The Kerala Story, starring Adah Sharma, is set to be released on May 5 and the trailer of the film is now out. The film is directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s movie. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has cleared the movie with an A certificate and ordered 10 cuts, and the Kerala High Court refused to stay the release of the movie.
‘The Kerala Story’ is a dramatic representation of the heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories of women from Kerala who were radicalized to join the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) terrorist ranks. It is notable that many of these women from Kerala joining ISIS were converted to Islam from Hinduism and Christianity with the motive of sending them to the terrorist organization ISIS.
The trailer opens with a picturesque terrain of Kerala and establishes Shalini Unnikrishnan – the lead character played by Adah Sharma. The trailer subsequently details Shalini’s Hindu family through visuals before revealing that officers interrogated her because she worked as an ISIS terrorist. Shalini tells the officers, “Rather than knowing when I joined ISIS, it’s more important to know why and how I joined ISIS, Sir.”
And then the trailer shows how innocent Hindu girls are systematically trapped into love jihad and converted to Islam.
The character of ‘Shalini Unnikrishnan’ in The Kerala Story is loosely based on Nimisha alias Fathima Isa
The character ‘Shalini Unnikrishnan’ in The Kerala Story is loosely based on the life of Nimisha alias Fathima Isa, one of the four women from Kerala who fled to Afghanistan, between 2016 and 2018, to join the terror outfit ISIS and wage war against the US forces in ISIS-controlled Khorasan Province.
The three others who fled along with Nimisha alias Fathima were identified as Sonia Sebastian alias Ayisha, Merrin Jacob alias Mariyam and Raffaela, known as ISIS brides. Nimisha is currently lodged in an Afghanistan prison after her husband, an ISIS terrorist, was killed in an attack.
Her real name is Nimisha Sampath. She was a Hindu and later embraced Islam. She also changed her name to Fathima Isa.
In November 2015, Nimisha, a BDS student, went missing from her college in Kasaragod with Rehman, and 19 others from Kerala before reaching an ISIS-controlled territory in Afghanistan. Nimisha and Merrin left Kerala for Afganistan with their husbands, Bexin Vincent and Bestin Vincent.
While Nimisha and Merrin became Fathima and Mariyam and after converting to Islam, their husbands also took the names Isha and Yahya after converting. In June-July of 2016, Nimisha gave birth to a girl named Ummu Kulusu. Reportedly, Nimisha was pregnant when she left India.
Nimisha alias Fathima got radicalized by an ISIS frontman in Kerala Abdul Rashid. In May 2016, she left India after telling her famly that she is travelling to Sri Lanka for religious studies. But she along with her husband and others went to Syria to join the Islamic State. From Syria they moved to Afghanistan after some time. In August 2016, NIA registered an FIR and issued red corner notices against the 21 persons.
Following the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a group of 10 women and 21 children (including Nimisha and Ummu Kulusu) surrendered before Afghan authorities in October 2019. They surrendered after their husbands were killed in the fight with the forces there, after which they were put in jail. After that it became known that some Indans who had joined ISIS were lodged in an Afghan jail.
Nimisha alias Fathima, her husband Bexin and their children were spotted in a photograph from Afghanaistan in 2019, and they were identified by Nimisha’s family. They were identified from the photographs provided by the NIA officials as part of the verification. Bexin’s family also confrmed the identity.
The family had earlier alleged that it was a case of love jihad as the girl was converted. “My children were religious and patriotic. My son wanted to be a military officer and daughter chose to be a dentist,” Nimisha’s brother Bindu had said. She had also said that Fathima was also forcibly subjected to abortion by Syed Rahman.
Bindu Sampath had said that her daughter was was “brainwashed” at a coaching centre in Thiruvananthapuram by terrorists and a doctor. She also said that Nimisha didn’t know that her husband was a ISIS terrorist.
In Kerala, Fathima’s mother Bindu K filed a petition seeking the repatriation of her daughter and four-year-old granddaughter. Bindu alleged that her daughter was a victim of targeted conversion to Islam through marriage or, ‘Love Jihad’. Bindu also moved the Supreme Court seeking a probe by a central agency into the religious conversions by extremist groups.
The Indian investigation agencies interviewed the four women living with children in Kabul. During the interview with the women, the investigation agencies found out that they have a strong stance in favour of Islamic terrorism.
Govt of India had declined to facilitate return of four Kerala women who had joined ISIS
The government of India had earlier announced that it would not allow the return of four Kerala women who had joined ISIS namely Sonia alias Ayisha, Merrin Jacob alias Mariyam, Nimisha alias Fathima, and another woman named Raffaela.
Soon after, Bindu Sampath, the mother of ISIS terrorist Nimisha Fathima urged the Indian government to bring her daughter back from Afghanistan. She had reportedly said, “I’ve heard that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a very kind-hearted person. I have full faith in him.”
Bindu lamented that she had not received any communication from the Indian government so far. “But I am very positive because there will be other views also in the government. I am banking on that. I believe in God. I am sure that God will create a situation for her return,” she had opined.
Notably, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, jails were broken and many former prisoners were set free. Since the Taliban are running the country and it is not formally recognised by most governments in the world, there is no status update on former prisoners of the erstwhile government of Afghanistan. Indian citizens residing in Afghanistan legally with valid documents were evacuated by special flights arranged by the Indian government.
Reportedly, Nimisha Fathima and her daughter were among the hundreds of prisoners released by the Taliban, and the Taliban authorities had offered to deport them to India, along with other Indians. But the Indian govt decided not to bring them back.
From radicalization to forced conversion to ISIS connection, there is an obvious resemblance in the life journeys of Shalini Unnikrishnan, the lead character played by Adah Sharma in the upcoming Bollywood film The Kerala Story, and Nimisha Sampath alias Fathima Isa. In the trailer, the character named Shalini Unnikrishnan says that there were 32,000 women like her who joined ISIS and have now landed in Afghanistan jail.
‘The Kerala Story’ narrates the pain of such converted Muslim women from Kerala who were sent to ISIS as terrorists only to get buried in the deserts of Yemen and Syria. A dreaded game of converting a normal girl to an ISIS terrorist is being played in Kerala for the last few years. Increasing radicalization in the southern state because of the activities of Islamist organizations like the Popular Front of India and its other allied outfits is responsible for this trafficking of girls to the gulf.
