Kannur: Quoting family sources, media reports said on Thursday that a youth from Kannur district in north Kerala who was suspected to have joined the terror outfit Daesh, was killed in Syria recently. According to the victim’s family sources, Abdul Manaf had been killed in an encounter that took place in Syria in November last year. A WhatsApp message received by Abdul Khayyum, a native of Union Territory of Mahe, however, did not mention the date or location where Abdul Manaf, who belongs to Valapattanam near here, breathed his last. State police are yet to confirm the report. Abdul Manaf is an accused in a case being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Manaf is also an accused in a case related to the murder of CPIM worker Bineesh in 2009.

According to the police, as many as 16 Keralites were killed in Syria last year. However, no official confirmation was forthcoming from Indian embassy sources or central government regarding these deaths. In July, 2017, the Kerala intelligence sleuths had received reports of death of five people from Malabar who were allegedly fighting on behalf of Daesh in Syria. Police believe that nearly 80 youths from the state are still in war-torn Syria.

State police have started investigation into the “threat messages”, claiming to be from Daesh terror group. These messages were spread on social media. Police asked people to remain calm and not to panic. “The police are on alert. We request people not to fall prey to such messages and keep off from spreading them,” Kerala Director General of Police Loknath Behra said in an official release on Wednesday. “A lot of threat messages are spread through social media, claiming to be that of the Daesh. Every aspect of such messages is being inquired into by the police, including its veracity,” Behra said. “We are keeping a watch on critical infrastructures of public interest. We are alert,” he said.