Rashid Abdulla, a Kerala ISIS module leader is believed to have been killed by US bombings in Afghanistan almost a month ago as reported by TOI. The information was received from an unidentified IS operative from the Khorasan province of Afghanistan who had sent a message through the Telegram app that Abdulla was killed in ‘random bombing’ by US forces.
The IS operative said this in response to a query as to what happened to Abdulla. Abdulla actively promotes the IS ideology through social media however, his Telegram account has reportedly been silent for nearly 2 months. The IS cadre had posted in replies to queries regarding Abdulla that “He is no more and a total of 3 “Indian brothers, two ladies and 4 kids got killed”.
Reportedly, Abdulla was a native of the Kasaragod district, he was an engineering graduate and was a teacher at the Peace International School in Kozhikode set up by Salafi preacher MM Akbar. He had motivated and led a group of 21 people to migrate to Afghanistan in May 2016 to join the ISIS. Abdullah was also joined by his wife Ayesha, who was a Christian before marriage. His second wife Yasmeen, a 30-year-old woman from Bihar has been convicted to seven years of imprisonment by a court in Kerala for having recruited 15 people from Kasaragod into the ISIS.
Abdulla is known to have actively influenced people to join the Islamic State, including sending audio clips through various accounts on the Telegram app. He himself was radicalised in 2014 from the IS propaganda content available on the internet. Abdulla took over the leadership of the Kerala module of the Islamic State after the killing of Shajeer Mangalasseri Abdulla in Afghanistan.
NIA had recently arrested Riyaz Aboobacker who has admitted that he had been in contact with Rashid Abdulla for a very long time online. Riyas is an IS operative from Palakkad who had during his interrogation, revealed that he was planning to conduct a suicide bomb blast in Kerala, similar to the Sri Lankan blast.
Security agencies weren’t able to confirm his death and said that they were waiting for a reaction from Abdulla’s relatives who are now in the Gulf.
A week ago Kerala coast was put on high alert after receiving intelligence that boats allegedly carrying 15 ISIS terrorists had set off from Sri Lanka to the Lakshadweep islands.