The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday handed over the probe into 21 people missing from Kerala, who are suspected to have joined the Islamic State, to the National Investigation Agency.
“The Central government has issued orders for transferring the investigation of two cases to the NIA under powers vested under Section 6(4) of the NIA Act,” said an NIA spokesperson.
“These two cases relate to some youths from the two districts of Kasargod and Palakkad in Kerala leaving their native places to join the IS. The Government of Kerala had forwarded reports to the Central government on these two cases and stated that these were fit to be investigated by the NIA,” said the spokesperson. “Preliminary investigations show that they conspired and left country in batches to join the IS. Since the NIA has expertise in investigating IS-related cases, we will begin the investigations afresh now,” said a senior NIA official. The Kerala police had registered nine missing reports on the basis of complaints received from the family members of those who travelled out of India to join the IS.
An official said terror Sections were invoked in only one case so far. An official said the 21 people left from different airports in the cou- ntry to avoid being detected and were in regular touch with each other on phone. As reported by The Hindu earlier, all of them travelled till Iran and are suspected to have either travelled to Afghanistan or Syria from there. Recently, the Maharashtra Anti Terror Squad arrested two people from Mumbai — Arshid Qureshi and Rizwan Khan — who allegedly played a key role in converting at least four of the 21 missing people and facilitating their journey to join the IS.
