As Kerala sat shocked at the reports that the 15 people — 11 from Kasaragod and four from Palakkad — who had gone missing mysteriously in the past two months might have joined the ISIS and could now be in its camps in Afghanistan or Syria, various Central and State agencies have started probing the matter while complaints came up on Saturday about the mysterious disappearance of two more people from Kasaragod.
The Intelligence Bureau, the first agency to receive information indicating the possibility of the missing persons joining the ISIS, has reportedly completed its preliminary probe. Officials from the RAW also are involved in the investigations. The agencies have put under their scanners certain outfits and institutions in Kasaragod in relation to the development.
“It is extremely serious. However, it has to be examined,” said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday. The Chief Minister was the first authority in Kerala to receive a complaint in this regard from relatives of one of the missing persons, who had got his WhatsApp message saying “We’ve reached the divine country” which suggested that he and others might have joined ISIS.
loknath Behera, Director General of Police, Kerala, said an investigation has been initiated on the basis of reports as the police had received no formal complaint from relatives of the missing persons. He said there was no confirmation to conclude that the missing persons had joined IS. The Additional DGP (Northern Region) has been instructed to look into the matter.
As per reports, Intelligence agencies are of the view that there could be individuals and outfits in Kasaragod engaged in terror recruitment activities. That all those missing were from northern Kerala and that they were well-educated and below 30 years of age pointed to this possibility, said sources. Several youths from northern Kerala had allegedly joined terror groups earlier.
Those who had gone missing in the past two months and are believed to have reached IS camps in Afghanistan or Syria include Aijaz, his wife, his brother Shiaz and his wife and relatives Ashhaq and Hafizuddin, all from Padanna in Kasaragod district. Aijaz is a medical doctor who used to practice in Kozhikode and his brother an engineering graduate.
The other persons who had gone missing along with them are Marshad and Feroze from Bakkirimukku in Kasaragod, Abdul Rasheed Abdullah and his wife from Udumbanthala in Kasaragod, Isa, brother Yahia and their wives from Palakkad district. The two women from Palakkad are said to be natives of Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi originally.
On Saturday, relatives of two persons, Muhammad Sajid and Murshid from Padanna, complained to the police in Chandera, Kasaragod that they had disappeared from Mumbai after landing from the Gulf almost a month ago. After the youths reached Mumbai, they had said they would reach home after attending a five-day religious class but there had been no information since then.
Most of those who have gone missing and have allegedly reached IS camps had left their homes saying that they were going to Sri lanka for religious studies or business purposes. It is still a mystery for the agencies how they had managed to reach – as reports suggested – Afghanistan or Syria through Egypt without proper travel documents.
Meanwhile, relatives of the missing brothers from Palakkad lodged complaints with the authorities. Reports quoting the mother of one of the two women missing from Palakkad, originally from Thiruvananthapuram, said that she had married a Christian who had embraced Islam when she was a BDS student in Kasaragod. She was later converted into Islam.
According to the mother who suspects that her daughter and others could have joined the IS, the brother of her daughter’s husband had also converted into Islam and had married a Christian girl, said to be from Kochi. “I have no confirmed information about the whereabouts of my daughter. My suspicion is based on the reports on the missing person from Palakkad,” she said.
She said the police had ignored the matter when she had brought it to their notice. “My child wouldn’t have got into this situation if the police taken my word seriously,” she said. The Kochi girl’s mother was quoted as saying her daughter used to go to Sri lanka for “religious studies” with her husband earlier also but there was no information from her for the past four weeks.
Reports of Keralites working in the Gulf joining the IS had appeared in the past also but this is the first time so many persons are believed to have joined the terror force. “The complacence we had developed after the 2008 incidents involving leT man Thadiyantavide Nazeer and others has now been shattered,” said a retired top police official from Kannur.