The Kerala Police have placed themselves on high alert after their counterparts in Tamil Nadu warned them on Friday that a set of armed ultras inspired by the proscribed Islamic State are at large in South India. The group reportedly consists of a motley crew of Sri Lankan Tamils, at least one radicalised youth from Thrissur in Kerala and a few others from Coimbatore.
Another report suggests that the group could be an affiliate of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based extremist organisation responsible for the seaborne terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008. The clique could also be one inspired by the National Towheeth Jamaat (NTJ), responsible for the Easter Day suicide bombings in Sri Lanka in April.
The T.N. police posit the theory that the suspects have entered mainland India via boats from Sri Lanka. A clear picture of the group's mission, their inventory of arms, safe houses and local collaborators, if any, is yet to emerge fully, an official said.
Public alerted
State Police Chief Loknath Behera has responded to the caution by ordering the force to secure transport hubs and religious institutions.
He has urged the public to alert the police if they chance upon owner-less articles or witness suspicious activity by dialling 112.
The police have carried out inspections at lodges and hotels across Kerala to ensure that no unknown person had checked in. They have stepped up coastal vigilance against any possible intrusion by "non-native" boats.
Officers point out that radical activity in Sri Lanka had impacted Kerala in the past. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had in April arrested a youth on the charge of having attempted to plot a terrorist attack in Kerala. The accused allegedly had prolonged contact with Zaharan Hashim, the architect of the Sri Lanka bombings.
An online jihadi recruiter had persuaded two groups of people from Kasaragod and Kannur to join the IS in Afghan and Syria in 2016 and moved them to their destinations via a safe house in Colombo.
