Missing youths on terror probe radar

After confirming the death of at least two suspected militants from the state in Kashmir...

After confirming the death of at least two suspected militants from the state in Kashmir, the Kerala Police have launched a massive hunt to track the whereabouts of several youths who have been missing under mysterious circumstances. Based on the lead provided by Abdul Jaleel, who had been arrested for his alleged contacts with the killed militants, the police have also taken several persons into custody from north Kerala’s Kannur district.

Ummer Farooke, a close friend of the slain militant Abdul Raheem, has been missing since October 8, a day after suspected militants from Kerala were shot head in Kashmir. Farooke and Raheem, activists of Peoples Democratic Party, were accused in the burning of a Tamil Nadu bus in Kochi in 2005. The bus was torched in protest against the denial of bail to their leader Abdul Nazar Madani, then an accused in the Comibatore blast case.

“Farooke reportedly fled from his home at Parappanangadi in Malappuram hearing the news that a voters’ ID card bearing his address had been recovered from the militant’s body,” the sources said. The police strongly suspect that the ID card, bearing the genuine address and a fake photo, might have fabricated by Farooke for his friend Raheem. Search operations have been stepped up to track him down.

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Sources said Raheem’s brother in-law Abdul Rasheed too has been missing for the past two years. In the case of many of the missing persons, their families have not come forward to file complaints.

In Kannur, the police have been trying to locate another youth, Faizal, who had taken Muhammed Faiz, who was killed in Kashmir, to Bangalore under the pretext of offering a job there. It was Faizal who told Faiz’s family that the latter had gone to Ahmedabad for religious studies. Police suspect Faizal might have worked as a recruiting agent for the suspected militant groups.

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