At least15 Kerala youths go missing, families suspect IS links

TIL Desk/National/Thiruvananthapuram-At least 15 youths from Kerala’s Kasaragod and Palakkad districts who had travelled to the Middle East have gone missing for the last one month and their families suspect they may have joined the Islamic State.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has directed the police to launch a probe into the matter urgently, Kasaragod MP P Karunakaran said. The families of the youths, including a couple, have not heard from them for the past one month and fear that they have been radicalised after having gone to the Middle East for religious studies.

Kasaragod District Panchayat member V P P Mustafa said that during Eid, the parents of two missing youths received ‘Whatsapp’ messages saying “we are not coming back. Here there is Divine Rule. You also should join us”.