Kerala ISIS terrorist killed in Afghanistan: Why India’s no-return policy is a good idea

New Delhi, Mar 11: A member of the Islamic State from Kerala has been killed in Afghanistan. Najeeb Ali who hailed from Kerala was killed in a suicide attack, according to the Voice of Khorasan, the publication of the Islamic State Khorasan Province.

He was described as a 23 year old engineering student from Kerala. The article said that he had come all the way from India on his own, while adding that it was very difficult to make hijra during those days. The article described him as a quiet person who always had a smile on his face.

The article further said that he remained a bachelor, but his friends persuaded him to get married. He had a proposal from a Pakistani family. On the day of the wedding the kuffars (non-believers) began bombardment.

While Najeeb wanted to call off the marriage, the girl's father insisted that the wedding continues.

Immediately after he got married, an ISKP member approached and sought suicide attackers to counter the assault. Najeeb is said to have volunteered and then died in the fight, the article also said.

The incident clearly shows that many who had left from Kerala from Afghanistan are still very active in the country. Recently, the families of four girls among the 21 who left Kerala to join the ISIS made a plea to the government to allow them to return.

The women had travelled to Nangarhar in Afghanistan in 2016-18 and their husbands were killed in different attacks in Afghanistan.

In April, the head of National Directorate of Security in Kabul, Ahmad Zia Saraj told reporters that there are 408 members of the Islamic State from 13 countries lodged in various prisons. This included four Indians, 299 Pakistanis, 16 Chinese and two each from Maldives and Bangladesh.

Indian agencies are not keen on having these persons back. For one, they are highly radicalised. Secondly their return could be a planned one in order to incite attacks in India, like was the case in France.

Nimisha alias Fathima had left India along with a group of 21 from Kerala and joined the Islamic State in Afghanistan last year. She along with three others and surrendered in Afghanistan and now want to return.

The Indian agencies have been watching these developments since the surrenders took place. The agencies have been intentionally slow in reacting as there is always a big worry with the ISIS returnees.

The chief of the ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi prior to his death had said before his death that all fighters should return to their homeland.

He had further said that with the ISIS losing territory in Syria and Iraq, it was now time for the fighters to return to their homeland and carry out attacks. These operatives are trained in do it yourself terrorism. This kind of terrorism is taught so that these operatives are self sufficient and can carry out lone wolf attacks.

Further it must be noted that in the several attacks that have been carried out in different parts of the world, most of the perpetrators who have returned to their homeland from the ISIS mainland. This was in fact very evident in the Paris attack.

Kerala is already a highly radicalised state. The state has reported the highest number of cases. It has over the years become a hub for Wahhabi activity and radical Islam has spread its tentacles far and wide in the state.

The key concern in Kerala remains Wahhabism and radicalisation. What Kerala did not realise was allowing radicalisation itself was going to become a danger to their integrity.

In such an event letting these highly radicalised persons who had the audacity to leave their homeland and join the world's most dangerous terror group in a different country come back would pose an immense danger to the state and the country as well.