One more Keralite who is believed to have recruited a number of Malayali youths to the Islamic State has reportedly been killed in a military operation in Afghanistan.
Shajeer Mangalasseri Abdulla was killed in the military operations in Afghanistan, says a message received by a social activist in Kasaragode.
BC Abdul Rehman, a social activist in Padne in Kasargod, from where some other youths were also believed to have been recruited to terror outfits, got a message on Whatsapp with a photo of the body of Shajeer on Monday morning, states a report by Prashant MP in The Times of India.
The message was sent by Ashfaq, a youth from Padne who has also joined the Islamic state.
The report quotes Rehman as saying, “I had asked him about the veracity of the news related to the death of IS Chief Abu-Bakr Al Bagdadi. In reply I got this message, which reads, `Shajeer May Allah accept him' with a photograph of the body”.
The message did not have any other details. It was Ashfaq who had earlier confirmed the death of TK Mursheed Mohammed and Hafeesuddin, both Kasargode natives and Yahiya, a native of Palakkad.
Police said that Shajeer, son of Mangalassery Abdulla and Subaida was the earliest to leave India to join the IS, reports The New Indian Express.
Shajeer is a civil engineering graduate from National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode.
He used to run multiple Facebook accounts under different names, and these accounts were inactive for the past several months, the report states.
Abu Tahir, a native of Palakkad who had allegedly joined Al-Qaeda, was killed in Syria in April this year. He had gone missing in 2013.
In April, there were reports on the death of another Keralite, Bestin Vincent aka Yahiya, who was believed to have joined IS.
Murshid and Hafeesudhien from Padne in Kasargod, were also killed this year.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had told the Assembly in July last year that 21 Muslim youth from the state had gone missing over a month in 2016.
Yasmin Mohad Zahid who was arrested by NIA sleuths in New Delhi in September 2016 told the investigators that 21 Keralites had joined IS.