Going Radical In India

Muslims in India's most literate state are politically empowered and financially prosperous, yet easy targets for jihadi head hunters, including the ISIS.

- Ullekh NP

When the UAE deported four young men back to India for suspected ties with the Islamic State (IS), the immediate response from Muslim organisations in the southern state of Kerala was that it was a knee-jerk reaction. “After all, all these Middle Eastern countries are scared of the IS. Maybe they were over-reacting,” says a senior police officer based in Thiruvananthapuram who adds that “radical Muslim outfits here have always had global ties”. Requesting anonymity, he says, “There are indications that the high incidence of smuggling gold into Kerala could well be one way that funds are allocated by their financiers abroad.”

An intelligence official in Delhi blames it on the “ineffectiveness” of the state police to track the “link between gold smuggling and terrorism.” But even after security forces busted a huge gold smuggling racket at Cochin International Airport in July, the Customs Department had rejected any link between the racket and jihadi groups. A customs officer had said in a statement that the focus of investigation was only on smuggling and related economic offences. Officials had arrested a Kerala constable who worked on deputation as an immigration official at Cochin International Airport for allegedly facilitating the smuggling of the metal.