Over recent years, a concerning trend has emerged, highlighting the vulnerability of students to manipulation by terrorist organisations. This susceptibility has led to an alarming increase in the number of reported cases worldwide. In this comprehensive report, we delve into fifteen specific instances from various regions, each illustrating how students have fallen prey to the influence and manipulation tactics employed by terror groups using media tools.
The following report comprises details of 15 such instances reported not just in Bharat but across the globe.
Case-1 (10th-grade student sentenced for links with terror outfit)
On May 11, 2024, a student received a five-year prison sentence, in Kuwait. He was found guilty of associating with Daesh (ISIS), promoting its ideologies, disseminating information on making explosive devices, and inciting sectarian strife via social media platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp.
The Juvenile Court sentenced a 10th-grade student to five years in prison for his association with the outlawed Daesh (ISIS) organisation. Despite being cleared of harming the country’s interests, the student was held accountable for his affiliation with the extremist group.
Throughout the trial, the student claimed that he had not taken any concrete actions towards carrying out the bombing plot and that he did not possess any explosives. He stated that his involvement was limited to the planning stage.
The Juvenile Protection Department in the Public Prosecution charged the accused based on his activities from January 2023 to February 2024. These actions included promoting Daesh (ISIS) ideologies, sharing information on making explosive devices, and inciting sectarian conflict through social media platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp.
The student also advocated for violence against certain religious sects and publicly denounced the Amir in a public setting.
Case-2 (Student organisation has alleged terror links in AMU)
In November 2023, the Anti-Terror Squad of Uttar Pradesh apprehended six suspected ISIS operatives from various locations in the state. Among the six arrested, four have been identified as Rakib Inam, Naved Siddiqui, Mohammad Noman, and Mohammad Nazim.
All the accused were connected to the Students of Aligarh University (SAMU), the student organisation of Aligarh University, and became acquainted through SAMU meetings. The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad alleged that the accused were planning a significant terror attack in the country.
The arrest of the six individuals by the UP ATS has exposed the terror network linked to the student organisation of Aligarh University. The Anti-Terror Squad stated that SAMU meetings became a new recruitment cell for ISIS.
Sources indicate that other students of Aligarh University are under scrutiny by central agencies.
During the interrogation of Rizwan and Shahnawaz, who were apprehended by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Pune Islamic State (ISIS) module case, it was revealed that numerous students from Aligarh Muslim University are involved in disseminating anti-national sentiments through social media and are connected to the nationwide ISIS network. Following the interrogation of Rizwan and Shahnawaz, the UP ATS has made six arrests thus far.
Case-3 (Student of IIT-Guwahati radicalised to join ISIS)
A fourth-year student of IIT Guwahati, Tauseef Ali Farooqui, was arrested and charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in March 2024, after allegedly pledging allegiance to ISIS on social media. Hailing from Delhi, Farooqui was apprehended in Assam’s Kamrup district.
Assam Police’s Special Task Force (STF) Inspector General Parthasarathi Mahanta revealed that after interrogating the student, police found substantial evidence of his ties with ISIS, leading to his arrest.
A black flag resembling the ISIS flag and some literature were seized from his hostel room, according to the police.
According to the police, the youth, in addition to pledging his support to ISIS on social media, also sent an email announcing his decision to join the terrorist group. As a search was initiated based on his email, the student was apprehended by some locals near Hajo, approximately 20km away from the IIT, and subsequently handed over to the police.
The detention of the youth occurred four days after ISIS “India head” Haris Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi and his associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan were arrested in western Assam’s Dhubri district after crossing over from Bangladesh. The police reported that Farooqi and Rehan were planning to carry out IED explosions across India.
Case-4 (Nigerian suspects joining ISIS booked in Punjab)
Two young Nigerian suspects believed to be on their way to joining the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group were apprehended at the volatile India-Pakistan border in August 2015 after scaling a barbed wire fence near the border.
