The ongoing ‘crackdown’ by the Kerala Police and the NIA on the alleged operatives of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the State has put the Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political wing, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), in a difficult spot just when the call for outlawing them is strengthening.
What has made the position of the two organisations, facing the charge of indulging in extremist activities since the chopping off of the right hand of a college professor for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad on July 4, 2010, indefensible is the confirmed connection many of those arrested in Kannur and elsewhere with ISIS and those who had reportedly been killed in battles for the terror group in Syria and Afghanistan.
According to the police, at least three of the five persons arrested for ISIS links from Kannur last week were formerly active workers of PFI-SDPI while a fourth, UK Hamza Ibrahim, had helped several workers of the outfits to find their way to the terror force. They say a minimum of ten PFI-SDPI workers from North Kerala have enrolled with the ISIS.
“We are not saying that the PFI or the SDPI has been working as recruiting agents for the Islamic State. But we can’t look the other way when we find that 80 per cent of the ISIS recruits have PFI-SDPI background,” said a top police official. “Also, this is not enough reason to recommend a ban on them. It has to come as a political and executive decision,” he added.
The police say that KC Midhilaj and MV Rashid of Munderi and KV Abdul Razaq of Mayyil, arrested in Kannur for ISIS links on Wednesday were former activists of the PFI. Similarly, Shajahan Valluvakkandy of Koodali, Kannur, arrested in New Delhi early July while preparing to leave for Turkey en route to Syria, also was a former Popular Front activist, they say.
The investigators have also found that Muhammad Shajil of Munderi, TV Shameer from Pappinissery and Rishal of Valapattanam — three of the five persons who were said to have been killed in Syria while fighting for the ISIS were former PFI workers. It is also said that Shameer was a regional convener of the PFI.
Apart from them, Safwan of Tirur in Malappuram district and Manseed of Thalassery, who were arrested by the NIA from Kanakamala in Kannur district on October 2, 2016 for ISIS links, were also PFI activists, investigators say. Among them, Safwan was said to be an employee with Thejas, a daily newspaper in Malayalam run by the Popular Front.
Even top leaders of the PFI and SDPI admit that some of those who had enrolled with the ISIS and migrated to Syria and Afghanistan to wage Jehad might have been formerly workers of those outfits. “However, we are certain that they had no connections at all with our organisations after they had allegedly joined the Jehadi outfit,” said a Kozhikode-based PFI leader.
At the same time, PFI-SDPI leaderships are expressing surprise and anxiety over the sudden intensification of the hunt for the “so-called” ISIS operatives. “Why so much hype and many arrests in so short a timeIJ Most of those arrested had returned home several months ago and the police had questioned them several times. Why this crackdown nowIJ” he asks.
At least some PFI leaders are suspicious that the ongoing police-NIA campaign is part of an effort to prepare the ground for outlawing it, a recommendation for which is said to be pending before the Union Home Department. “Our area of concern is India. We don’t send people to Syria or elsewhere. We have no stakes in what is happening in West Asia,” said the PFI leader.
That the attention of the investigating and intelligence agencies pursuing ISIS-related cases has turned towards the PFI-SDPI has given immense relief to the Salafists in Kerala who were under intense surveillance after the first reports of large-scale recruitment came up following the disappearance of 21 people from Kasaragod and Palakkad into Afghan ISIS camps last year.