One of the 21 Keralites who had gone missing and are suspected to have joined the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria or Afghanistan has sent a message to his sister saying that he and others are safe and there is no need for anxiety. The police’s preliminary assumption is that the message had originated at Tora Bora, believed to be an ISIS stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.
According to sources, in the message sent on Friday using the Telegram App, the youth had asked his parents and other relatives “to join us”. The relatives were unwilling to talk about the message to mediapersons as the police had reportedly asked them not to disclose details to anyone outside.
However, the investigating officials have not been able to confirm whether he had joined the ISIS or any other extremist outfit. Sources said the message was sent by Hafeezuddin, a youth hailing from Thrikkarippur in Kasaragod district. It is said that he had sent the message using the mobile SIM he had been using when he was in Kerala.
The first strand of the suspicion that the 21 missing Keralites – 17 from Kasaragod and four from Palakkad – had left India probably for joining the ISIS was caused by a message sent by Hafeezuddin himself on July 1 to his relatives saying that from hell they had reached heaven where they could lead an Islamic way of life.
Rifaila, a dentistry student who had gone missing along with her husband Ijas, a medical doctor, and their small child, had sent a similar message to her father two weeks ago saying that they had left home not to become terrorists but were about to join jobs. However, she had provided no information on the place from where she had sent the message.