KASARGOD: Just when the parents in Padna, whose children had joined the IS, were beginning to get back to being anonymous, another voice clip from their now infamous son Rashid Abdulla started doing the rounds on social media.It was the most vitriolic message he has sent so far, shattering his carefully built persona of being a calm, introvert person. In the viral voice message, he calls on Muslims to launch ‘lone wolf’ attacks in Kerala and the rest of India if they cannot migrate to the stronghold areas of IS.
“The media focus on IS had shifted to Kannur and we were spared from the limelight. But this message is making our lives miserable again,” said a relative of Asfaq Majeed, one of the 15 persons to leave Padna and Trikaripur in May 2015 to join IS.
Sources close to the families said Abdulla’s hate message was sent to a group named ‘Gold Minar’ and not to them. “He rarely communicates with his family,” said B C Rahman, a social activist and relative of T K Hafeesudeen, a group member who was killed in Afghanistan in a US drone attack. “The interactions are almost limited to enquiring ‘if anybody has been killed or are all alive’.” At least three of the 15-member group were killed, according to the Telegram messages Majeed had sent to their families and Rahman. Firoz Khan (24) of Elambachi near Trikaripur, T K Mursheed Ahmed (25) and Hafeesudeen of Padna were killed in airstrikes, according to the messages.
“Since they went missing, the lives of these families have become a torture,” said Rahman. “But to be fair, the NIA officers investigating the cases are humane while interacting with the parents.” He said Abdulla had sent him the link to join the Telegram group Gold Minar. “The group had posts related to the lives of people there, photographs of the market, currency notes and men in military fatigues,” he said. “However, now I am unable to access it.”