16 from Kerala suspected to have joined ISIS

Thiruvananthapuram, July 9: The Kerala police have initiated a probe after it had been reported that 16 persons including a doctor had gone missing. Their families had complained to the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinrayi Vijayan about these persons missing. What has raised alarm bells is the message sent by one of the missing persons.

In his message, he had said, "we have reached our final destination." While four of the missing are from Palakkad the rest are from Kasargod in Kerala. The police suspect that they may have reached Syria or Iraq, but also add that the case is under investigation.

We have reached our destination

The message that we have reached our destination is what has set the alarm bells ringing. At first the family members suspected that they had reached Afghanistan as the number belonged to that country.

However it was later on found that they were not in Afghanistan which led to the doubt that they may be either in Iraq or Syria.

An officer in Kerala informed OneIndia that it is still not clear whether they had left together or in separate groups. However each one of them had told the family members that they were going on a pilgrimage.

The police in other parts of the country while investigating similar cases had found that the missing persons had quoted a pilgrimage before making their advent into ISIS territory. The police officer says that it is too early to come to any conclusion and only further probing will help ascertain the right details.

OneIndia News