Missing Kerala youths reached Afghan via Kuwait, Dubai, Muscat: NIA

Kasargod, Sep 14: Twenty-two Keralites, including six women and three children, who were reported missing in June this year, have reportedly reached the bastion of Islamic State terror operations in Afghanistan, officials of National Investigation Agency said.

These people, who went missing from Kasargod and Palakkad districts of the State, had left the country from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai airports for Kuwait, Dubai, Muscat or Abu Dhabi from where it was understood that they travelled to Afghanistan through Iran, they said.

The revelations were made by one Yasmin Mohd Zahid (29) who was arrested by NIA sleuths from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on August 1 while she was also trying to escape to Afghanistan, sources claimed.

Nikah on phone

Yasmin told interrogators that she had got married to Abdul Rashid (30) in May in a nikah-ceremony solemnised over phone in which co-accused Shihas acted as the wali' (guardian) of the bride, while other co-accused Ashfak and Yahya acted as witnesses.

She said subsequently Rashid used to send videos and messages in support of the Caliphate' and Abubacker Al Baghdadi to her using messaging app Telegram', the sources said.

Yasmin disclosed that Rashid and his first wife Ayisha were in touch with a British couple, who were converts to Islam and were spreading messages in support of the IS over 'Telegram', to which she had also subscribed as advised by Rashid.

Rashid also told Yasmin that in the first week of July, he and other missing persons from Kerala had reached the Caliphate' in Afghanistan.

Funds transferred

She told the sleuths that Rashid had given the ATM card of his first wife Ayisha to her and transferred funds to the tune of Rs. 1.5 lakh into the account in mid-July, which Yasmin used for her travel preparations to Afghanistan.