Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Oct 5: An audio message attributed to South Karnataka Salafi Movement's state vice president, Ismail Shafi, calling upon youngsters from his community not to fall prey to reported attempts by ISIS to lure youth from Dakshina Kannada district to join its cadres, has become viral. In the audio, which has given rise to debate on social media, Shafi is heard saying that it has come to light that ISIS has been making efforts to attract young people from the district to join it.
Shafi has since admitted that the voice in the said audio is his own. He said that during a programme held last week he had asked youth from the community to exercise caution against insidious designs of ISIS. "Someone has recorded it and shared a clip of the same in social media. The voice heard in the video is mine and whatever I have said therein is true," he confirmed, speaking to a Kannada daily.
Ismail Shafi - File photo
In the recent past, it is observed that some unidentified young men said to be from Kerala had visited tome mosques of Salafi community at Bantwal, Katipalla and Ullal areas. "It has come to our notice that some local youth also join them for discussions. There was information that 22 youngsters from Kerala had joined ISIS last year, and there is suspicion that two from our Salafi organization were among them because these two, who had left this area, have never returned, and there is no information about their present whereabouts. Therefore, we are apprehensive about more young men getting trapped in this vicious circle. Therefore, I gave advice to the youth to be careful," he explained.
He further justified his utterances by pointing out that an accusing finger is many a time pointed at Salafi organization for whatever ISIS does. "It also came to our knowledge that some people from Kerala misused services of some youths from this area. It is said that students studying in schools and colleges are being made to leave education, made to wear long gowns and enticed into accompanying them by offering the lure of higher education. We have come to know that such people from Kerala normally operate through mosques there," he added. He recalled that during the last year, circular had been sent to all the Salafi mosques against allowing strangers seeking permission to use spaces in mosques and to inform local police stations if such incidents come to their notice.
Shafi also said that once the young people are taken away in the guise of giving higher education at the educational institution at Dammaj, Yemen, track of the youngsters is lost as no one knows what happens to them thereafter. "They do not return home, and there are allegations that they join ISIS. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, I had given this advice," he said.
Dakshina Kannada district superintendent of police, Sudheer Kumar Reddy, said that his department has noticed this audio clip and that the same is being scrutinized, and further action would be initiated after careful, detailed scrutiny.
City police commissioner, T R Suresh, said that the audio, which is in Beary language, is under translation and that once the translated version is made available, investigation will be launched by the district police and commissionerate. He also said that close watch is being kept over possible operations by ISIS in the district.