Interview with a T&T Islamic State Fighter
This interview published by North Press Agency in 2019 is the only detailed interview by a male from T&T who undertook hijrah to the Islamic State, trained and inducted into its military machine available in the public domain. From his testimony it is apparent that he worked on the Istishaddi vehicles which were loaded with explosives detonated by the driver on attaining its target. The Istishaddi vehicles were the main frontline offensive weapon of Islamic State seen in the hustle that was placed on male recruits to sign up for Istishaddi operations. The interviewee, given his importance to the production and maintenance of Istishaddi vehicles was not allowed on the battlefield and he lived a privileged life hence the reason why he survived until the end at Baghuz. In the interview the interviewee insists that he does not want to return to T&T, he would rather be imprisoned in NE Syria and the only aspect of life in the Islamic State he speaks glowingly of is his four wives and the children he fathered with them. But this is a tale of woe given the number of wives and children that were killed in the battles against Islamic State which he was part of as he kept churning out the Istishaddi/istishhad vehicles. The interviewee left a wife and child in T&T on departing for the Islamic State and there is one wife left of Russian nationality with his surviving children in the camps in NE Syria. in a case filed in the High Court of T&T he is reported to be deceased most likely arising from the January 2022 attack of the Islamic State on Hasakah prison which gives rise to the question of the whereabouts of the surviving Russian wife and his children?
This report provides potent lessons on the possible differences between what is reported in the media as fact and what you unearth with personal experience, action/praxis. The T&T male in the interview is not dead rather he survived the IS attack in January on the Hasakah prison but today he is no longer at the Hasakah prison and no one knows where he is, he has simply disappeared except the SDF and the AANES and since the T&T government has shown no interest in the welfare of its citizens in the hands of the SDF those holding him therefore enjoy the impunity granted by the T&T government. Contrary to the profile of the T&T fighter printed in the North Press Agency article his parents are born citizens of T&T, living in T&T as he was born and raised in T&T making him as his parents citizens of T&T by birth. The story then attempted to problematise his origin, his nationality and his validity as a citizen of T&T by birth. The interviewee in the article is a citizen of T&T that is in need of the consular services of the T&T government, that is the right of all citizens of T&T who are overseas and in difficulty! Why must his parents go to court for the T&T government to do its duty to its citizens overseas under our Republican Constitution? Are Muslims children of a lesser god?