KASARGOD: The arrest of a Bihari woman in connection with the case of 21 persons missing from Kerala - suspected to be with the terror outfit Islamic State - has once again put the spotlight on Peace Educational Foundation, run by Salafist televangelist M M Akbar.
Police said the arrested woman, Yasmin Mohammed alias Yasmin Ahmed, 29, was an English teacher with the Peace International School, Kottakkal, Malappuram. She met Abdul Rasheed Abdulla, 30, now facing charges of supporting and joining the IS, at the school, said Sunil Babu K, Kanhangad Deputy Superintendent of Police, who is leading a special investigation team.
Rasheed, a resident of Trikaripur, Kasargod, is accused of indoctrinating the missing persons with extreme Salafism. He is a software engineer and employed by Peace International to train its teachers across the state.
Police said most of the missing persons, including 17 from Kasargod, were associated with the institution. Yasmin and her husband Syed Ahmed, a cousin of hers, were teachers of Peace School at Kottakkal. But their marriage ran into trouble and Rasheed offered to help them solve their differences. “But Ahmed divorced Yasmin and Rasheed became close to her,” Sunil Babu said. Several teachers in the school reportedly told the officer that Rasheed took her as his second wife but without registering the marriage. The school authorities dismissed her a year ago for following extreme ideology. Sunil Babu said Rasheed used to transfer money to Yasmin’s account and was in touch with her using Telegram. “So, we had issued an LOC (look out circular) on her,” he said.
Yasmin was detained along with her four-year-old son in New Delhi, when they were set to board a flight to Kabul on August 31.
They were brought to Kasargod on Monday and the district police charged Yasmin with “associating herself or professing to be associated with a terrorist organisation to further its activities and lending support to a terror organisation (Section 38 and 39 of the UAPA) and with sedition (Section 124A of IPC).
A COURT in Hosdurg remanded her in custody for two weeks on Monday. Efforts are on to trace her husband Syed Ahmed, police said. Officers said Yasmin was suspected of being part of a circle recruiting youths to the IS. “We will be seeking her custody on Wednesday to question her further,” Sunil Babu said.
He said Yasmin, a resident of Murol village in Sitamarhi district, Bihar, was brought up in Saudi Arabia. “Her parents are still there,” he said.
An officer of Bajpatti police station, under whose jurisdiction Murol village falls, said there was no one at Yasmin’s house and her “parents are abroad.”Investigating officers said Yasmin had issues in her family and so moved to Malappuram with her husband, Syed Ahmed, who is a madrasa teacher.