KOCHI: The 14 persons who went missing from Kasargod last year to allegedly join the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan are propagating the IS ideology in India despite leaving the country, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said.
In a report it filed in the court, the NIA, which is probing the case of the missing Kerala natives, said the 14 accused were using various means, including social media platforms, to seek support for IS and promote its ideas. It said it also received information that they were currently at the IS-controlled Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
The Kerala police had, in July 2016, registered a case into the disappearance of the 14 persons who travelled from Kasargod to Afghanistan via Tehran and Dubai to join IS. Taking over the probe, NIA charge-sheeted Abdul Rashid alias Rashi (30) of Udumbunthala - one of the 14 accused - and Yasmeen Mohammad Zahid (29), a native of Sitamarhi in Bihar, who was apprehended from Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, while she was leaving for Afghanistan to join the terrorist organisation.
Rashid, who is currently in Afghanistan, reportedly spurred the mass migration. The NIA report said he motivated his friends and colleagues to leave India and join the IS. Aided by his wife Sonia Sebastian, Rashid also held secret classes and used online propaganda material of IS like Dabiz magazine to support IS and violent jihad.
“Rashid was pursuing Islamic studies from Al-Quma Arabic College at Colombo, Sri Lanka, from where he was prematurely expelled with other like-minded associates for advocating violent jihad,” said the report.
It added that Yasmeen allegedly attended the secret classes and developed a desire to migrate, for which she compelled her husband to divorce her during Ramadan, 2015. Both Rashid and Yasmeen secretly stayed together on two occasions in Patna, Bihar, while trying to renew Yasmeen’s passport and obtain a passport for her child, said the report.