With the arrest of six extremist youths from Kerala on Sunday and three others from Tamil Nadu, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) busted the Kerala module of the ISIS, reportedly named Ansarul Khilafa-Kerala. The group had planned to attack certain prominent personalities in Kerala and to carry out explosions in certain places in South India, according to the NIA.
The five people arrested by the NIA from Kanakamala near Panur in Kannur and the one held from Kuttyadi, Kozhikode on Sunday were leaders of the module, according to the agency. A 12-member group has been heading the operations of the ISIS’s Kerala module and hunt is on for the remaining persons in the group but some of them are said to be abroad.
The group, whose activities were mainly through social networking sites, had planned to attack certain Kerala personalities in the police, judiciary and politics who are known for their tough stand on extremism and terrorists. The same group had allegedly planned to ram a truck into the conference organised by a Muslim outfit in Kochi a few weeks back.
The investigating agency has collected strong evidences in the form of messages exchanged by the persons behind the ISIS module through social networking sites and mobile Apps like Telegram. NIA officials have already held examinations at the homes of the persons detained from Kanakamala and Kuttyadi.
The Special NIA Court in Kochi, before which the six persons arrested from Kerala were produced on Monday evening, sent then to the agency’s custody till October 14. Their remand period is up to November 2. The agency told the court that there were a total of ten accused in the case. The prime accused in the case was said to have been close to the Islamist outfit, Popular Front of India.
Those arrested on Sunday were slapped with serious charges including those under the relevant sections of the UAPA. The NIA also submitted to the court that it was in the process of examining whether the arrested youth had any connection with the disappearance of 22 persons from Kasaragod and Palakkad who were feared to have joined the Islamic State’s Afghan camps.
Among those held on Sunday and Monday, six were Keralites and one was a Tamil Nadu native. Those held on Sunday were identified as MK Jassim from Kuttyadi, Kozhikode, Safwan (30) from Tirur, Malappuram, Swalish Muhammad (25) from Venganelloor, Thrissur, Manseed (30) of Aniyaram, Kannur and Ramshad of Kuttyadi.
The Tamil Nadu native held from Kanakamala on Sunday was identified as Abu Basheer of Masjid Street, South Ukkadam, Coimbatore. The agency took into custody Subuhani, native of Thodupuzha in Idukki, Kerala from the house of his relative at Kadayanelloor in Thirunaleveli, Tamil Nadu on early Monday morning.
Apart from these seven persons, the agency had also held two persons, Nawas (24) and Muhammad Rahman (26), from Ukkadam, Coimbatore on Sunday on the basis of the information extracted from Abu Basheer. These arrests and those made by the NIA from three places in Tamil Nadu earlier suggested that pro-ISIS men were active in that state also.
The NIA feels that the Malayalam website of the Islamic state was being managed by the youths from Kerala. It is suspected that Manseed of Kannur was the chief organiser of the group’s activities using a false name, Sameer Ali. The agency has also learned that those arrested had been communicating with the ISIS abroad.
Meanwhile, the arrest of the young men has shocked their families, friends and neighbours who said they had never had any reason even to imagine that they would indulge in terror activities. Friends of Manseed and Ramshad in Kuttyadi, Kozhikode said they could not believe that these “boys” could do anything like that.
“I don’t think he is connected to any such organisation,” said Mariyam, Manseed’s wife hailing from Philippines. “We have no information about ISIS except from what we have read and seen in newspapers and TV. I think the same is the case with him also,” said Manseed’s sister. Manseed and wife had reached home from Qatar last Friday on leave for ten days.