Siddhartha Dhar, who left Britain for Syria while on police bail after his arrest on suspicion of belonging to a banned group and encouraging terrorism, has been identified by media as the spokesman in the militant organization’s latest film.
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The IS video also featured a four-year-old boy who has been identified by his grandfather as the son of woman who travelled to Syria in 2012.
His mother, Sobita Dhar said: “I heard the voice, yes, but I don’t know, I’m not sure of the voice”.
The video revived memories of “Jihadi John”, another British IS member who appeared in several videos in which hostages were murdered before he himself was believed to have been killed in an air strike late previous year.
The episode also raised questions about Britain’s borders, with Rumaysah – born a Hindu called Siddhartha Dhar- departing on a coach from London with his family the day after he was released on bail.
“She (Khadijah) should come back and face the music because she has left herself down”.
There are hundreds of Britons believed to be in Syria and Iraq, and authorities are continuing to look at a number of possible suspects. He goes by the name Abu Rumaysah and has published an online guide to living as part of Islamic State.
A security source told Reuters that British intelligence had not yet determined the identity of the speaker in the video as voice-recognition analysis continued.
In one posted on his YouTube website, titled “The beauty of the Shariah and the Caliphate”, he said: “I’ve grown up in the West, I’ve lived in the United Kingdom all my life, I’ve seen what a democracy has to offer and quite frankly it’s quite oppressive”. However, the security experts said they could be certain it was him.
On Monday, ISIS released a video rebooting its infamous “Jihadi John” character – a British, balaclava-covered executioner who thirsts for the blood of infidels. Robb Leech, a filmmaker who was making a documentary about his stepbrother who faced terrorism charges, told BBC radio that he met Dhar before he joined ISIL, and agreed the man in the video sounds like Dhar.
“All I can say is I still really miss him, he’s still my brother”. Leech claims Dhar loved the football club Arsenal and rock band Nirvana. “Unfortunately if it is, I wouldn’t be too happy about it and would like to see what I could do”, she said.
The Government’s independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation, David Anderson QC, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “There are hundreds of people who have managed to get out of this country – people who were already known to the security service – and ended up in Syria associated with Isis”.
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“This child is a victim of child abuse and he is, as I understand it, a British national”, Johnson said. “I don’t know what the authorities are doing to confirm the identity, but I need to know if it is”.
