Mubashir Bashir was overwhelmed this past winter when his nephew Ali Mohammed Din travelled from Germany to Pakistan for the first time in his life. Young boys and girls in the family warmly welcomed their 21-year-old cousin, who dressed like the Western people they see in movies and spoke a strange language.
But the family's excitement would not last long, as the guest from the German city of Saarbrucken ended up in Afghanistan waging jihad alongside Islamist militants one month after his arrival.
"It was a huge shock for every one of us when he disappeared," Bashir said at his small dairy farm on the edge of Faisalabad city. The family first thought Din had been kidnapped, prompting them to file a report with police on February 7.
It took investigators a couple of days to learn through mobile phone data that Din was in regular contact with a young man in the city who had links with the militants in Afghanistan.
"The day he disappeared, both talked more than a dozen times," police investigator Shaukat Ali said.
Din's contact, Mubashir ur Rehman, studied at an Islamic seminary in Faisalabad and received military training in Afghanistan in 2008, Ali said.
Police arrested Rehman, his brother Attaur and father Arshad Saeed for kidnapping Din on the complaint of his family, Ali said.
"But during the investigation, we found out that Din had gone to Afghanistan voluntarily," he told dpa.
Arshad Saeed, the father of the alleged handler Rehman, has been released on bail. He said his son was not involved in sending Din to Afghanistan.
Rehman and one of Din's cousins were studying together at the seminary, both Saeed and the police official Ali said.
Din's cousin introduced Din to Rehman when the guest from Germany expressed a desire to join the jihadists in Afghanistan, Ali said.
Din told his cousin that he twice attempted to flee to Syria and Iraq from Germany but failed, according to the official. Some of his like-minded friends managed to reach territory controlled by the Islamic State (IS).
Rehman then arranged for Din to make contact with Pakistani Islamist militants linked with IS in the Asian region, Ali said.
Meanwhile, Din began calling his family from Afghanistan five days after his disappearance, saying that he had joined the Islamic State and trying to convince them he would return one day.
The family allowed dpa to listen to one such conversation that also involved a rebel commander who introduced himself as Qari Ibrahim.
During the telephone call, Din advised his uncle not to panic and promised that he would return. Then Ibrahim said he would have no objection if the boy wanted to leave voluntarily.
The family has rejected the conclusions of the police investigation.
They insist that Din was kidnapped, sent to Afghanistan forcefully and brainwashed there.
Din's mother arrived in Pakistan from Germany last week. Iftar Naseem said her son had never previously shown an interest in jihad.
"He doesn't even know how to say prayers," she said, trying to hold back tears.
Born in the Libyan town of Sebha on October 29, 1993, Din moved to Germany with his family in 2004 to seek asylum.
They first settled in the northern German town of Lubeck, before moving to Saarbrucken near the French border.
In 2013, German authorities granted visas and residency permits to the family, meaning they were entitled to apply for citizenship in three years, according to Naseem.
Three of Din's sisters and two brothers are still in Germany.
Naseem said Din finished secondary school a year ago and was looking for a job before leaving to visit his maternal uncles in Faisalabad.
The family said Din has not mentioned his location in Afghanistan during his phone conversations with them. The Islamic State has been seeking influence in Pakistan and Afghanistan, attracting Taliban commanders and recruiting young jihadists. Din would be the first known person from Europe to have joined them in that region.
Al Qaeda has in the past lured many European nationals, especially Germans of Turkish origin.
Gul Bali, a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan member in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Din had joined a faction of the insurgent group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
"We have come to know that Ali Mohammad Din, now known as Mansoor, originally from Faisalabad, Pakistan, who enjoys German citizenship, has joined an Islamic State faction in Afghanistan-Pakistani tribal region," said Gul Bali aka Mouviyah.
Abdul Wali Mohmand, aka Omar Khalid, chief of the TTP in Mohmand Agency of Pakistan, also confirmed that Mansoor had joined a Pakistani group loyal to IS, but could not confirm where exactly.
"He could be in the Pakistani tribal areas now," Khalid said.
Another Pakistani Taliban commander, on condition of anonymity, said that Din was in Afghanistan, but had since moved to Orakzai Agency of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan along the border.
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