KASARGOD: Shajeer Mangalasseri Abdulla, 35, suspected to be the kingpin of the Islamic State (IS) module in Kerala, was reportedly killed in an air strike in Afghanistan.Social activist B C Rahman - who routinely gets information on Malayalees in the IS camp at Nangarhar in Afghanistan - said he received the photograph of Abdulla’s body on Telegram on Monday morning. The message was sent from an account purportedly used by Asfaq Majeed, one of the 21 persons from Kerala who went missing and were suspected to have joined the terrorist organisation in May 2016.
The police said Shajeer Mangalasseri Abdulla, son of Mangalassery Abdulla and Subaida, was the earliest to leave India to join the IS. The National Investigation Authority, probing the case, suspected Abdulla and Rasheed Abdulla of Padna ran the module and recruited Malayalees from Kerala for the IS.
Shajeer Abdulla, a civil engineering graduate from National Institute of Technology-Calicut, used to run multiple Facebook accounts under different names, including Sameer Ali, to propagate the ideology, officers said.
These accounts were inactive for the past three months, they said. In April, there were reports Abdulla was killed in Afghanistan. “This is the first time we have got a confirmation. But I don’t know whether he was killed now or then,” said Rahman.
He said Asfaq Majeed, who had earlier confirmed the death of Kasargod natives T K Mursheed Mohammed and Hafeesuddin, and Yahiya, a native of Yakara in Palakkad, had never mentioned Abdulla in his messages before. He did his schooling in Sultan Batheri in Wayanad, where his father was a driver with the KSRTC. His father died 10 years ago.
The family moved to Moozhikkal near Kozhikode when he got admission at NIT. His alleged role came to light when the NIA raided a camp being held at Kanakamala in Kannur and arrested five persons.
The NIA reportedly got more information on Abdulla when Moinudeen, a native of Kanhangad, fell into its net in the UAE. According to the investigating agency, he had met up with Abdulla in Afghanistan and transferred money to the terror module in Kerala.