THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state intelligence agencies have directed their antennas at possible attempts by the Islamic State (IS) to pool cadre from Kerala through the social media.
The matter was pointed out by the state intelligence officials at a recent meeting of top officials convened by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala. Senior intelligence said that IS was a potential threat to Kerala and that the discussions by Malayalis on certain issues on the social media could not be ignored.
According to intelligence sources, the recent arrest of a youth on charges of insulting the national flag and national anthem had triggered disturbing discussions on the social media. “It seems that the incident was used by vested interest groups as a platform to spread pro-IS messages,” said sources.
The intelligence wing has already intensified surveillance activities against the ‘potential threat.’ “Conducting cyber patrolling, looking into specific inputs on suspicious discussions on the social media, surveillance over potential targets as well as former cadre of banned organisations are our minimum strategies to combat the intrusion of IS into the state,” said an intelligence officer.
Some Islamic outfits have already expressed concerns over IS’s efforts to spread wings in this region. The All-India Sunni Jamiatul Ulema had recently issued a fatwa directing the community members to boycott outfits like IS. “Supporting their activities through any means is forbidden according to the basic principles of Islam,” the organisation general secretary Shaikh Abu Bakr Ahmad had said in the fatwa.
“As we had seen in many previous instances like the Kashmir recruitment case, youths are often lured into such traps by exploiting their backwardness. At a point of time they would have a rethinking. By that time it would be too late for them to find a way out,” said a senior officer who had probed into terror-related cases.
