Pro-IS message exposed; NIA begin probe

A suspected attempt to propagate Islamic State ideologies through social media has been exposed after a Kasaragod resident received pro-IS messages in a WhatsApp group he was added to.

According to a police complaint filed by Haris Mastan, he received messages hailing jihad in a WhatsApp group titled ‘Message to Kerala’. NIA has started probe on the complaint.

Mastan, after being notified of his joining the group, enquired with the administrator about the group’s details and received voice messages, in Malayalam, as response. “I later found out that the administrator was using a phone number based in Afghanistan,” Mastan told reporters on Sunday.

In one of the voice messages, a man identified himself as Abdul Rashid, one of the 22 people who were reported missing from Kerala in 2016 and had reportedly joined the IS and shifted to the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. In the message, the speaker also dismisses information released by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) about the IS recruits.

The NIA is learnt to have commenced a probe on the suspected WhatsApp campaign. The Message to Kerala group lists Abu Isa as the group’s administrator. Reports also pointed at possibilities of the man being Isa from Palakkad, one of the men who went missing from the state last year.