The November 1 explosion at the district headquarters office complex in Malappuram, the suspected role of a new avatar of the now-defunct Tamil Nadu-based terror outfit, Al-Ummah, in it and the recent developments indicative of the establishment of an Islamic State network have rekindled discussions on whether northern Kerala is turning into South India’s terror den.
The Special Branch of the Kerala Police, Intelligence Bureau and the National Investigation Agency have already received enough evidences and reports to be convinced that the northern Kerala region, known as Malabar, is a breeding ground of terror and that extremist networks are expanding fast in the region.
As per the observation of the Intelligence and investigating agencies, almost all major regional and global terror outfits like the lashkar-e-Taiba and Islamic State (ISIS) have already made their presence felt in Kerala and latest reports say that the Al-Qaeda is in the process of sneaking into the State and is planning to carry out terror strikes in several centres.
The biggest shocker as far as the security scene is concerned since the anti-terror operations began in the State in 2008 had come perhaps just three months back when it was found that 22 persons, including women and children, had gone missing mysteriously from the North Kerala districts of Kasaragod and Palakkad and that they could have joined the Islamic State.
It is in this vicious situation that the Al-Ummah, which is desperately looking for a low-pressure point in the South to re-establish itself after its ban and has become unable to operate in its home base, Tamil Nadu, due to constant surveillance by the agencies, is reportedly raising its hood in Kerala in the name of ‘The Base Movement’.
The current round of anti-terror operations in Kerala, particularly northern Kerala, had started on October 19, 2008 with the arrest of Abdul Jaleel, an activist of Islamist outfit National Development Front (NDF), presently Popular Front of India, for suspected links with two of the four Keralite extremists killed by security forces in Kupwara, Kashmir in early October.
Since then, there have been many terror-related arrests in Kerala, including those of Thadiyantavide Nazeer, known as a commander of the leT, and Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani. The latest in this series was the arrest of six persons from Kanakamala, Kannur and Kuttyadi in Kozhikode early last month for suspected links with the ISIS.
Security experts are of the opinion that the fountainhead of a major part of terror operations in Kerala so far has been SIMI, the banned Islamist outfit, which was highly influential in the State’s northern region when it was in operation legally. A large number of its members are said to have migrated to other extremist organisations after it was banned.
“Doubtlessly, SIMI has perhaps been the largest manpower supplier for the new-age terror outfits operating in Kerala. When it was banned, most SIMI members chose either to abandon that particular line or joined outfits that operated legally and democratically but some hardcore elements migrated to outfits with transnational links,” said a former Intelligence Bureau official.
According to security agencies, the November 1 blast in Malappuram has generated extremely serious concerns because of its similarities to the other three low-intensity blasts that have taken place in South India this year–in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh on April 7, Kollam in southern Kerala on June 15 and Mysore, Karnataka on August 1.
A per a pen drive and some pamphlets recovered from the blast site in Malappuram, it was the handiwork of the so-called ‘Base Movement’ and the agencies believe that the same group was behind the other three blasts as well. The ‘Base Movement’ is thought to be a new outfit being put together by Abu Backer Siddique, chief of the banned Al-Ummah.
“The ultimate shockers are perhaps the fleeing of 22 persons into ISIS camps and the formation of its Kerala module, Ansarul Khilafa, six operatives of which were held last month, again from Malabar. These (developments) show how far and deep the roots of terror have spread in northern Kerala,” said a retired top official of the Kerala Police who was involved in anti-terror operations between 2008 and 2012.