Kerala emerging as hotbed of terrorism; NIA books 3 more after the arrest of Riyaz

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has booked three more Keralites for their alleged involvement in terrorist activities. As per reports, the booked people are Abubacker Siddique and Ahmed Arafath hailing from Kasargode, and Mohammed Faizal from Karunagapally. NIA believes that they were in regular touch with Riyaz Aboobacker, a man from Muthalamada who was arrested recently for his alleged connections with the ISIS.

The investigation agency also informed the court that these three people have tried to propagate the ideologies of Islamic State in Kerala. It has been also reported to the court that Riyaz Aboobacker has planned to carry out suicidal attacks in the state during the times of festivals.

All these arrests were made by the NIA after the Easter blasts in Sri Lanka. The rising number of Keralites who believe in extreme religious thoughts indicate that the state is slowly emerging as the hotbed of terrorism. A couple of years back, two families from Palakkad, who converted to Islam from Christian, had gone to Syria for participating in Jihad.

Shockingly, Riyaz Aboobacker hails from a poor family in the Muthalamada village, Palakkad. The young man was apparently radicalized a couple of years back by Abdul Rashid, an ISIS commander who is currently operating from Syria. It should be noted that an audio clip sent by Rashid from Syria had gone viral on social media a year back.

In the spine chilling audio, Abdul Rashid urged Islamic extremists to wipe out non-believers from the planet. He also asked his followers to use trucks and ram into festivals like Kumbh Mela and Thrissur Pooram.

Even in the midst of these developments, Pinarayi Vijayan, the Kerala chief minister has not issued a statement about the continuous arrests made on the state. The silence of the Kerala chief minister has irked certain section of people, especially Sangh Parivar workers, and they claim that Vijayan is maintaining silence just for the sake of minority appeasement.