Arrested woman had IS links, a conduit for information

Arrested woman had IS links, a conduit for information

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Aug 04, 2016: Reports confirm that Yasmin Mohammed, the 29-year-old woman who was arrested by the police for her alleged links with IS, Islamic State, updated the youth who had joined the terror group from Kerala regularly with information on the home matters.

Yasmin, a native of Bihar, had played a key role in helping 17 youth from Kasargod and Palghat to join IS. She was appraising the youth, suspected to be in Afghanistan and Yemen borders, about the ongoing investigation and related developments.

She has claimed to be the second wife of Abdul Rasheed, aged 38 years, and resident of Trikaripura Udubuthala. She was arrested at the airport in Delhi, when she was all set to fly to Kabul. According to sources, the delay in getting clearance for the passport of her child came in handy for the police personnel. She had almost succeeded in getting clearance but, was trapped by the police. During the preliminary investigation, Yasmin is believed to have told investigators that she opposed anti-Islamic conditions in India and hence decided to leave the country to practice Islamic religion better.  Yasmin has been remanded in judicial custody and the Kerala police are trying to seek her custody, for further investigation into the case.

Kasargod police have intensified their investigation into the mysterious disappearance of dental science dropout Nimisha alias Fathima, aged 24 years. Nimisha was in her final year of dental science at Poinachi Dental College. She had already converted to Islam and had married Esa alias Budson Vincent, 30, who had converted from Christianity to Islam. Vincent was also attracted towards IS and was among the 21 youth from Kerala, including Fathima, who left the state to join the terror group.

Fathima, after converting to Islam was of the belief that, ’being a doctor she would have to touch others, against Islam’. Hence she decided to quit studies. The investigators have collected adequate information from two of her friends in the college. According to her friends, she was in touch with them till June first week. Fathima’s friends had created a WhatsApp group with the intention of preventing her from taking any hasty decisions.

This follows a recent meeting of Nimisha’s (Fathima) mother Bindu with the chief minister. Following this, Thiruvananthapuram police quizzed two of Nimisha’s friends before the college authorities. The duo had visited Nimisha at her house once and the investigators are vetting into the chances of their role, if any, behind the latter embracing Islam. Nimisha belongs to a family of devout Hindus, with her mother being one of the major claimants of a popular temple in Thiruvananthapuram. Nimisha is the only child to her parents.

Fake Kasargod passports : The central vigilance wing is learnt to have widened its investigation, covering the passport racket in Kasargod. The investigators have collected information on 250 fake passport centres.

The fact is that most of the entrants from Kerala to IS had fake passports. Following this, the central and state vigilance wings have launched a joint operation and also zeroed in on such centres at Kanhangad. A travel agency near the bus stand was raided recently and passports, computers and other gadgets used in printing the same were recovered. The agency has been locked and the police have intensified their probe.

Interestingly, the illegal activities in the agency came to light after a passport applicant was caught along with dubious documents by the passport officials at Kozhikode. During interrogation, the youth spilled the beans about fake passport centres, which eventually led to the raid on the travel agency.

The investigators are aware of a huge racket in Kanhangad, where those involved in the same are adept in printing passports and also relevant documents in no time. Most of them have flown to Gulf and other countries using such passports.  It may be recalled that the police had busted a duplicate passport racket at a lodge here two years ago.