Did Afghan deported from city join Taliban?

Nagpur: The photograph of a Talibani fighter carrying an assault rifle, with a rugged rural landscape in the background, has raised a storm in the city. There is speculation that the man is Afghani Noor Mohammed alias Abdul Haq, who was deported in June for illegally staying in the city.
City police had deported Mohammed after he was caught staying in the city illegally in June. However, the cops declined to confirm the controversial picture is of Mohammed.
After coming to India on a tourist visa having six-month expiry in 2010, Mohammed had reached Nagpur from Delhi and had been staying here since then. He used to sell blankets for a livelihood and was also in illegal money-lending business. Dodging intelligence agencies and police, Mohammed is also learnt to have purchased property too.
The security agencies had in June claimed Mohammed was a pro-Talibani, whose overt support to the Afghanistan-based ultra-fundamentalist outfit was evident in his social media activities. A video, now in possession of TOI, was prepared by Mohammed in which he had threatened to eliminate members of other communities or unfaithful ones for opposing his religion. With a dagger in hand, Mohammed had vowed to punish members of other communities, speaking with a stern voice in Pakhtoon language. The video was circulated in some groups, following which cops had got a hint and zeroed down upon him.
City police chief Amitesh Kumar said Mohammed’s activities, networks and contacts were thoroughly scrutinized but he did not seem to have indulged in any kind of unlawful activities related to terror during his decade-long stay in the city. “Deportation is the better option than registering an offence against illegal immigrants and prolong their stay in the country for the trial to end,” said the CP. He added Mohammed was deported to Kabul in Afghanistan.
“In the picture, it is difficult to say whether it is him or a look-alike. I interrogated Mohammed but his face does not seem to match that of the man in the picture,” he said.
Kumar also said Mohammed was interested in being booked, so he could stay back in Nagpur, but we felt otherwise.
Police have also said Mohammed had a bullet mark on his body, which he told interrogating officials he had suffered when the Taliban fired at them while they were offering food to a fellow villager.
It’s learnt security agencies had last week received a photograph of an armed Talibani fighter through Mohammed’s friend in the city, saying it was him, now part of the fundamentalist group in Kabul.