Two women Nimisha aka Fathima and Sonia Sebastian aka Ayesha who had travelled from Kerala to Afghanistan to join the Islamic State purportedly stated in a video that they would like to return to India. The video was uploaded by an agency called Strat News Global. THE WEEK cannot vouch for its veracity. Both their husbands were killed in fighting in Afghanistan.
"I came to Khorasan in 2016. Once we reached here, many things we saw were not up to our expectations. We expected to live an Islamic life, under an Islamic law. That is not what the reality is. Now, I want to return to India, to my husband's family," Sonia could be heard saying in the video.
Sonia, who convered to Ayesha, was among the 21 men and women from Kerala, led by her husband Abdul Rashid Abdulla, who left India in batches to join the Islamic State in Khorasan Province in Afghanistan. They reportedly crossed over to Afghanistan on foot from Iran. Abdulla, who hails from Pala in Kerala Kottayam, had been the main conspirator for Islamic State recruitment from Kerala.
Nimisha, a dentist and the daughter of Bindu Sampath from Thiruvananthapuram, had married a Christian man Bexon and both had converted to Islam before travelling to Sri Lanka in 2016 claiming to start a carpet business. Nimisha and Bexon had become Fathima and Eesa respectively. They had later joined the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