Alert Border Security Force (BSF) troopers apprehended Imran Kabeer and Sani Jamiliu, both from Kano, and later handed them over to Punjab Police.
The suspects, aged around 24-25, told BSF officials they wanted to go to Pakistan and then to Iraq. They carried no valid travel documents to enter Pakistan.
The youths arrived in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, 30 km from Punjab, from Delhi in a hired taxi.
BSF Amritsar sector deputy inspector general M.F. Farooqui confirmed the arrest. Since the youths claimed their final destination was Iraq, security officials said they could be headed to join the Islamic State terror outfit.
Both youths came to India on student visas about a year ago. While Imran is pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Mysuru-based Karnataka State Open University, Sani is a BSc third-semester student of the Kerala-based Mahatama Gandhi University. Both were residing in Delhi.
Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutalab was arrested on Christmas Day, 2009, aboard North West Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, following his attempt to blow up the plane. He was found to be carrying plastic explosives in his underwear.
He was subsequently tried and convicted by a US Federal Court on an eight-count charge, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Farouk was sentenced on February 16, 2012, to four life terms plus 50 years without parole.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed, as the trial got underway, that it trained the convict and supplied him with the explosives.
Case-5 (Ontario man admitted to joining ISIS)
In February 2019, a 29-year-old Ontario man admitted to leaving Canada in 2014 to join Islamic State militants in Syria after developing increasingly radical beliefs.
Pamir Hakimzadah, from Toronto, pleaded guilty to one count of leaving Canada to participate in a terrorist activity. Hakimzadah flew to Istanbul on October 22, 2014, with the intention of entering Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“The purpose of Pamir’s trip was to enter Syria via Turkey,” said Crown lawyer Christopher Walsh, who was reading from an agreed statement of facts. “There he intended to join a terrorist group known as ISIS or Daesh.”
This trip coincided with Hakimzadah “exhibiting increasingly radical Islamic beliefs,” Walsh said.
Four days after arriving in Turkey, a taxi driver suspected Hakimzadah was attempting to join the terrorist group and reported him to the police.
Turkish authorities detained the lone traveller and deported Hakimzadah back to Canada on November 19, 2014. He was also banned from Turkey for a year, the court heard.
Hakimzadah had previously commented that Muslims are being oppressed worldwide and that it is the responsibility of other Muslims to fight, according to Walsh.
Case-6 (18-year-old flew from Minnesota to Turkey and eventually made his way to Syria to join ISIS)
On May 13, 2013, Hanad Mohallim strolled to the playground across the street from his family’s suburban home in Apple Valley. Driven by boredom, Mohallim created a video selfie on the social media app Keek. In the video, he humorously described his life as a “gangsta in the ‘hood” in Apple Valley.
Less than a year later, on March 9, 2014, the 18-year-old flew from Minnesota to Turkey and eventually made his way to Syria to join the fighting. Federal authorities say two other young men from Burnsville High School, 18-year-old Abdullahi Yusuf and 20-year-old Hamza Ahmed, also attempted to join the terrorist group ISIS in Syria but were intercepted by federal agents at airports and charged with conspiring to assist a foreign terrorist organisation.
The transformation of these suburban Minnesota teenagers into potential recruits for a violent terrorist movement was not anticipated by some of their own friends. Born to immigrant parents from East Africa, the three young men shared interests in basketball and social media. They did not appear particularly devout and occasionally acted out in school.
Federal authorities estimate that about 15 young people have left Minnesota for Syria to join ISIS over the past year or so. At least five of them, including Mohallim, are believed to be dead.
Case-7 (students at Mississippi State University joined ISIS)
Diane Sawyer now Muhammad Dakhlalla, a 24-year-old former honor student now in prison for attempting to join ISIS, revealed to media that the terrorist videos he watched with his girlfriend Jaelyn Young portrayed a life of service and certainty. Dakhlalla and Young, both honor students at Mississippi State University, were drawn to the idea of helping others and rebuilding towns.
