ISIS recruit from Kerala says 40 people attended ‘jihad’ classes

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has put at least 18 more people from Kerala and Karnataka on its watch list following the

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has put at least 18 more people from Kerala and Karnataka on its watch list following the disclosure of IS recruit Yasmin Ahmad that close to 40 people used to attend ‘jihad classes’ conducted by their leader Abdul Rashid who is now missing.

HT Image

Yasmin was arrested from the Delhi airport on July 31 as she prepared to fly to Kabul.

“We have identified some of those who attended classes conducted by Rashid in Thrikkaripur in north Kerala’s Kasargode. We are closely watching movements of some of them,” SIT sources said.

According to SIT insiders, Rashid used to conduct such sessions in the guise of Quranic classes and brief members about latest developments on the IS front. He was a regular subscriber of IS propaganda magazine Dabiq and used the terror group’s literature to radicalise youth.

The Kerala SIT is investigating the case of 21 missing people believed to have joined the IS. Since the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is the assigned body to deal with such terror cases, the probe will be handed over to it soon.

“Yasmin is not fully co-operating with the investigation. She often argues that she hasn’t done anything wrong in the country and her aborted trip to Afghanistan was part her religious duty,” said intelligence sources.

The SIT suspects that some of those radicalised might have backed out after the news on the missing people hit national headlines. Besides Yasmin, the SIT had arrested two persons from Mumbai who played a key role in converting some of those missing people into Islam.

Yasmin was supposed to leave the country with 21 people but was forced to postpone her trip due to some hitches in travel papers of her four-year-old child.

Born and brought up in Saudi Arabia where her parents are settled, she came to Kerala three years ago with her husband Syed Ahmad after getting a job in Peace International School in Malappuram. Rashid, who used to train teachers here, soon befriended the couple.

Yasmin later fell out with her husband who left the country. She then got close to Rashid, the SIT said.

The investigators zeroed in on her after intercepting her communication with Rashid.

Intelligence agencies are also probing the source of funding for the network of which Yasmin was a part. A sum of Rs 2 lakh was reportedly deposited in Yasmin’s account two weeks before her arrest. They are also exploring the possible link with a Kuwaiti national who had earlier funded the trip of some IS-bound Indians.

Arib Majeed who joined the IS in May 2014 but was arrested on his return to India in November that year and who is now in a Mumbai jail, had told intelligence agencies that Kuwaiti resident Abdullah Hadi was his local handler. Hadi had funded his team’s trip to Iraq and Syria.

Kuwaiti police arrested Hadi on Saturday and an NIA team would be leaving for Kuwait soon to question him.