New Delhi: A man who managed to flee an Iraqi city controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has called the experience of living under the jihadist rule as a 'terrible dream'.
The story of an unnamed businessman, who also served as an army officer under Saddam Hussein, brings to light barbarism and atrocities meted out by the Sunni jihadists in Iraq's Mosul.
In a heart-wrenching account to The Independent, the former resident of Mosul recalls how day-to-day life has suffered in the town for lack of power and water for past 28 days.
The residents, says the report, rely on generators for power —fuel for which is scarce. Crude oil from Mosul is transported to Syria where it is refined and sent back, but the diesel/petrol that comes from Syria is of poor quality which ruins their gensets.
People live under constant fear as IS jihadists go door-to-door establishing the owners of houses. And in case they find that a house is inhabited by someone other than its rightful owners, the militants wait ten days, and then confiscate any building whose legal owners fail to turn up.
Every single Christian and Yazidi has fled the IS-controlled area, the unnamed Iraqi says, and the Sunni Muslims who stayed back now live in constant fear of ISIS and its rabid fundamental ideology.
The man who fled Mosul also recalls public executions like that of lawyer Sameera Salih Ali al-Nuaimy, who wrote against the blowing up of mosques and shrines by ISIS on Facebook.
The man who remained holed up in his house for fear of jihadists, also says that many Iraqis who hated the country's army led by Nouri al-Maliki now realize his regime was better and wish he returns.