Dakhlalla, who graduated cum laude with a degree in psychology and played soccer, and Young, a college sophomore and former high school cheerleader, were raised in stable families. Despite their backgrounds, they both pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to ISIS and are serving sentences in federal prison.
Dakhlalla, a Muslim, said that Young was curious about the Islamic faith, and together they watched ISIS videos online. He claimed the videos showed ISIS distributing food to the poor, and they believed the media was faking reports of ISIS beheading aid workers and journalists.
The couple communicated with who they thought were ISIS recruiters but were actually FBI agents. Young explained that they needed assistance to travel to Syria through Turkey, highlighting their skills in math, chemistry, computer science, and media.
They were intercepted at an airport in Columbus, Mississippi, in August 2015. Dakhlalla had also sent messages expressing a desire to be a mujahedeen fighter, but he later told Sawyer that he only wanted to work in public relations to “clear up the name of Islam.”
Dakhlalla now admits that the reality of ISIS is different from what they had seen in the videos. He believes that if they had actually arrived in Syria, they would have seen the true picture of what ISIS is.
Case-8 (12-year prison for attempting to join ISIS)
A Mississippi woman, Jaelyn Young, was sentenced to 12 years in prison today for attempting to join ISIS last August. She and her common-law husband were arrested at an airport in Columbus, MS while trying to leave the country for Syria to join the terrorist group.
20-year-old Jaelyn Young expressed her remorse to the judge, saying, “I am so ashamed. I am really sorry” for attempting to join ISIS.
Prosecutors pushed for the maximum sentence, arguing that Young had betrayed her family and country in the most profound way.
Jaelyn Young’s father, a Vicksburg Police Officer and Navy Reservist, took some of the blame for his daughter’s actions. He told the judge that due to his multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was not at home, making his daughter vulnerable to ISIS online propaganda.
Federal Prosecutor Cay Joyner, however, presented a different perspective, describing Young as the self-radicalised instigator, planner, and manipulator who even wrote letters to her co-defendant Muhammad Dahklallah in prison, instructing him to lie to the grand jury.
Young’s mother expressed concern that someone might take advantage of her daughter, an indirect reference to Young being introduced to Islam by Dahklallah.
After hearing Young’s testimony, the judge acknowledged her remorse but emphasised that she was responsible for her actions. Young was sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with drug and mental health treatment.
Case-9 (22 British medical students from travelled to Syria to join ISIS)
Up to 22 British medical students from the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum, Sudan, have travelled to Syria to join ISIS. This group includes at least three sets of siblings and mostly consists of students who are British citizens or residents, or have families in the U.K.
Dr Ahmed Babiker Mohamed Zein, the dean of student affairs at the university, said that a total of 27 students from the university had attempted to join ISIS, with 22 of them being British or having ties to the U.K. Several of these medics have been killed in Syria or Iraq.
Some of these cases are not new, such as the Ageed brothers from Leicester, who travelled to Syria with a group of 12 UMST students in 2015. A pair of siblings from South London, Ahmad Kheder, 25, and his sister Nada, 22, also travelled to Syria with seven other British UMST students in March 2015. Ahmad Kheder later appeared in an ISIS recruitment video urging other medics to travel to Syria.
The Sunday Times reports that the group from UMST constitutes the largest contingent of friends from a Western country recruited by ISIS. At least seven members of the group have connections on social media to Mohammed Fakhri Al-Khabbas, a former UMST student from northern England who played a significant role in recruiting students to travel to Syria.
The Ageed brothers are Facebook friends with Suhaib Majeed, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a British court in 2016 for plotting to murder soldiers, police, and civilians in drive-by shootings in London.
Case-10 (9 Japanese students joined ISIS)
As the US conducts airstrikes on militant targets, Tokyo police are looking into the possibility that a Japanese student attempted to travel to Syria in order to join the Islamic State, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga stated on Tuesday.
