammed, because he was killed hours after getting married to a Pakistani woman. Najeeb came to Khorasan – the area of Afghanistan where ISKP is based – ‘all the way from India’ as the article stated. Hanzana died in the Battle of Uhud at the age of 24 after leaving for the battlefield on his wedding night. ‘It was very difficult to make hijra on (sic) those days,’ the article said. He also met other fighters ‘who came from his own place’ and lived as a bachelor in a guest room.
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According to the article, he was a very quiet man who spoke only when necessary, always smiling. He never complained about the difficulties of life in the mountains; the only thing on his mind was Shahadah. Within a few months, Najeeb’s friends forced him to marry, and a Pakistani family proposed to him on behalf of a young woman who belonged to the ISKP.
As the date for Najeeb’s wedding approached, the article states, the ‘kuffar’ (non-believers) ‘began to advance in our area and bombardment began’. It is not clear exactly who attacked the ISKP in the article. However, there have been numerous clashes between the Islamic State and the Taliban since the latter took over in mid-August 2021.
As opposed to getting married, Najeeb initially wanted to go for ‘inghimasi’ (suicide). Following pressure from the bride’s father, the marriage went ahead, but shortly afterwards, an ISKP member sought suicide attackers for an assault. According to the article, Najeeb died fighting on the battlefield after volunteering to go.
It is believed that several dozen men and women from Kerala have recently joined the ISKP. US drone strikes and combat have claimed some lives. The Afghan forces conducted an operation against the group in Nangarhar province later in 2019 that resulted in the capture of at least 25 Indians – 13 fighters and the rest women and children.
During the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, scores of ISKP cadres were freed from jails in Kabul and other cities and have returned to the group. ISKP has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodliest attacks in Afghanistan over the last few months, including the fatal suicide attack at Kabul airport on August 26 last year that killed more than 180 people.
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