NIA to take over cases of missing Kerala youths this week

New Delhi: The NIA will soon take over the case of missing Kerala youths who are believed to have joined banned international terror group ISIS after the state police completed its investigation.

Official sources said, Kerala police had meticulously investigated the case and identified at least 21 youths who have gone missing from the state. Among them 17 were from Kasaragod and four from Palakkad. They include four women and three children. Two women were among those missing from Palakkad.

The sources said the Kerala police had finished its part of investigation and the case was now being transferred to the NIA for carrying out the probe overseas. The exercise will include collecting of evidence from foreign countries.

A notification is expected to be issued this week under which all the nine cases registered by the Kerala police will be handed over to the NIA, they said.

The probe by the state police was wound up with the arrest of a 29-year-old Bihari woman, suspected to be involved in recruitment of young men and women from Kerala for ISIS. She was taken into custody just before she was to board a plane to Kabul where her husband, also allegedly linked to ISIS, is currently located.

The woman, identified as Yasmin Ahmed, was arrested by a special team of Kerala police from Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi when she was about to leave the country for Kabul on Sunday, police said.

The woman is the second wife of main accused Abdul Rashid, a native of Kasaragod, and is alleged to have played a key role in the recruitment of state youths in ISIS, sources said.

The NIA and police forces of various states have so far arrested 54 youths across the country after registering cases to investigate their alleged links with Islamic State.

The terrorist outfit is using various platforms to propagate its ideology and to attract young people from across the world.