‘Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword’, an incongruous twist of the saying, the Chief executioner of ISIS was found dead with his head chopped off. He was used to carry out beheadings for the extremist group in Syria.
The deceased chief hailed from Egypt and was known to be the Deputy Emir of the much dreaded Al Hesbah (also known as Hisbah) force in Deir Al Zor (the eastern province). According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, his body was found near a power plant in Al- Mayadeen city.
Signs of torture were evident on the corpse and it the message “This is evil, you Sheikh” was written on the corpse. The detached head also had a cigarette in its mouth. The message was obvious, but it is not clear who carried out the execution.
One of the signature policies of Islamic State (Also known as ISIS) is a ban on cigarettes. ISIS has imposed strict Shariah Laws which prohibit the use of alcohol, cigarettes and drugs in the conquered territories of Iraq and Syria.
ISIS has professed smoking as “slow suicide” and stresses that smoking cigarettes in the state of trance and vanity means disobeying God.
The ISIS’s religious police Hibah perform the role of enforcing IS’s twisted form of Shariah in the self-proclaimed caliphate.
One of the news groups released a documentary last year covering the life under Hisbah in Ruqqa during the Islamic month of Ramadan. The footage revealed how the religious police check on shops; scrutinize the products and how they ensure that women follow strict rules to cover themselves ‘properly’.
The reporters also spoke with one of the prisoners in IS prison who was accused of selling alcohol and abusing drugs. Their punishment included being whipped.
It was also reported by the Syrian Observatory that unidentified assailants tried to murder two ISIS militants in Al-Mayadeen.
