One more former member of the Popular Front of India (PFI) who left Kerala from Kannur district and joined Islamic State (ISIS), is believed to have been killed in Syria.
The Times of India reports that one former activist of the PFI, Manaf from Koodali under Chakkarakkallu police station in Kannur, was killed as per his wife in Syria who sent a voice message to the relatives.
However, Chackarakal police told The News Minute that though a voice message was received, they have to clarify it and get more details before it can be confirmed.
The ToI report says that in the message, it was said that Islamic State would look after the wives of their shaheeds (martyrs).
PFI leaders from Kerala joining ISIS has been reported a couple of times earlier.
A PFI-SDPI activist Shameer, who was also from Kerala, was killed last year in Syria and the news came out in August 2017.
“Shameer and Manaf were PFI activists but they cut all ties with us after they left for the Gulf,“ VK Noufal, Kannur district president of the PFI told ToI.
Shajeer Abdulla, an engineering graduate from NIT, was also killed a few months ago in Afghanistan and had left Kerala to join ISIS.
Shahjahan VK, an Islamic State (IS) sympathiser from Kanjirangode in Kannur, who was deported from Turkey when he failed to cross the border to Syria, was arrested in Delhi and had revealed that 17 fellow Keralites had joined the ISIS since 2016.
As per the investigative agencies, around 70-80 Indian ISIS recruits are there in Syria and majority of them are from Kerala.
Shahjahan had revealed that Manaf reached Syria with his wife and two children via Dubai.
Meanwhile, information on more PFI workers joining the ISIS would strengthen the NIA’s case to ban the organisation.
Ministry of Home affairs has been looking at the report filed by NIA regarding this.