Kochi: P. Safwan, who was arrested by the NIA from Kannur, was a member of the Popular Front of India. After the arrest, the Malappuram unit of the PFI sacked him from the organisation for engaging in anti-party activities. He was also a staff member of a vernacular daily. According to sources, the extremists were planning to carry out 12 attacks in Kerala. BJP leaders Kummanam Rajasekharan and K. Surendran and two Kerala High Court judges were in the hit list.
They even planned a Paris-model attack by driving a truck through a public meeting in Kochi. Sources say that with the arrest of six men from Kanakamala, the NIA managed to thwart the threat of the extremists. Several habeas corpus petitions have been filed before Kerala High Court alleging the ISIS links recently. The petitioners allege that Muslim youths are behind the radicalisation. As many as 12 persons from Kerala recently pledged their allegiance to IS and left Kerala. The police and the NIA are still probing the case.
This is for the first time that the NIA openly admitted IS activities in Kerala. On its official website, the NIA mentioned that six persons of an ISIS-inspired module were arrested for conspiring to commit terrorist acts. According to the NIA, credible information was received that some youth from Kerala and Tamil Nadu along with their accomplices had entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit terrorist acts by collecting explosives and other offensive materials for targeting important persons and places in various parts of South India.
