Kerala ISIS chief killed in US bombings in Afghanistan: Report

A brilliant engineering graduate, who went on to become chief of ISIS’ Kerala module and was ‘popular’ on social media for his prolific propaganda messages, has been reportedly killed in the US bombings in Afghanistan’s Khorasan Province. According to a Times of India report, news of Rashid Abdullah’s death was ‘confirmed’ by a cryptic Telegram message. “He is no more,” said the message by an ISIS recruit. The report said that the ISIS leader, who was from Kerala’s Kasaragod district, had disappeared from the social media in last two months. The US bombings were reportedly carried out in Khorasan Province a month ago, the TOI report said.

Abdullah was the ring-leader of the module who had taken 21 people including his wife to Afghanistan to live the ISIS way of life. The TOI report said that the probe agencies revealed that Abdullah and his group had travelled from India to UAE and then from there to Tehran to finally reach Afghanistan. “Total three Indian brothers, two Indian ladies and four kids got killed,” the Telegram message reportedly said about Abdullah’s fate.

In April this year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Sunday had searches at three places in Kerala as part of its investigation into the ISIS Kasaragod module case. The probe agency said in a statement that it carried out the searches at the houses of three suspects -- two in Kasaragod and one in Palakkad. It said that mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards, pen drives, diaries with handwritten notes in Arabic and Malayalam, DVDs and books of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, besides untitled DVDs, CDs with religious speeches, books of Syed Kutheb were seized during the searches.

Meanwhile, the coastal areas of Kerala have been put on high alert after an intelligence report said 15 Islamic State terrorists had set off from Sri Lanka for the Lakshadweep islands on boats, police sources said. Coastal police stations and police chiefs have been alerted about suspicious vessels.

The sources said, though, such alerts are "usual practice", this time they have a specific information about the number of terrorists.

Following the input, the Indian Coast Guard has deployed its ships and maritime surveillance aircraft around the Lakshadweep and Minicoy Islands territory and borders with Sri Lanka in an operation to thwart any attempt by the ISIS terrorists to enter Indian waters.