National Investigation Agency (NIA) revealed that eight persons (hailing from Kasargode, Kerala), identified as Murshid Mohammed TK, Muhammed Marwan, Hafesudheen Theke Koleth, Muhammed Manzad, Shihas KP, Ajmala, Bestin and Shibi KT, among the 23 Keralites who reached Afghanistan to join Islamic State (IS) were killed in air strikes, reports mynation.com on September 20. The sources said that the eight were killed in air strikes carried out by the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province since 2016. The NIA cases against these persons will exist till the time their death is officially confirmed.
In a similar incident, another leader of an IS module in Kerala, identified as Rashid Abdulla, was a killed in Afghanistan in ’random bombing’ by US forces in June, 2019. A Telegram message revealed that the IS recruiter was killed in Khorasan Province.