Padanna in Kerala’s Kasaragod district is under the radar of national investigation agencies after reports that a six-member family and two youngsters from the village have moved to Yemen. A few days ago Chandera police in Kasaragod district registered a missing case. According to police officials, the family from Udinoor of Padanna panchayat had been living in Dubai for the last 10 years, and had shifted to the war-torn West Asian country from Dubai.

While the members of the six-member family have been identified as Muhammed Shabbir, his wife Rizwana and their four children between ages one and eleven, the identities of other two individuals are not known. Speaking to TNM, officials at Chanderala station said that they cannot reveal more details as the case will be handed over to the National Investigative Agency soon.

Muhammed Shabbir shared a video from Yemen to clarify the reasons behind their decision to move to Yemen. “Everybody has role models. Like some of you may have role models such as Messi and Ronaldo, my role model is Habib Omar Thangal (Habib Umar bin Hafiz is a Yemeni Sunni and Sufi Islamic scholar). I have come here to learn from him. I have come here to study sufism from him, I have no other intentions,” he said in the video. He also said that he was at Dar al-Mustafa, a Yemeni Islamic university at Tarim in Hadhramaut.

Shabbir’s relatives in Padanna also denied the allegations saying the family was in constant touch with them and they did not file a missing complaint. “Ever since the news spread we have been under severe pressure. His mother fell sick, we had no complaint as they were not missing. They contacted us, they went there for spiritual studies, not for any other anti-national activities,” said a relative while speaking to TNM.

Due to raging conflict in the country the Indian government had evacuated its citizens and shifted the embassy from the capital Sana’a to the neighbouring country Djibouti in 2015. Since then Indians need special permissions to cross the borders. In March 2022 a 14 member team of Keralites including families and minor children had tried to enter Yemen through Salalah in Oman. But they were denied entry and sent back. The team was brought back to India. They had revealed to the security officials that they went for religious studies. 

In 2016, a total of 21 people including couples and minor children went missing from Kerala and according to reports they all joined Islamic state. Out of them 17 were from Kasaragod’s Padanna and the neighbouring village of Trikaripur. Most of the men who were in the team lost their lives and their widows and children are in Afghanistan.