Alleged Leader of ISIS Group That Murdered Bicycling Couple Tells Why They Murdered Them

At the end of July 2018, an American man who believed that “Evil is a make-believe concept” and his girlfriend were stabbed to death by five men who had reportedly sworn allegiance to ISIS as the couple bicycled in Tajikistan. Now an interview with the man who was the alleged ringleader in the attack reveals a chilling portrait of a terrorist loyal to the radical Islamist sect.

{snip}

In an episode of The New York Times “The Weekly” titled “Collision,” interviewer Rukmini Callimachi spoke with an alleged member of ISIS who reportedly orchestrated the murderous attack in which the two touring bicyclists were killed on the side of a highway in Tajikistan. {snip}

Soon after the attack, as Callimachi reports, ISIS released a video showing five men pledging allegiance to ISIS. The alleged ringleader of the group was Hussein Abdusamadov, who reportedly spent time in Syria with ISIS. Callimachi stated, “By seizing Hussein’s phone, the investigator was able to read the encrypted messages he’d sent to his ISIS handler who was operating somewhere outside of Tajikistan. Here was something extremely rare; a close-up look at a terrorist plot in the making.” Callimachi stated that Hussein videotaped the attack but was unable to forward it to his contacts in ISIS and thus the video was still on his phone.

Interviewed by Callimachi, Abdusamadov stated, “We were recruiting people to join the Islamic State and were given instructions from time to time. Orders to commit a terrorist act. “ Asked about the incident, Abdusamadov answered:

We had pledged to commit jihad. When we were in Syria and Iraq, we received orders to commit a terrorist attack in Belgium. We were supposed to attack the European Union Parliament, but since our documents were late, an order came that we must go to Tajikstan to commit a terrorist attack. I formed my own group here and committed the attack. When Muslims are being killed everywhere, we must try to kill non-believers wherever we find them. When they stop killing Muslims, we will stop too.

Callimachi protested that Austin and Geoghegan “never killed anyone. And they firmly believed that if they were kind to other people, other people would open their hearts to them. And for the vast majority of their trip, this was the case.”

Abdusamadov replied, “We received an order and followed it. We didn’t have plans to ask them questions or talk to them.”

{snip}

Asked if he felt any regret, Abdusamadov answered, “When Americans kill Muslims, they don’t regret it. We’re the same way. We will continue.”

{snip}

Callimachi: “Do you think you have anything in common with the people that you killed?”

Abdusamadov: “No. There was nothing in common. They are humans and so are we. We didn’t have anything else in common.”

[Editor’s Note: The original story of the murder of Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan was carried by AR News here.]