Man appearing in terrorist video is my brother – Jalla

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

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Just weeks after Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed revealed to the world the news of Maldivians participating in the religious war in Pakistan, a video surfaced on the internet where by a Maldivian national, Ibrahim Jaleel of H.Moscogge was featured in Ah-Sahab, the media of al-Qaeda, where he said that he was in Pakistan for Jihad.

This news came as a shock to Maldivians and especially to Ali Jaleel’s family members.
Ali Jaleel is the youngest brother of Ibrahim Jaleel, a noted volleyball coach in the country. Ibrahim Jaleel or popularly referred to as Jalla, said that he found out that his brother died in the on going Pakistani war only from the internet. Jalla repeatedly said that he was certain that the man appearing in the video was his brother.

According to the video, Ali Jaleel or Musab Sayyid as he was referred to himself, died in one of the worst attacks in Pakistan this year in the suicide attack on the ISI headquarters in Lahore on 27th May. In this attack, 24 Pakistanis died. In the 10 minute video aired on the internet, Ali Jaleel said that he was happy that he was going to participate in jihad. In video, he was carrying one long rifle and there were two more on his either side.

Ali Jaleel is the youngest from the 8 children in his family. His brother Jalla said that he as not aware that his brother was a man of religiously fundamental thought but that Ali frequently talked about the issues in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq and of the Jewish atrocities.

“My brother talked about these issues just as most Maldivians talked about it. But he never expressed a fundamentalist opinion of these matters when he was in Male’. I was the closest to him.” Jalla said.

Jalla added that his brother Ali who studied in Majeedhiyya School and then went for higher studies to Pakistan, always took religion very seriously, even before and after he went to Pakistan. Jalla said that his brother always advised his family on religious matters but has never seen an action from his which can be defined as religiously fundamentalist.

Jalla said that his brother was locked up in jail during previous administration because he gave religious sermons after coming from Pakistan and that he was abused when he was in jail. Jalla said that his brother later had recurring pain in his knees after his episode in the jail and that he frequently went abroad, mostly to Colombo, to treat his knees.

Jalla said that the last time he went abroad, he had chatted with his brother Ali twice via online where it was revealed that he was in Colombo for medical treatment. Jalla said that he had not heard from his brother after this.

Jalla said that he was extremely saddened by the news of his brother’s death in the suicide blast and that he believed his brother died because he was overcome with emotions.

Ali Jaleel is survived by three kids under the age of nine, two girls and one boy. Ali is very fluent in both English and Arabic language.

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