'Missing' Kalyan man 'dies in Iraq fighting', family performs

Amid reports of Indians fighting alongside ISIS, Arif Ejaz Majeed, one of the four young men from Kalyan who had gone missing during a pilgrimage to Iraq, is said to have been killed in a bomb blast.
Although Maharashtra ATS and Thane police have no official confirmation of his death, Arif's family performed 'Janaza-e-gayabana' (prayers for the departed soul in absence of the body) yesterday, a family friend Ateek Khan told PTI.
According to reports, Shaheen Tanki, who along with Arif, Fahad Tanvir Sheikh and Aman Naim Tandel, had disappeared during a trip to Iraq in May, called his family on Tuesday and informed them about his death. The Tankis then disclosed the news of Arif's death to his family.

Thane police said till they receive "official confirmation" about the death of Arif, an engineering student, they would continue to treat the matter as a "missing case".
However, an officer in Maharashtra ATS, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "There is no reason to disbelieve the information about Arif's death in a bomb blast in Iraq. Intelligence agnecies have also suggested that Arif has died."
A neighbour of Arif shared a web link with a PTI reporter 'https://justpaste.It/arifmajid' which claimed he had participated in the action at Mosul Dam and was "martyred". "May Allah accept his martyrdom," the post, which also had the photograph of Arif carrying a Kalashnikov, said.

The US military had earlier this month mounted airstrikes on ISIS fighters in the vicinity of Irbil and Mosul Dam to back Iraqi security forces fighting the Sunni militia who have captured vast swathes in Iraq and Syria.
The post also claimed Arif had married a Palestinian girl from Gaza during his stay in Iraq.
In July, Arif's father Ejaz Majeed had met Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and handed over a memorandum reportedly seeking action those who had radicalised his son and persuaded him to join the jihadists.