Jan 06 2016 : The Times of India (Chennai)
Jihadi John 2.0 may be an Indian-origin Briton
London:
AGENCIES
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Born A Hindu, He Embraced Islam Over 10 Years Ago
The terrorist dubbed “new Jihadi John“ and appeared in the latest Islamic State (IS) video threatening attacks on the UK is believed to be Indian-origin British Muslim convert, media reports said on Tuesday.Siddhartha Dhar, also known as Abu Rumaysah, had skipped bail and fled Britain in 2014 with his wife and their four children to join IS in Syria.Born a Hindu, the 32-year-old ran a business selling inflatable bouncers in London before converting to Islam and joining the radical Islamist group alMuhajiroun.An official source told the BBC that Dhar is the focus of investigations into the video, which purports to show the killing of five men IS says were spying for the UK.
Dhar's mother and sister have also watched the video, released by IS on Sunday , and noticed similarities between the voice of the masked terrorist, being referred to as the “new Jihadi John“ by the British media. “I heard the voice, yes, but I don't know, I'm not sure of the voice. I'm not sure within myself whether it is the truth or not,“ his mother Sobita Dhar told The Daily Telegraph. His sister, Konika Dhar, said: “I believed the audio to resemble, from what I remember, the voice of my brother but having viewed the short clip in detail, I wasn't entirely convinced. I can't belie ve it...“ She said her brother had converted to Islam more than 10 years ago and her memories of him are from when they were kids.
One of Dhar's former business associates told the BBC he had “no doubt“ the voice on the video was that of Dhar, who had been arrested on suspicion of encouraging terrorism by the British police but was later able to travel to Syria after being bailed.
British security forces are facing mounting pressure to ex plain how Dhar was able to skip bail and leave the UK. The matter will be raised in the House of Commons after the shadow home secretary , Andy Burnham, tabled an urgent question on what he called the “serious lapse in security“. Siddhartha Dhar was being investigated by the police for terror charges when he escaped the UK in 2014, and tweeted afterwards that Britain's “shoddy security system... allow[ed] me to breeze through Europe to the Islamic State“. London mayor Boris Johnson said he will speak to police to find out how the decision was made to grant Dhar bail in the first place.
Dhar's former neighbours from Walthamstow in east London claimed his wife was more devout and may have put him on the path to extremism. In the months leading up to his arrest Dhar was accused of calling for the imposition of Sharia law in Britain. In one interview around that time he said: “We believe that whenever the Sharia is established, the pure Islamic state maybe in Iraq or Syria, one day the leader will wage jihad and annexe Britain into the Islamic State. We are not going to forget Europe, we are not going to forget Britain, the armies will be sent here to conquer these lands.“
`IS territories shrunk 40% in Iraq and 20% in Syria in 2015'
Islamic State's territory shrank by 40% from its maximum expansion in Iraq, and by 20% in Syria in 2015, as international forces pushed it out of several cities, the US-led coalition fighting it said on Tuesday. There was no immediate comment from the hardline Islamist group on the estimates from the coalition, made up of countries including Britain, France and Jordan that have been bombing its positions. “We believe in Iraq it's about 40% ... And Syria, harder to get a good number, we think it's around 20,“ coalition spokesman US army Col Steve Warren told a press briefing in Baghdad.“Taking together Iraq and Syria .. they lost 30% of the territory they once held,“ he said. REUTERS
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