Suga did not provide further details, but the Asahi Shimbun daily said that police interrogated a 26-year-old man who was on leave from Hokkaido University in northern Japan over his intentions to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State as a fighter.
“I am aware that officers used the criminal law as justification for the search. However, as the situation is still being looked into, I would prefer to hold off on providing specifics,” Suga stated during a press briefing.
According to the Asahi, authorities seized the college student’s passport and interrogated a person connected to a Tokyo bookstore where a job posting for assistance in Syria was placed.
Nine Japanese people have joined ISIS, according to a top Israeli government official, according to a remark made by former Japanese air force chief Toshio Tamogami last month. However, Suga later stated that the government had not verified the claim.
The chief of the U.S. intelligence community believes that over 1,000 recruits from a wide area spanning from India to the Pacific may have joined Islamic State to fight in Syria or Iraq. Admiral Samuel Locklear of the Pacific Command of the Armed Forces stated last month.
Case-11 (Mechanical engineering student at the University of Houston sentenced for attempting to join ISIS)
A 23-year-old mechanical engineering student at the University of Houston, Asher Abid Khan, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes. Khan had previously intended to join ISIS fighters in Syria but changed his mind. Despite federal guidelines suggesting a longer sentence and lifetime supervision, Judge Hughes opted for a shorter prison term and five years of supervision, emphasising Khan’s potential for rehabilitation.
In a courtroom filled with Khan’s family and friends, the defendant expressed his remorse to the relatives of Sixto Ramiro Garcia, a former classmate who joined the jihadists and was killed in Syria. Khan apologised for his role in the events and hoped for forgiveness.
The sentence came as a surprise to federal authorities, who had recommended a much longer prison term and lifetime supervision.
Case-12 (Student from Pune came in touch with ISIS handlers online)
A 16-year-old student from Pune, enrolled in a de-radicalisation program, was preparing to travel to Syria after being influenced by the terror group ISIS. The group had promised to sponsor her medical education.
The student was in contact with ISIS through social media, where she was radicalised. The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Pune had been monitoring her movements and interrogated her after receiving information about her activities.
Bhanu Pratap Barge, Assistant Commissioner of Police, stated that the ATS had received information about the student’s involvement with ISIS in the last few months. The girl was drawn to the group’s ideology after watching a documentary on television and then used the internet to connect with approximately 200 young people from various countries. Her interrogation revealed that she was invited to Syria for medical education and further initiation.
Last year, four young men from Kalyan, on the outskirts of Mumbai, left the country to join ISIS in Syria. Iftikhar Khan, the uncle of Areeb Majeed, who went to fight for ISIS in Syria, has stated that the children who have been radicalised are innocent and parents have requested that the police treat the children leniently.
Case-13 (British student killed after joining ISIS)
A British-Sudanese student, Osman Mustafa Fagiri, who was part of a group of medics that joined Islamic State, has been killed in Syria. The international manhunt intensifies for the alleged ringleader of the group, Mohammed Fakhri, who is believed to have recruited British-Sudanese medical students to join ISIS.
Fagiri, 23, a student at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) in Khartoum, was close to Mohammed Osama Badri, 24, one of the nine British-Sudanese medical students who traveled to Syria in March to work in ISIS hospitals. Badri confirmed Fagiri’s death on Facebook, expressing hope that he would be accepted among the ranks of martyrs.
Fagiri had previously travelled to Mali in 2013 and returned to Britain, before moving on to Sudan and then Syria. His death came as a shock to his family, who were unaware of his militant intentions. They believed he had gone to Turkey for humanitarian reasons.
Turkish security services and police, with assistance from British intelligence agencies, are trying to track down another group of five young British doctors believed to be making their way to the Syrian border. These doctors are also thought to have been recruited by Mohammed Fakhri.
Fakhri, 23, from Middlesbrough, is of Palestinian origin and has been named as the ringleader and recruiter of all the British-Sudanese UMST students. He was the president of the UMST’s Islamic Cultural Association. His father has said that his son has brought shame upon the family.
