A Facebook user Anamika Singh shared an image of ISIS terrorists with the claim that the missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed who had gone missing from JNU on 15th Oct 2016 has joined ISIS.

Najeeb Ahmed, a first-year student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, had gone missing after a brawl with members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at Mahi-Mandavi Hostel in Delhi on October 2016 as per a report in The Hindu.

On 16th March, Najeeb mother Fatima Nafis tweeted to PM Modi to inquire about her missing son.

She also tweeted a video in which Delhi Police can be seen denying the claim that Najeeb has joined ISIS. You can watch the video tweeted by her here:

In the video, the Delhi police's Chief Spokesperson Dependra Pathak denied the report by a newspaper in which it was claimed that Najeeb has joined ISIS.

Old Image and false claim

Similar claims were made by several social media users last year as well. On 26th 2018, a Facebook page shared several photos and TV screengrabs to substantiate the claim that Najeeb Ahmed had joined ISIS.

In Sept 2017, Times of India had reported that the Telegram message by Najeeb to his mother shows Najeeb had joined ISIS. As per the report Najeeb had said I have reached my destination after joining ISIS.

Confusion due to Najeeb from Kerala joining ISIS

The Najeeb who had joined ISIS was a 23-year old MTech student from VIT Vellore who went missing from Kerala as reported by News 18.  Najeeb was an MTech student at VIT Vellore who had gone missing on August 15, 2017.

This news of Najeeb from Kerala joining ISIS was confused with JNU’s Najeeb Ahmed and the misleading claims started surfacing after that.

The truth about the image being shared on social media

The image of ISIS fighters was clicked by Reuters and uploaded in March 2015. You can see the screenshot of their website.

Photo Credit: Battle For Iraq, Reuters

Since Najeeb Ahmed of JNU had gone missing in Oct 2016 and Najeeb from Kerala had gone missing in Aug 2017, and the above image was clicked on 2015, there is no chance that the photo contains either of the two Najeeb.

As far as Najeeb Ahmed from JNU is concerned, he is still missing and nobody has any information about it. Delhi Police has already quashed the rumor of Najeeb joining ISIS. ANI had quoted Delhi Police's chief spokesperson Dependra Pathak on 21st March 2017.

The newspaper report he was talking about in the video shared by Najeeb's mother was a report by Times of India claiming Najeeb was an ISIS sympathizer and had joined ISIS. Here is the photo of the report published by Times of India.

However, these reports were termed false by Delhi Police as you can see in the video shared by Najeeb's mother.

Conclusion: The claim that Najeeb Ahmed has joined ISIS is not true as per the Delhi Police. However, another person named Najeeb from Kerala had joined ISIS which created the confusion that Najeeb Ahmed from JNU had joined ISIS.