One more Keralite who had gone missing mysteriously last year and was feared to have joined the Islamic State (ISIS) has reportedly been killed in Afghanistan, according to a message received on Saturday by relatives of those who had gone missing similarly from Kasaragod.

According to a Telegram App message received late Saturday evening, Yahia, a youth from Yakkara, Palakkad “has become martyr” in an encounter with US forces.  Yahia is the third Keralite ISIS recruit to reportedly get killed in the past four months as per messages received by relatives from Afghanistan.

Yahia, originally a Christian named Bestin Vincent who had converted to Islam, had gone missing last June along with his wife Miriyam, a Christian named Merin Jacob from Kochi who had embraced Islam. Gone missing along with them were Yahia’s brother Issah, original name Becson Vincent and his wife Fatima, a Hindu girl named Nimisha who had converted to Islam.

A message received by relatives in February had said that TK Hafeezuddin who had gone missing from Thrikkarippur in Kasaragod was killed in a drone attack. Another message received on April 13 in Kasaragod had said that Murshid Muhammad of Padanna had been killed in Afghanistan.

There were reports that several Keralite ISIS recruits could have been killed in the US attack on ISIS strongholds in Nangarhar using “the mother of all bombs”. However, the National Investigation Agency, which is handling the cases related to the missing Keralites, had not confirmed the reports.

Fears of ISIS penetration into Kerala had become real after 22 persons, including six women and two children, from Kasaragod and Palakkad district went missing from the country under mysterious circumstances and were feared to have joined ISIS camps. The NIA had received information that the missing Keralites were in ISIS camps in Nangarhar, Afghanistan.