Families of the Keralites who had gone missing from the country last year and were suspected to have joined the Islamic State (ISIS) are in anxiety following Thursday’s massive US bomb attack on the terror outfit in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and the information received in Kerala the other day that a Malayalee ISIS recruit has been killed in that region.
More than 20 Keralites are said to be there in the ISIS camps in Nangarhar.
Though none of the families of the ISIS recruits from Kasaragod and Palakkad approves of what they had done, most of them are said to be hoping that they would return to normal life some day. “We can’t accept the choice they had allegedly made. But it seems they were lured into the terror net,” said a native of Padanna, Kasaragod.
The family of Murshid Muhammad (24) of Padanna, Kasaragod had late Thursday evening received information that he was killed in Afghanistan. The Telegram message from Afghanistan was received by his father Muhammad and social activist BC Abdul Rahman. However, no pictures or other evidences were available to confirm the information.
As per reports, there were Keralite recruits in the region where the US carried out the attack on Thursday with the “mother of all bombs” killing 36 ISIS terrorists. Though there was no official information about the identities or nationalities of those killed in the attack, the development has led to escalation in the anxiety of the families of those who had allegedly joined the ISIS.
In the wake of the US attack in Nangarhar, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has been pursuing the case of the missing Keralites, contacted their families as per instructions from the Centre.
Reports quoted NIA sources as saying that it was almost impossible for the agency to make on-the-spot observations in the conflict zone in Afghanistan.
Murshid had gone missing under mysterious circumstances from Mumbai in June last year on his way home from Abu Dhabi.
One of his friends, who was on his way home from Dubai, had also gone missing along with him. As per reports, Murshid had been working in Afghanistan as a driver after joining the ISIS.
In February, Rahman and the relatives of TK Hafeezuddin (24) of Padanna, who had allegedly joined the ISIS, had received a message about his death in Afghanistan in a drone attack.
The news of Hafeezuddin’s death was relayed by KP Ashfaq Majeed, another youth from Kasaragod who had reportedly joined the ISIS.
A total of 21 Keralites, including six women and three children, had gone missing from the country in May-June, 2106 and were feared to have joined the ISIS in its camps in Afghanistan. It was later revealed that all these Keralites were in ISIS strongholds in Nangarhar. Of the 21 people who had gone missing 17 were from Kasaragod and four were from Palakkad.
The youths who had left the country were highly qualified and included doctors, engineers and management experts. Two of the men in the group were converts into Islam from Christianity and three young women - one Hindu and two Christians - among them had embraced Islam before marriage.
“I still hope that my daughter will return,” Bindu, mother of Hindu girl Nimisha who became Fatima after embracing Islam and marrying Essah of Palakkad, a Christian who converted into Islam, told the media.
Essah, Fatima, his brother Yahia and his wife Miriyam, a Christian who had embraced Islam, had left the country for joining the ISIS.