This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Prosecutors in New Mexico have said in court documents that the father of a missing Georgia boy was training children at a remote desert compound to commit school shootings.

The documents filed Wednesday say Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was conducting weapons training at the compound near the Colorado border where 11 hungry children were found in filthy conditions.

Suspects in New Mexico child abuse raid 'had supernatural beliefs' Read more

Prosecutors filed the documents while asking that Wahhaj be held without bail. Wahhaj was arrested last week with four other adults. They are facing child abuse charges.

Authorities say the remains of a boy also were found on the compound but have not been positively identified by a medical examiners.

The children, ranging in age from one to 15, were found in a malnourished state when authorities raided the compound after receiving a message that they were in distress and needed food and water. “They were skinny, their ribs showed, they were in very poor hygiene and very scared,” Jerry Hogrefe, the Taos county sheriff, told ABC News Radio.

Hogrefe said the five adults and 11 children “looked like third-world country refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but with no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty rags for clothing”.

The raid was prompted by a months-long search for a now four-year-old child, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, who went missing in Atlanta, Georgia, in November. According to social media posts by the boy’s mother, his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, disappeared with the child after saying he was taking him to the park.

In a Facebook Live video in January, Hakima Ramzi pleaded for the return of her son, who she said had physical and mental disabilities.

One family member who spoke with the Guardian said health difficulties for Abdul-Ghani had pushed the faction of the family to skip town – believing that the boy was being possessed by jinns, or evil spirits and in need of an exorcism ritual.