Four Kerala IS recruits killed during US airstrike in Afghanistan

Thiruvananthapuram, March 31: Four people hailing from Kasargod district of Kerala suspected to have joined Islamic State have been killed in US drone airstrike to information reaching one of the relatives of the deceased. 

The deceased were Shihas, his wife Ajmala and their child, Muhammed Mansad from Thrikaripur in Kasaragod district: the same people who were among the 21 absconding people who have joined IS.

The missing 21 left Kerala around June 2016 and got converted to Islam in order to join the Islamic State. National Investigation Agency has already been investigating their whereabouts.

One of the relatives of the deceased has received a message that they have been killed, Kasaragod District Panchayat Member VPP Mustafa said.

Background of the deceased:

Shihas worked as a marketing executive with the Kozhikode-based Peace Educational Foundation, an Islamic educational trust run by a local businessman. Shihas's wife Ajmala, who had a diploma in speech therapy, was an equally conservative Hijab- wearing Salafist. " Ijas's family was the first to leave. He told his mother he had got a job in Sri Lanka. Two days later, Shihas informed his parents about his new job in the Lakshadweep islands, for which he had to leave with his family. There was no contact after they left. Ijas and Shihas allegedly influenced their aunt's son Ashfaq and his family to join them. Ashfaq, a commerce graduate, helped his father run a hotel in Mumbai. His wife Shamsiya was a microbiology graduate from Coimbatore.

The NIA has rolled out its list with sketches of the 21 people who left India to join Islamic State.