Monday’s arrest of Mariyam from Ullal in Mangalore by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for her alleged links with Islamic State might have sent shock waves across the society but her parents say that they were expecting it the day she overruled them and got married with Anas Abdul Rehman much against their wish.
Mariyam belonged to an affluent family in Coorg and her name was Deepthi Marla. “She was studying dental science in a Bangalore college when she fell in love with Anas Abdul Rehman, son of late B M Idinabba, former MLA of the Congress from Ullal constituency. All of us had tried to dissuade her from the relationship as we were aware of the links the Idinabba family had with extremist outfits. But she blatantly refused to listen to our pleas and walked away with Anas, got converted to Islam and changed her name to Mariyam,” said a close relation of her household who did not want to be named.
O Sruthi, a post graduate in English literature, who got converted to Islam and was brought back to her original religion by the timely intervention of Arsha Vidya Samaj in Kerala told The Pioneer that there were thousands of Deepthi Marlas from northern Kerala and southern Karnataka who have fallen victims to the offers and promises made by missionaries only to be find themselves as sex slaves in war-torn West Asian countries.
According to sources in NIA, Mariyam and the Idinabba family were under observation since August 2021 for their alleged ties with Mohammed Ameen alias Abu Yahya, an IS operative.
The NIA team took Mariyam by a special flight to New Delhi where she would be interrogated about her links with extremists from Jammu and Kashmir.