Kerala’s police force has been put on alert following the reported surfacing of an Islamic State (ISIS) message calling for attacks in the State. The State-wide alert for the police was issued as per instructions from the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The call for mounting attacks was given to sleeper cells of the ISIS in the State through an Instagram voice message sent by Abdul Rashid Abdullah, one of the 21 Keralites who had gone missing from the country mysteriously in May-June, 2016 and had joined the terror force in Afghanistan, a report said.
Abdul Rashid Abdullah, considered as the leader of the 21 persons including women and children from Kasaragod and Palakkad districts, is said to be working for the Islamic State in Nangarhar in Afghanistan currently. He has been active in campaigns for the ISIS over the social media ever since the group had reached Afghanistan.
The report said that the message was received by relatives of those who had joined the terror force and they had alerted the authorities.
The Intelligence and security agencies are viewing the development extremely seriously in the context of the upcoming Republic Day celebrations.
This is not the first time such a message has been received in Kerala. The Intelligence agencies and police had intervened to shift the venue of a Jama’at-e-Islami conference in Kochi in September, 2016 following a similar message.
That message, allegedly sent by Shajeer Abdullah Mangalassery, considered then as the chief recruiter for the terror outfit in Kerala, had triggered fear among the agencies about the possibility of a Europe-model vehicle attack at the conference venue.