As the mystery behind the disappearance of 21 Keralites–17 from Kasaragod and four from Palakkad–some of whom are feared to have joined the ISIS is getting deeper by the day, Intelligence agencies have reportedly started searching for persons with extremist links in the State including in Government services, even as the Kerala Police began preparations to hand over to the NIA the probe into the development.
The police may slap charges under provisions of the UAPA on eleven of the missing persons from Kasaragod on whose ISIS links there is preliminary confirmation as a prelude to handing over the investigation to the NIA while one of those who had gone missing from Kasaragod was reportedly taken into custody from Mumbai on Sunday night through Intelligence officials.
State Director General of Police loknath Behera is expected to hand over to the Home Secretary a letter recommending NIA probe. The police were already carrying out probes at different levels and in different places “but the State force has limitations in this respect as the case has international connections,” said an official.
At the same time, complaints lodged with the police on Monday said five more persons could have gone missing under similar circumstances. They were a young MBA degree-holder from Chirakkal, Kannur working in Saudi Arabia, his wife and two children and a 31-year-old man from Kanjikode in Palakkad, who had left for Oman on a one-month visit visa.
Central Intelligence officials are said to have started examining whether persons who have been assisting certain North Kerala-based groups that are believed to be involved in connecting people with extremist outfits are working in the State Government services. Sleuths have reportedly received indications that persons with extremist ideals could be working even in the State police force.
They have put under observation some foreign nationals who had arrived in Kerala for yoga classes and certain yoga centres while the police have started collecting information on all persons who had mysteriously gone missing since 2014. Details are being collected about those who had left the State and those who had undergone religious conversion during the period.
Informing the Assembly on Monday that 21 persons, including six women and three children, had mysteriously gone missing from Kasaragod and Palakkad and that they might have reached Syria and Afghanistan to join the ISIS as per reports, CM Pinarayi Vijayan said, “There is a bid to trigger anti-Muslim sentiments using the situation. That won’t be allowed.” He said the Government was viewing the matter very seriously. “The Government is committed to take stern action against any kind of terror activities. It will not allow any vested interests to exploit the situation,” he said, adding that the matter was being investigated in cooperation with the Central agencies.
Meanwhile, Intelligence officials are said to be of the belief that they might get valuable information from Feroze Khan (24), one of those who had gone missing from Thrikkarippur, Kasaragod and who was taken into custody from Mumbai. He had called up his relatives a week ago to say that those who were with him had reached Syria.
Sources said the Kerala police had learned that 12 persons from Kasaragod had reached Teheran, Iran on the way to Syria. It is said that they had left via Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai airports with travel documents arranged by a Kozhikode-based agency which had also arranged papers for Shihaz and wife Ajmela to leave for Kuwait via Bangalore on June 24.
As per a complaint lodged with the police, the last message from the Kannur native working in Saudi Arabia for the past ten years, who had gone missing with family, was that they were going for Umra last July. After that they had called up saying they were in Oman. Since then, there had been no information from them, the worried relatives told the police.
The person from Kanjikode in Palakkad who had gone to Oman on June 2 is Shibi, a college-mate of Essah, one of the two brothers who had left homes with their wives allegedly for joining the ISIS. Shibi’s relatives filed a complaint with the District Police chief when they grew suspicious after seeing reports about Essah.