Nick Martin And Bruce Owen, Winnipeg Free Press · Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010
Three Winnipeg students who have disappeared in Pakistan have joined the international jihad, a Muslim student leader at the University of Manitoba says he was told by investigators from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS).
"They specifically said they are going for the jihad, they are going for religious fighting," Shariq Kidwai, former president of the U of M Muslim Students Association, said yesterday.
Mr. Kidwai said CSIS investigators interviewed him about students Ferid Imam, Muhannad al-Farekh and Miawand Yar shortly after he became association president in 2008.
They had disappeared in 2007.
"I was told [by the federal agents] they [the three students] wrote some notes, which were very discouraging: We are saying final goodbyes to our families, we won’t see them again," Mr. Kidwai said.
The Globe and Mail reported yesterday about an international search for the young men involving CSIS, the RCMP and the FBI. The students flew to Pakistan in 2007 without notifying their families, according to the paper.
"Ferid, he was president [of the association] before me," said Mr. Kidwai, who said he did not know the three young men very well, but encountered them while attending daily prayers on campus. He said he was not certain what they were studying.
The officers from the federal spy agency were friendly when they interviewed him, and seemed especially interested in discovering whether the three men had left Canada voluntarily, Mr. Kidwai said.
He said it troubles him to hear reports that the RCMP may be interviewing young Muslim men on campus randomly. "It portrays every Muslim this way, which is absolutely not true," he said.
Community activist Shahina Siddiqui said yesterday that the young men’s decision to leave, and the subsequent investigation by the RCMP, have left some Muslim families in Winnipeg feeling stressed.
"It’s been going on for three years. Families have come to me for stress and counselling," said Ms. Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association.
She said the RCMP have repeatedly interviewed other young Muslim men in the city. "It’s the persistence that was the most troubling — it was show up at home, show up at school. Are they themselves under investigation?" she said.
Assistant Commissioner Bill Robinson, commanding officer for RCMP in Manitoba, said yesterday the three missing students at this point are being treated as missing persons.
"Of course the RCMP is concerned with the radicalization of youth if in fact that is occurring," he said. "But again, I’m not going to comment regarding any ongoing investigations whether it does exist or doesn’t exist …"
U of M public affairs director John Danakas would not confirm whether federal investigators have talked to the university’s administration, but said it is university policy to co-operate with justice officials.