Kerala man who joined al-Qaeda killed in Syria

A youth from Kerala’s Palakkad district who had reportedly joined al-Qaeda was killed in the April 6 US strike in Syria, reports said on Sunday.

The family members of Abu Tahir are learnt to have received a voice message from an unconfirmed source regarding his death.

Television reports said one of Tahir’s relatives in Qatar, who received the message, has passed on the information to his family in Palakkad. Tahir had interned with a newspaper in Palakkad before he left India in 2013, and is learnt to have informed relatives that he was shifting to Saudi Arabia where his father lived.

After remaining untraced for a few months, he announced through social media that he had joined al-Qaeda.

Police and intelligence agencies are reported to have been informed about the voice message, even as official confirmation of the death is awaited.

The reports on Tahir’s death come a day after another Keralite, also from Palakkad, who had joined the Islamic State was reported killed in Afghanistan.

Bestin Vincent alias Yahya was among the 22 people who went missing from Kasaragod and Palakkad last year and were reportedly stationed in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

Two other suspected IS recruits, both from Kasaragod, T K Hafeesuddin and Murshid Mohammed, were reported dead in Afghanistan in February and earlier this month, respectively.