The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will soon take over the cases of missing Kerala youths, who are believed to have joined banned international terror group IS after the State police completed their investigation.
Official sources said the Kerala police have meticulously investigated the cases and identified at least 21 youths who have gone missing from the State. Among them 17 were from Kasaragod and four from Palakkad. They include four women and three children. Two women were among those missing from Palakkad.
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The Kerala police have finished their part of investigation and the cases were now being transferred to the NIA for carrying out the probe overseas. The exercise will include collecting of evidence from foreign countries, the sources said.
A notification is expected to be issued this week, under which all the nine cases registered by the Kerala police would be handed over to the NIA, they said.
The probe by the State police was wound up with the arrest of a 29-year-old Bihari woman, suspected to be involved in recruitment of young men and women from Kerala for the IS. She was taken into custody just before she was to board a plane to Kabul where her husband, also allegedly linked to the IS, is currently located.
The woman, identified as Yasmin Ahmed, was arrested by a special team of the Kerala police from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi when she was about to leave the country for Kabul on Sunday, police said.
The woman is the second wife of main accused Abdul Rashid, a native of Kasaragod, and is alleged to have played a key role in the recruitment of State youths to the IS, the sources said.
The NIA and police forces of various States have so far arrested 54 youths across the country after registering cases to investigate their alleged links with the IS.
The terrorist outfit is using various platforms to propagate its ideology and attract young people from across the world.
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