Terrorists have chosen Kerala as their recruitment base, state DGP Loknath Behera has told The Daily Guardian. Terrorists target highly educated youths in the state to accomplish their agendas across the world, the DGP said. “The terrorists recruit educated youths from Kerala and use them for unlawful activities,” the DGP added.
The DGP, who will retire on June 30, said that the recruitment of people to the Islamic State (IS) is a matter of concern, but it has come down recently. “According to the inputs, Kerala is a recruiting ground because the people here are educated and the IS requires engineers and doctors. But we have dealt with it in a systematic way and it has come down.” Kerala police, especially the anti-terrorist squad, identified vulnerable people and gave them counselling with the help of their parents, Loknath Behera said.
“After the exodus of 21 families to IS-controlled areas, we did lots of things. How many went after that? We have formed one of the best ATS in the country and it is doing a great job behind the scenes. That’s why there is not much concern. But we cannot be complacent,” said Behera, adding that the police have mounted surveillance on the suspected sleeper cells of terrorist groups. Kerala police is capable to handle any kind of threats and anti-national activities. As police is taking strict measures against such threats, including those from Maoists, Keralites do not worry, Behera added.
Behera said that in November 2017, “our team was handling things very well. The Kerala Police was looking into the ‘threat messages’, claiming to be that of the Islamic State terror group, being spread on social media and asked people not to panic. That time, an official statement was released by the police after some ‘threat messages’ were reportedly being circulated through social media. The police was on an alert and also requested people not to fall prey to such messages and keep off from spreading them,” Behera said.
“A lot of threat messages were spread through social media, claiming to be that of the ISIS. Every aspect of such messages was inquired into by the police, including the veracity of them,” Behera said. The state police chief further said that while probing into such aspects, the police also normally give certain “alert messages” to the authorities concerned as a precaution and to remain alert. “We are keeping a watch on critical infrastructures of public interest. We are alert,” he said, adding they were part of the normal policing activities and there is no need to panic.
“Now when it comes to ISIS, let us also tell you that the number of sympathisers in ISIS in India is also not less. 127 IS sympathisers were arrested during probes in 28 cases registered by the NIA. Uttar Pradesh was on the second position from where 19 IS sympathisers were arrested, followed by 17 from Kerala, 14 from Telangana, 12 from Maharashtra, eight from Karnataka, seven from Delhi, four each from Uttarakhand and West Bengal and three from Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA arrested two persons each from Rajasthan and Gujarat and one each from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.” “All the 127 arrested sympathisers have revealed that they would listen to speeches and watch videos of Islamic preachers based in India and abroad. A majority of them said that they would watch videos of fugitive televangelist and Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, the founder of the Islamic Research Foundation.”