KOCHI: The NIA team probing the terror link of 22 Keralites who went ‘missing’ from the state last year and allegedly joined the Islamic State (IS) found that more Malayalis had attended radicalisation classes in Mumbai, along with the missing persons. During interrogation of suspected IS sympathisers in Kerala, the NIA found that 12 youths from different parts of the state had underwent radicalisation in Mumbai and were familiar with the missing persons. The NIA is currently conducting a probe into the conspiracy that resulted in the Kerala youths travelling to Afghanistan and performing ‘hijra’ (holy migration).
The agency has also initiated measures to bring them back. “A number of Indian citizens, including Malayalis, attended classes in Mumbai, along with those who left the country to join the IS. We have also received information about some radical leaders who promote the extremist ideology. An NIA team has left for Mumbai to collect evidence related to the class attended by the Kerala youths. Interestingly, they are well educated individuals,” said NIA officials.
“We have unofficial information that the missing men had moved to IS camps at Jalalabad in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. We have approached the National Central Bureau (NCB), a unit under the CBI that conducts international investigations, to bring out a red-corner notice against the missing persons,” said the officials. Earlier, the NIA had registered two cases in Kerala in connection with the missing of 22 persons including five women and three children from the Kasargod and Palakkad districts last year. During the probe, two persons who had played a key role in radicalising the youths were arrested in Mumbai.