Among the group of five British medical students currently thought to be hiding in Turkey are two British brothers from Leicester, Ibrahim, 21, and Mohamed, 23, who abandoned their studies at UMST and flew to Turkey earlier this month.
It is not clear where Fagiri was killed, but a Facebook post from him in June mentioned walking the streets of Raqqa. An unsigned statement, believed to have been issued by Fagiri’s wife, warns others not to spread “blatant lies” about him and states that he did not carry out a suicide bombing.
Case-14 (Student from New York killed in Syria)
Samy El-Goarany, a 24-year-old, allegedly told his parents he was going to school in New York but instead flew to Turkey and crossed into Syria. After leaving in January last year, he was killed in November. An unknown person sent his family a photo of a handwritten note from him, stating, “If you’re reading this then know that I’ve been killed in battle and am now with our Lord InshaAllah.”
Federal prosecutors are charging Ahmed Mohammed el Gammal with providing material support to ISIS and helping Goarany join the terror group in Syria. El-Gammal allegedly facilitated Goarany’s travel to Syria so that he could train and fight with ISIS.
Goarany attended college in New York before travelling to Syria. Authorities have evidence against el-Gammal, including a YouTube video Goarany made shortly before his death, in which he confirms joining ISIS but denies that anyone, including el-Gammal, helped him get there.
Despite Goarany’s denial, the video mentions el-Gammal and provides evidence of their alleged relationship. El-Gammal was arrested and detained without bail in August 2015. The two shared messages and met in New York in October of the same year. During their visit, el-Gammal contacted a friend in Turkey and told him an “American friend” would contact him when he arrived there.
Goarany left New York for Turkey in January 2015, and by February, he was in ISIS-controlled Syria, according to court documents.
Case-15 (Story of a student from Alabama stuck in Syria)
Hoda Muthana, a 20-year-old college student from Alabama, made a daring escape from her normal life by lying to her family about a trip and joining the Islamic State in Syria. Upon her arrival, she was confined to a home for unwed women, where marriage to a jihadist was the only way out. She went on to marry a series of the group’s fighters — the first two of whom were killed — and had a son with one of them.
On social media, she took pride in burning her U.S. passport and shared thousands of provocative tweets under the name @UmmJihad. Among her messages, she wrote, “America deserves (sic) everything it has coming to it, by Allah we will terrorise (sic) YOU! Until you submit to the Shariah,” and encouraged others to attack holiday parades.
“Spill all of their blood,” she wrote, “or rent a big truck and drive over them. Kill them.”
Now, two years after Muthana said she fled the Islamic State with her young son as it was collapsing under military assault, she finds herself a refugee barred from the country where she grew up, with a dramatically different perspective on the group she once so eagerly joined.
Grooming Jihad and road to ISIS
Readers should know that these are not the only cases that have happened in India or abroad. In May 2023, a film ‘The Kerala Story,’ a film by Vipul Amrutlal Shah and directed by Sudipto Sen, focuses on the transformation and trafficking of innocent girls for terror purposes in Kerala. The filmmakers describe it as a compilation of true stories about three young girls from the state. The makers during the promotions presented 26 real-life victims in front of the media.
It is mentioned in the film, that 32,000 girls were forced to join ISIL. Some of these victims who have managed to return or escape opened up about their ordeal, rate of induction from the state and the manipulation. Some of these victims are namely Nashidhul Hamzafar, Shruthi, Chithra, Athira, Anagha, and Vaishali from the Samajam narrated their experiences in front of media.
During a press conference, the film’s creators emphasised the need to give a voice to the victims of grooming jihad and discussed the efforts of the Aarsha Vidya Samajam in bringing back those who had left Hinduism. The organisation reportedly rescued 7,000 individuals, many of whom were victims of grooming jihad.
Vipul Shah criticised attempts by some media houses to discredit the film and emphasised that the story of 32,000 women is told through the experiences of three victims. He promised to provide more statistics and numbers in the future.
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