Edakkad jihadi terror recruitment by LeT. Case of 2008

4 Malayalis were found killed among the jihadis gunned down by the armed forces at the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir during October 2008. Meanwhile, in Kerala an unrelated investigation by Edakkad SI Sunil Kumar found that a SIMI aide named Abdul Jaleel had received phone calls from J&K regarding the deaths of the four Malayali jihadis. This led to the discovery of a wide terror recruitment network operating in Kerala for the purpose of Jihad in Kashmir.

Thadiyantavide Naseer

The recruitment operation was carried out under the leadership of the then Lashkar e Taiba(LeT) commander of South India Thadiyantavide Naseer of Kozhikode blasts and Kalamassery bus burning infamy. At the time of discovery by the authorities, the module had 24 personnel including Naseer and the four who were killed in the encounter in Kashmir. The group had grown by attracting youth through incitement against the Indian state that was done under the guise of Islamic spiritual classes conducted in various places including Mosques in North/Central Kerala and Hyderabad.

A number of the group members went to J&K for terror training and there they were encountered by Indian forces killing four. It is notable that one of those killed (Mohammed Yassin) was a Christian(Varghese Joseph) who was converted to Islam by another in the same group. Some escaped the encounter and fled to Kerala and laid low using false identities. Later 18 got arrested of whom 13 were convicted by a NIA court on 1 October 2013.