The National Investigation Agency has revealed that an IS operative called Abdul Rasheed created at least two WhatsApp groups, in which he added about 200 people in Kerala, and began transmitting messages, urging them to join the Syria-based terror group, reported NDTV.
Messages were also sent using the Telegram app, which destroys a message within seconds of it being seen.
Most of the people who were added to the groups quit them, while some people reported this to the cops.
Recruitment of Keralites to IS has become a matter of grave concern for the state.
According to NDTV, the main voice in the audio clips sent via the apps is that of Rasheed, a 30-year-old engineer. He had left a private sector job to teach in Kerala's Kasaragod before leaving the country in 2016. He is believed to be the man responsible for indoctrinating the 21 people who have left Kerala since 2016 to join the ISIS. Rasheed is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.
In April, Abu Tahir, a native of Palakkad who had gone missing in 2013 and allegedly joined Al-Qaeda, was reportedly killed in Syria. His relatives had received information that he was killed in the US attack in Syria.
Another person from Kerala, Bestin Vincent alias Yahiya, believed to have joined IS, was reportedly killed in April. His family learnt of his death through social media. Murshid and Hafeesudhien from Padne in Kasargod, who too allegedly joined the terrorist group, were killed in 2017.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had told the Assembly in July 2016 that 21 Muslim youth from the state had gone missing in 2016. Yasmin Mohad Zahid, who was arrested by the NIA sleuths in New Delhi in September, told the investigators that 21 Keralites had joined the IS.
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