A man from Kerala, who is suspected to have joined the ISIS, was killed in Afghanistan. (File)
Highlights
- Murshid was among 21 who had gone missing from Kerala last year
- Telegram messages to parents claim he has been killed in Afghanistan
- Not yet known if US MOAB or drone strike killed him
On Thursday, Kerala-based businessman, received two messages on mobile app Telegram that said his 23-year-old son Murshid Muhammed had been killed in US military bombing in Afghanistan. Murshid was among 22 young people from Kerala who went missing last year and are suspected to have joined the terror group ISIS.
It is not known yet whether Murshid was killed in the massive GBU-43/B
Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb or MOAB strike on a deep tunnel complex in Afghanistan,
or in a US drone attack.
The MOAB, also called the "Mother Of All Bombs", hit ISIS hideouts in the Achin district in eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday,
killing at least 36 members of the ISIS, according to Afghan officials. The GBU-43/B is the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in combat, the US Air Force said.
The National Investigative Agency or NIA, which handles terror cases in India, is trying to confirm Murshid's death. Two other young men from Kerala who are believed to have joined the ISIS allegedly messaged their parents yesterday to say that they had survived the US bombing in Nangarhar and had moved to safer areas.
One of the messages that the parents of the missing Kerala man received on Telegram.
The NIA said that of the 22 people from Kerala suspected to have joined the ISIS, 17 were known to be based in Nangarhar, where US dropped the giant bomb. The investigation agency is in touch with their families.
Murshid Muhammed's parents reached their hometown of Padna in Kasargod district of Kerala today and said they did not wish to speak publicly, only stating that "what our son did is wrong."
Murshid and the others - there were four women among the 22 that went missing. all in their 20s - had disappeared last year after travelling to the Middle East. They went missing between June and August and the NIA registered two cases in Kerala's Palakkad and Kasaragod in October 2016.
The suspected ISIS members are allegedly in touch with their families through the Telegram app, which allows a message to "self-destruct" or get automatically deleted in some time.
Two months ago, a 24-year-old T K Hafeesudeen was killed in a drone attack in Afghanistan. He too was from Padna.