Did 15 missing youth from Kerala leave the country to join Islamic State groups in Iraq and Syria? For the police and state authorities in Kerala, this is a very big loaded question. The families of the 15 youth seem to think so, with many missing for a while now.
This is not a far-fetched theory, borne out of paranoia. This is a possible reality. Islamic State recruiters are all over India, just like they are in many South East Asian countries. There have been terror attacks in Pakistan and Bangladesh, so only the ignorant would cast aside the possibility of IS recruiting people from India. All the missing youth hail from Muslim families, although none of the families are radicalised or have shown any evidence to that effect. IS sympathisers in Kerala have their own facebook group and have even issued death threats to people like Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen. As media started to report its existence, the page, Ansarul Khilafa (The Followers of Khalifa) was deactivated.
Intelligence reports have long suggested the presence of IS in a few states in India, one of them being Kerala, but there has been no action on this front. Muted reactions from the state and central administrations are alarming, especially since IS is no small matter, when it comes to terror-mongering.
