The Kerala unit of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Ansar-ul-Khilafa is still active in cyberspace despite the arrest of six of its top leaders by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Kannur district on Sunday even as the Intelligence agencies believe that there could be several young men in northern Kerala, especially in Kasaragod, Kannur and Kozhikode districts, who may have connections with the global terror group or are its sympathisers.
According to Intelligence officials, a Facebook page which was being maintained allegedly by Manseed of Kannur, arrested from Kanakamala along with five others last Sunday, under the assumed name of Sameer Ali, is still active and is being updated frequently. They said the page was updated even on Tuesday.
The NIA had found that Manseed alias Sameer was the chief coordinator of the 12-member control group of Ansar-ul-Khilafa Kerala.
Fresh posts declaring support to the ISIS and calling for jehad had appeared on the Facebook page in the past 48 hours, say officials. The new posts indicated that the page manager had knowledge of the six arrests. The messages aimed at jehadis said activities in the path of jehad did not depend on individuals and that jehadis might get killed or jailed but the jehad would not end because of such incidents.
The new posts, which also exhorted believers to wage war against those violating the laws of Allah, said it would be difficult for Keralites who had been keeping away from the path of jehad for several decades to join the movement. Updating is said to be happening on an hourly basis in the Telegram chat group of Ansar-ul-Khilafa Kerala. The NIA has learned that there are 32 participants in this chat group.
The NIA has found the Malayalam blog of the Kerala unit of the ISIS, which was started almost a year ago and had gone out of function last July after the agency infiltrated it. The agency has also found that articles written by Sameer Ali had been posted on the blog even the day before the arrest of the six alleged operatives from Kannur.
Participants in the group had been given strict instructions to keep details of the account concealed, sources said. The NIA has received information that those writing in the group’s Malayalam blog, which had articles criticising the Muslim organisations in the State, are young Keralites living abroad.
Meanwhile, some non-resident Kerala industrialists could have provided financial assistance - knowingly or unknowingly - for the activities of Ansar-ul-Khilafa Kerala, sources said, adding that an Islamic outfit with extremist leanings based in northern Kerala could have provided help for the formation of the ISIS's State unit. Investigations are progressing in these matters, they said.
According to Central Intelligence agencies, the Kerala Police had failed in taking effective action even after the Facebook group of young Keralites had appeared in cyberspace in the name of Ansar-ul-Khilafa Kerala. This lapse on the part of the police could have contributed to the expansion of the group with ISIS sympathizers in the State.
It has now become clear that huge sums of money had flowed into Kerala from abroad for the formation and functioning of Ansar-ul-Khilafa Kerala. There are indications that some of the 22 people from Kasaragod and Palakkad districts who had disappeared mysteriously and are feared to have joined the ISIS in Afghanistan had been in direct or indirect contact with the leadership of Ansar-ul-Khilafa Kerala.