DHAKA: Thousands of Muslims in India have signed up to defend Iraq’s holy shrines and, if need be, fight Sunni Islamist militants in the country where the civilian death toll from the Sunni insurgents’ advance is estimated at least 1,300.

Denouncing the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as terrorists, these Indian Muslims have filled out forms, complete with passport-size photographs and photocopied identification documents, to travel to Iraq.

Leaders of Anjuman E. Haideri, the religious organisation spearheading the effort, said they might march to the Iraqi embassy in New Delhi on Friday to deliver the forms.

A Shia cleric is leading the effort and the volunteers want to protect shrines venerated by the sect in Iraq, but the group’s leaders say their cause is not sectarian, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1950 HRS, JUNE 26, 2014