Areeb Majeed, Who Fled Bharat to Join ISIS, Moves out of Jail on Bail

Areeb Majeed, who was granted bail by the Mumbai High Court on February 23, walked out of Arthur Road jail Friday.

Majeed had fled Bharat to join the terrorist organisation ISIS in May 2014. The ISIS, also known as Islamic State, had a stronghold on parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

He, with his friends Fahad Sheikh, AmanTandel and Saheem Tanki, had gone to Iraq in 2014 on a pilgrimage. They fled to neighbouring Syria to join ISIS.

Majeed was arrested by the National Investigation Agency upon his return in November 2014. The NIA had alleged that he returned with the ulterior motive to carry out bomb blasts in the country.

He has been arguing his own case in the court. He had submitted in the court that he was an engineering student in 2014 and was only 21 years old. So, he got carried away and decided to join ISIS.

His other three friends Sheikh, Tandel and Tanki, were never found.

The Special NIA court had granted Majeed bail in March last year.

In a similar case in Britain, the authorities cancelled the citizenship of Shamima Begum who had fled to Syria in 2015 to join ISIS. She was 15 years old at the time. She wanted to return to London in 2019. But authorities argued her return would be dangerous for the country.

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom upheld the decision of the authorities to stop the entry of Begum in Britain.