Kerala : IS link turns more Conspicuous

As the CPM shuts eyes against Islamic extremism, extremists enjoy safe haven in the party’s strongholds

T  Satisan
Ten people with alleged ISIS links were arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Kerala on October 2—five from Kanakamala in Panoor under Kannur district, one from Kozhikode and two from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Five in Kanakamala were arrested from a cashew plantation. Five arrested from Kozhikkode are Manseed of Kannur, Abu Basheer of Coimbatore, T Swaliha Mohammed from Thrissur, P Safwan from Malappuram and Jasim NK from Kozhikode.
Valayannur native Ramshad was arrested after the interrogation of the above five persons. Abu Basheer during interrogation provided leads about Coimbatore men. Hence Navas (24) and Mohammed Rahman (26) were arrested from Ukkatam. Subahani Haja Moideen, native of Thodupuzha, was arrested by Thirunelveli, Tamil Nadu Police. Now total number of people arrested are 10. Six of them have been remanded for 30-day by NIA Court in Kochi.
Meanwhile, NIA said Subahani Haja Moideen underwent arms training and fought for ISIS in Iraq. “Subahani had gone to Iraq on April 6, 2015 to join IS and fight for it. He told his parents and wife that he was going to perform ‘Umrah’. He left India for Istanbul from Chennai on a tourist visa. After reaching Istanbul, he crossed over along with others, including people from Pakistan and Afghanistan, to IS-held territory in Iraq,” NIA said in a statement on October 6. Subahani also revealed to the NIA that he could not withstand the violence and war misery in Mosul and decided to leave the organisation, especially after two of his friends were charred before him in a shell attack.
There are reports that IS operatives had plotted to run a lorry into the crowd attending Jama-eth-Islami conference in Kochi two weeks before. Since intelligence men got the information in advance, the venue of the meeting was shifted to a nearby school hence tragic deaths of hundreds of Muslims were averted. There are also reports that IS operatives had plans to kill four VIPs in Kerala including an SP rank police officer. This plot was schemed in view of the abortive attempt to run lorry into the crowd.

They allegedly get assistance from two religious ‘scholars’ in Kannur district. Some of the arrested have been in constant touch with some of the missing people of Kerala, who are reportedly in ISIS camps in Afghanistan or Syria. They have been deploying ten or more social media groups to propagate their thoughts. Some of them were classmates in Coimbatore before. Their social media group was in ‘Telegram Messenger.’ Manseed spearheaded the team using a fake name, Sameer Ali. Some NIA officers could infiltrate into these groups, again using fake names! When the ‘Kochi Lorry Attack” was foiled the leaders turned suspicious of some spies within them. Then they stopped the social media discussion and resorted to personal meetings. NIA extracted the news that the Kanakamala was going to be the meeting place. NIA made use of the signals from the mobile towers to locate the conspirators. It is reported that two IS books have been translated into Malayalam and they are in circulation. NIA received several similar information to establish their IS links before they catch hold of them. NIA also got information that two Keralaites are put in Bahrain jail in connection with the IS propaganda. They belong to the aforementioned Kerala team. The matter should be viewed in the light of the missing 21 Keralaites reported to have fled the country and joined IS (Organiser carried detailed stories on it in issue dated July 24, 2016 and thereafter).
Reports are coming that a well-trained 30-member team is active in Kerala for recruiting youth to IS. The Kerala Chapter of IS is known among their operators and sympathisers as ‘Ansarul Khaleefa’.
Interestingly, NIA has gathered that first recruits to IS from northern Malabar are from Valappattanam and Thalassery, Kannur district.  Now, the arrests took place near Panoor. All these places are claimed by CPM leaders as their strong bastions. They claim that no other organisation or political group enjoy any influence there. They even go to the extent that Kannur district means CPM.
The Islamic fundamentalists are caught from the CPM bastion i.e. Panoor. Naturally, CPM is answerable to a simple question: How come these extremists enjoy free haven in their strongholds? Answer is too simple: CPM is pseudo secular and is always after the vote bank politics even at the cost of the national interest. That is why the people realise what sort of minorities’ protection they do in the country. That is why their supremo, Sitaram Yechury, is still reluctant to denounce Uri attack. He still beats about the bush and calls for Bharat-Pak discussion!
BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan told Organiser that IS men get these sorts of safety and security in CPM centres. Because, CPM is always soft to extremism. CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s articles on extremism are all soft. He does not denounce it. Appeasement is their policy. These approaches empower extremism. About 21 people fled the country to join IS. Still the CPM-led Kerala government is unable to disclose their whereabouts. Now, the NIA had to arrest the extremists in CPM stronghold Panoor. Then what does Kerala police do? This is the original-like replica of their national stand–Yechury still not ready to denounce Pak attack in Uri and still preaching for the talks!
Veteran journalist and political observer P Rajan told Organiser that CPM is not ready to denounce the Islamic extremism hence extremists do enjoy safe haven in CPM strongholds. CPM shut their eyes against the realities.
During search NIA sleuths searched the residence of Swalih Mohammaed in Kottivakkam in Chennai and confiscated his mobile phone and some documents, which they said would help their case against Swalih to whom the NIA gave the aliases Yousuf and Abu Hasna. Intrestingly, six people arrested by NIA had never met each other, but were in touch through WhatsApp and had exchanged chats regularly. Manseed alias Omar is suspected to be the head of the module and was the administrator of the WhatsApp group and he in fact communicated to them about the meeting through a chat. All the six, who were in different places, had reached Kannur on October 1 for the meeting and were picked up on October 2.
(With inputs from TS Venkatesan in Chennai)