ISIS threat: Kerala cops focus on Gulf

The Intelligence wing of the Kerala Police, which has allegedly been sitting complacent about the State’s Islamist terror scene after the arrests of Thadiyantavide Nazeer and others, has suddenly woken up to the reality of a more dangerous situation: That the global terror Army, Islamic State, could be trying to recruit youths from the State.

The fact is that the State police do not have much information about what exactly has been happening in this front except what had been provided by the Central agencies. As it has been confirmed that the youths recruited from India by the ISIS included at least one Keralite, the State police Intelligence has begun efforts to assess the possibility of more joining the outfit.

The primary exercise is to put in place a system to track persons with established or suspected extremist links, who had migrated to the Gulf after the ban on Islamist outfit SIMI and the intensification of hunt for militants in the wake of the Bangalore bombings. But this is not an easy task, admit experts. The Intelligence wing came to the conclusion that the Gulf region had to be in special focus after it was revealed by the Central agencies that the one Keralite, a young ex-journalist from Palakkad, who was confirmed to have enrolled with the ISIS, had joined the terror army when he was in the Gulf, most probably Saudi Arabia.

However, neither the Intelligence wing nor the department concerned with non-resident Keralites’ affairs has any idea about the present situation or activities of the former pro-extremist persons who had migrated to the Gulf. They did not have clear information on whether such people were still in the countries to where they had originally migrated, sources said.

“Obviously, the Kerala Police, being a small State force, does not have the capability to put such people in the Gulf under its constant watch. All they can do is to draw inferences from the information gathered from their families, relatives and friends in Kerala from time to time,” said a former senior police Special Branch official.

The State Intelligence has reportedly started preparing lists of persons in the Gulf who once had confirmed or suspected links with Islamist outfits with the objective of collecting information on their current status like whether they are still in contact with their families and friends over telephone or through other means.

The Intelligence wing has learned that several Keralites in the Gulf with past links with Islamist outfits are still sending money to their families but it is not certain whether they are still in the countries to where they had migrated. “There are ways to send money across even if you are not present in the place from where it is being sent,” said an official.

So far the former journalist from Palakkad is the only person confirmed to have joined the ISIS though two persons from northern Kerala are suspected to have links with the terror outfit. He was working with the newspaper run by a pro-Islamist outfit before he went to Qatar in 2013 following his families’ objections to his connections with that organisation.

He had later informed the family that he was going to Saudi Arabia where his father was working. However, there had been no information on him after that and the inference is that he could have moved to Syria to work with the ISIS. The Central Intelligence Bureau had informed the Kerala authorities about him eight months ago.

His earlier Facebook posts had claimed that he was a soldier of the Al-Nusra, that the goal was establishment of Khilafat and that he and two others were symbols of India’s Jehad. The Central authorities have learned that a large number of persons in Kerala have been visiting the social networking sites of the ISIS.