Kochi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), while conducting a probe on the suspected ISIS members from Kerala, has discovered a WhatsApp group operating from Afghanistan that has been used to communicate with certain people in Kasargod, Kerala.
According to a report in The New Indian Express, the NIA had interrogated some people who were members of the group.
The group was started by a native of Kasargod named Abdul Rashid, using a mobile number he had taken from Afghanistan. He added his acquaintances from Kerala as well to the group.
Rashid had earlier allegedly transported 21 people to Afghanistan, said the report.
“We have examined a few witnesses at Kasargod and extracted messages as part of the investigation into the IS case being probed by our team," NIA officers were quoted as saying.
An NIA officer said that his family members have identified the Afghan number used by him.
It is suspected that the group may have been created to radicalise more people and invite them to join the Islamic group.
"It might be part of dawah work assigned by the people handling them in Afghanistan," the officer said.
There is also a possibility that the group has been formed to gain information on the conditions and morality of life under ISIS after US MOAB attack on the ISIS-held territory in Afghanistan.
The NIA has however decided not to register a case in this matter as it will include this as part of its investigation against the 14 persons who had migrated to Afghanistan from Kasargod.
