ISIS in Kerala: Lure of money, jobs new recruitment tool

New Delhi, Sept 23: ISIS recruitments are not only based on ideology. The investigations that are being conducted by the Kerala police following the registering of an FIR against Riya-ul-Rehman have revealed that the recruiters have been luring youth with money and also lucrative jobs before trapping them into the fold of the ISIS.

The Kerala police had recently registered a case against one youth by the name Riyab-ul-Rehman who is allegedly in Syria with the ISIS. The police have been questioning several persons including those who were deported recently from the UAE in connection with this case.

Ideology not the only draw:
The Kerala police has learnt that some of the youth including two Hindu youth from Mallapuram were contacted by recruiters of the ISIS. They were told that they would get them high paying jobs and also give them money if they visited Syria. In some of the cases it was found that this was just a trap that was being laid to recruit more youth into their fold.

Once in Syria, the youth would either be told to join the ISIS or forced into it. There would be very little choice that these youth would have, an officer with the Kerala police informed OneIndia. Investigations have also revealed that several persons both Muslims and Hindus were in touch with the ISIS recruiters.

Although not many have bitten the bait, the danger still lurks, the officer said. If any person has shown interest on his own due to ideological factors then the job of the recruiter is made easy. Apart from those who are willing to join the ISIS, the recruiters are also looking for others as well. The officer said that recruiters just pick up names in random and make lucrative offers to them.

The Riyab-ul-Rehman case:
The Kerala police booked a case under Section 125 IPC (whoever wages war against the government of any Asiatic power in alliance or at peace with the (Government of India) or attempts to wage such war, or abets the waging of such war). It was alleged that he had gone missing from Ras-al-Khaimah a few months back.

Based on this the police questioned some of those who were deported from the UAE. They gave information relating to Rehman and even suggested that he had tried to contact some of them and attempted a recruitment.

So far the investigators have found that at least five persons have been approached to join the ISIS from India. While the police are probing to find out if two Hindu youth from Mallapuram made an attempt to join the outfit, two others were recently deported from the UAE.

However in the case of the two deported youth it was found that they were in touch with persons from the ISIS only out of curiosity.

A case from New Delhi too had been reported recently. In this case, the daughter of an ex-army man had shown signs of joining the ISIS. Her behaviour was changed after she returned from Australia. The father on noticing this informed the National Investigation Agency who in turn alerted the Intelligence Bureau which is now counseling her in Delhi.

OneIndia News