Police confirm ISIS link of missing Malayalees

After weeks of confusion, Kerala Police has confirmed the Islamic State (ISIS) connection of  21 Keralites who went missing from Kasargod and Palakkad last month. The remand report submitted by the investigation team against Arshid Qureshi and Rizwan Khan, who were arrested from Mumbai in connection with the case, stated that the duo radicalized youths and recruited them to the ISIS. 
 

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 The police report alleged that Qureshi, Yahya and Rizwan Khan engaged in anti-national activities. They conspired to incite hatred, engaged in forced religious conversion and human trafficking. Qureshi and Rizwan are staffs of Islamic Research Foundation founded by Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik in Mumbai, it said.


Also read:'Zakir Naik's aid Qureshi urged us to fight India'

Qureshi and Yahya prompted Merin Jacob (Mariam), a native of Ernakulam, to embrace Islam and recruited her to the ISIS. She went missing along with her husband Yahya. Qureshi and Khan had also persuaded Ebin Jacob, Merin's brother to convert. But he realized the trap and returned from the Islamic Research Centre, police report said.
 

Also read: Kerala Hindu girl suspected to have joined ISIS
 

Last week, a joint team of Kerala Police and Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Qureshi and Rizwan Khan from Mumbai following a complaint filed by Ebin Jacob.The police had slapped the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against Yahya and Qureshi. 

 Police have also got evidences of telephonic conversations between Qureshi and Ashfaque Majeed, a native of Kasargod who is believed to have joined the ISIS. Contrary to what was assumed earlier, the investigation team suspects that all the 21 Malayalees left the country together as arranged by Qureshi. The missing group includes four women and two children. 

Earlier this month, Union Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju had stated that there was no confirmation that the missing Keralites joined the Islamic terror outfit. 
 
 

• Kerala ISIS connection
• Islamic State
• Malayalees Missing