The purpose of the alleged secret meeting of a group of youths at Kanakamala in Kannur on October 2 last was to chalk out perhaps the most vicious terror plot the Kerala module of the ISIS has ever envisaged for the State, as per the findings made by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) during its probe.
According to the NIA which filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case in a Kochi court the other day, operatives of Ansarul-Khilafa, the Kerala module of the ISIS, had met at Kanakamala as part of its preparations to wage war against the Indian Government by planning to target prominent persons, including High Court judges, political leaders and top police officers.
Commenting on the NIA’s conclusion, a top Kerala Police officer said that though there were evidences to show that the ISIS had been wielding influence among several youths in Kerala, it was shocking to learn that the Kanakamala meeting could have been discussed the preparations for the first massive ISIS strike in the State.
The investigating agency had the other day filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case relating to the Kanakamala meeting of Ansarul-Khilafa against Moinuddin Parakadavath (25) hailing from Kanhangad in northern Kerala’s Kasaragod district, who was deported from UAE and was arrested in New Delhi on February 15.
The agency had registered a case on October 1 last against 11 people hailing from Kerala and Tamil Nadu and some other unknown people. The very next day it arrested five people, said to be Ansarul-Khilafa members, from Kanakamala while holding a secret meeting and another person from Kuttyadi in Kozhikode district.
Three days later, the agency arrested Subahani Haja Moideen, who had settled in Thodupuzha, Kerala and allegedly fought for the ISIS in Iraq and had returned to India, from Thirunalveli in Tamil Nadu. A chargesheet was filed against all the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The name of Shajeer Abdullah Mangalassery from Kozhikode, believed to be the chief coordinator of the Kerala operations of the global terror force, also figured in the chargesheet. As per reports, Shajeer had been killed in battle in Nangarhar, Afghanistan and another person from Kasaragod had taken over his position but the NIA is yet to confirm Shajeer’s death.
Giving clear indications that what had already been discovered could be just the tip of a massive iceberg of the ISIS penetration into Kerala, the NIA had taken three persons into custody for questioning as late as on August 4. The agency officials had seized several articles like laptop computers, mobile phones and memory cards in raids at their homes the previous day.
According to the NIA, the forensic examination of the digital devices like mobile phones, tablets and other data storage devices seized from the accused have revealed that the Islamic State’s Kerala module had been conspiring and conducting preparations for targeting prominent persons in Kerala including judges, political leaders and top police officials.
They had also planned to attack foreign tourists, especially Jews apart from rationalists and members of other Islamic denominations like the Ahmadiya sect and the Jama’at-e-Islami, as per NIA’s findings. It is said that they also had plans to target places of worship of different religions in the State.
Kerala had come across a concrete picture of the Islamic State’s penetration into its society in July, 2016 after it was revealed that 21 persons including six women and three children from Kasaragod and Palakkad had gone missing mysteriously in May-June last year and had reportedly joined the terror force’s camps in Afghanistan.