A man called Mahmut had been brainwashing and radicalizing him under the guise of passing on religious knowledge and Turson trusted him as a mentor. Mahmut promised to help him study religion in Egypt rather than general universities.

But Mahmut soon revealed his real self, forcing Turson to join the jihad in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria by threatening his life if he did not.

Turson had to lie to his parents and handed a tuition fee of almost 30,000 yuan to Mahmut, who arranged for him to stowaway.

"We were far from home, worrying about being smuggled and killed. We only had fruit rather than real food to keep ourselves alive. People who controlled us didn't care a bit about our lives," he said.

More than 30 people were on the trip, crammed into a vehicle with only a dozen seats. They were hungry and the air was thin.

Turson was soon forced to join a criminal gang to smuggle people from Xinjiang abroad. Eight parties were sent while another four groups were captured.

Turson was told music is forbidden according to doctrine and he had to listen to it secretly and the gang also prohibited romantic relationships, something Turson longed for and was missing out on.

He also heard other people's stories. A man from Xinjiang went to Afghanistan to wage holy war, or yijilate, but had been set up and was regularly beaten by other team members. He said they had run away from ISIS in Syria while others were killed.

A person who made video tapes for terrorists abroad has also left. He said: "Those videos are fake. I can't do it anymore and I don't want people in Xinjiang to be swindled by it".