A youth from here who joined the Islamic State (IS) in Syria a year ago is believed to have been killed, police sources said here on Wednesday.
Muhammad Shajil (30), who joined the jihadist group along with four others from his native place near Koodali, has been killed, according to a WhatsApp message sent by his wife, Hafziya (24), who had also joined him with their two young children.
The voice message sent to his younger brother in Dubai said that Shajil became a ‘shaheed’ after he had been shot in his leg. The wife said she along with her kids were staying with several other women whose husbands had been martyred, the police sources said adding that in the message she also quoted verses from the Koran. She wanted the message to be conveyed to her mother-in-law, the sources said.
The police said Shajil of Palllikkal House at Kamalpeedika, near Mundery, had gone to Syria with V.K. Shajahan of Koodali here, who had been arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in New Delhi after he was deported from Turkey while he was trying to cross the Turkey-Syrian border.
In his statement, recorded by the NIA, the names of Shajil and his wife were mentioned, the police sources said. The police said that Shajil, like Shajahan, was a Popular Front of India (PFI) worker. The Chakkarakkal police had registered four cases of attacks on Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers, the sources said. After completing his Plus Two, he had worked as a driver of a vegetable vendor’s vehicle. He had been in Saudi Arabia for one-and-a-half-years, the police said.
The police said the couple had gone with their children to Dubai 10 months ago. They used to meet Hafziya’s father working in Dubai occasionally. It was during their stay in Dubai they had gone to Syria, the police sources said quoting their relatives. His family used to get occasional WhatsApp messages from Syria.