Although he instantly became popular with his peers, the Soviet leadership arrested him swiftly at the age of 19, on charges of "counterrevolutionary slander", and was sentenced to ten years in prison after he had written an editorial accusing certain Party officials of "looting and corruption", but after two years Israilov was released, rehabilitated, and allowed to return to his university after several of the Party members Israilov had accused were charged with corruption.
In 1935, Israilov once again fell into legal troubles when his signature was found on a student petition critical of Soviet policy in the North Caucasus, and he was sentenced to five years' forced labor in Siberia.
[2] In 1940, after hearing of Finland's resistance against Soviet aggression, Israilov and his brother Hussein organized and led the 1940–1944 insurgency in Chechnya, during which he presided over the Provisional Popular Revolutionary Government of Checheno-Ingushetia.
In a top secret communication among Soviet officers, it was reported that Israilov had been killed, his corpse photographed and identified on December 29, 1944.
Soviet security forces would continue to hunt the remnants of the Chechen guerrilla opposition in the North Caucasus until 1953.