Palakkad: Two youths from Palakkad, who had reportedly joined the ISIS, have died in Syria and Afghanistan. Abu Tahir of Puthuppariyaram here had disappeared in 2013 from Qatar and was in Syria, according to NIA sources. He died in the US bombings on April 4, as per a text message received by his uncle in Qatar. Yahiya of Yakkara in Palakkad, who had left the country along with his brother Isa and their wives to join the ISIS in July last year, died in Afghanistan, according to the message received by his parents on Sunday.
According to NIA sources, 22 persons from Palakkad and Kasargod had gone missing along with Yahiya, Isa and their wives, and joined the ISIS. The south police here told DC that a relative of the person from Kasargod, who had joined the IS, received a message about Yahiya’s death. Mr Prateesh Kumar, superintendent of police, Palakkad, told DC that it was up to the NIA to conduct further inquiry and confirm the authenticity of the messages received by the relatives. The local police would provide all information for the NIA, he said.
Tahir had worked as a journalist in Palakkad with a Malayalam daily before he went to Qatar as an accountant. In 2013, he rang up his father working in Saudi Arabia and said he was leaving Qatar in a flight to perform Umrah. That was the last time he spoke to his relatives. Yahiya and Isa had converted from Christianity under the influence of a Salafist group active in Kerala. Yahia married Maria, a former journalist from Kochi, and Isa wed Nimisha Fathima, a dentist and a resident of Thiruvanathapruam (both converts). All the four had left their homes in Palakkad after telling their parents that they were going to Sri Lanka for doing business
