On Tuesday (7th November), the Israeli Ambassador to India, Naor Gilan stated that the state of Kerala in India houses terrorists who have escaped from Iraq and Syria. While talking exclusively about the Israel-Hamas war in a Times Now interview, Gilan said that it is important we make sure that the threat from the terrorists is eliminated.
“Americans and their allied forces fought with the terrorists in Iraq and Syria to eliminate them and ended up dispersing them to various countries like Europe, Maldives, Bangladesh, and Kerala in India. They killed many but many came back to their own countries,” he said.
The diplomat also indicated that the number of terrorist deaths in Gaza and the number of persons killed in the attack by Hamas in Israel should not be compared. This is because Israel is fighting the terrorists in Gaza in retaliation while Hamas has attacked and targeted civilians in Israel. “They (Hamas) penetrated into Israel and killed people in beds, raped women, burned babies, killed parents in front of their children, and vice versa. What Israel is doing is killing terrorists in Gaza. The numbers cannot and should not be compared,” he said.
Congratulations… No.1 Kerala…!!!
— Pratheesh Viswanath (@pratheesh_Hind) November 7, 2023
As per Israeli diplomatic representative Kerala is No. 1 in the list of places where terrorists have escaped & settled in India… No wonder Kerala is also No 1 in exporting ISIS terroŕists from India.. First they go after Jews, now other… pic.twitter.com/8ibCYV3quQ
“It’s not about punishment. It’s about making sure that this threat is eliminated. It’s not only about Israel. If there is the perception that the Jihadists are winning especially against Israel which is considered probably the strongest military in the region it will give backwind to many such attacks in different parts of the world,” he was heard saying.
India facing the threat of terrorism
It is important to note that the United Nations in the year 2020 declared that there are significant numbers of ISIS terrorists in the state of Kerala and Karnataka. The report also stated that the state exported terrorists to ISIS and that around 180-200 terrorists had been sent to ISIS from India.
NIA has been investigating cases where radical Islamist organizations have actively targeted non-Muslim women in romantic alliances with Muslim men, converted them, brainwashed them, and sent them to join their terrorist husbands working for ISIS.
India has witnessed terrorism in a variety of forms, with varying goals and locations. ISIS is a one-of-a-kind terrorist organization. It is the first organization to enlist up to 34,000 attackers, roughly two-thirds of whom are not from Iraq or Syria, its primary operating areas. Reportedly, ISIS not only imports fighters from all over the world, but it also exports terror.
Kerala’s ISIS story
It has been observed that the Islamists in Kerala also convert non-Muslims to Islam for Jihad. As reported earlier, NIA has long been investigating the connection between Lov Jihad, terrorist recruitment, and radicalization in Kerala. Kerala has the most number of radical Muslims working for ISIS in war-trodden countries.
The NIA recently arrested several Islamists and terrorists from the state of Kerala while it conducted raids against the Islamist terrorist organization named the Popular Front of India (PFI). Several incriminating documents were also recovered from the terrorist hubs.
The Islamic State has long sought to establish a “Khorasan Caliphate” in India. The terrorist organization first came to the attention of Indian intelligence agencies in 2013, when reports from Syria suggested that there were some Indians among the ranks of the IS attackers, who were then making military and territorial gains in Syria.
Since then, several Indians have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State, and approximately 100 of them have been apprehended by the agencies either on their way back from Syria or while preparing to join the terrorists there. Many people have also been arrested for planning an attack in India after being inspired by the IS.
In a written reply to Parliament in 2019, then-Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy stated that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and state police forces had filed cases against ISIS operatives and sympathizers, and had arrested 155 accused from across the country.
The Indian security establishment has taken a cautious approach to the issue of IS influence on Indians. Hundreds of IS recruits or potential recruits have been counseled, compelled to take part in the deradicalization program, and then released with a warning.
According to a 2019 report by the Observer Research Foundation, “India was thought to be fertile ground for the recruitment of foreign fighters for the Islamic State (IS) by analysts.” Further according to a US State Department’s report titled “Country Reports on Terrorism 2020: India,” there were 66 identified Indian-origin attackers affiliated with ISIS as of November 2020.
The intelligence agencies have revealed that individuals from southern India make up roughly 90% of this small number of Indian recruits. According to the ORF report, the majority of India’s IS recruits came from Kerala, which accounted for “40 of the 180 to 200 cases” across the country. The majority of Kerala recruits who joined the IS either had jobs in the Gulf or had returned from there with an affinity for the IS’s extreme ideology.
The state of Kerala is deeply ingrained with radical Islam. The sheer number of radicalization, conversion, and recruitment centers in operation is still far from making national headlines or attracting mainstream media attention. However, there is no denying that it has been a ticking time bomb.
The recently released movie named ‘The Kerala Story’ rightly exposes how the Muslims in the state of Kerala are radicalized and how they further trap non-Muslims while on the path of jihad. Both the central and state governments must take it seriously and devise effective solutions to combat the problem.
