Did alleged terrorist Siddique Kappan consider entering Syria through Georgia and joining the Islamic State (ISIS)? The most recent information was made public following another terrorist Mohammad Polakanni’s recent conviction in the Kanakamala Islamic State (IS) module case by an Ernakulam NIA court. However, Polakanni could not cross the border between Georgia and Turkey to enter Syria.
Kappan may have had a similar strategy, and the NIA is looking into his connections to ISIS. Kappan has been imprisoned since early September 2020 and has undeniable ties to the Popular Front of India (PFI), which has been declared illegal. Authorities released a copy of Kappan’s visa, which the Georgian government had authorized sometime in 2017. Mainstream media refused to report this angle.
While living in Delhi, Kappan presented himself as a struggling journalist. Kappan did, however, travel to South Africa and Georgia between January and May 2017. It is still unknown what Kappan’s visits were about or the purpose of his visit. The terror suspect obtained a Georgia visa during this time.
Recently arrested PFI national leaders provided NIA officers proof of their ISIS connections. These senior PFI leaders acted as ISIS recruitment agents in Kerala. Additionally, PFI set up special workshops to propagate ISIS orientation to Muslim youngsters all over Bharat. They aimed at radicalization.
Kanakamala ISIS Module
The NIA voluntarily filed a case on 1 October 2016 against nine terrorists in the infamous Kanakamala ISIS recruitment case. Mohammad Polakanni was found guilty earlier this week and handed a seven-year rigorous prison term and a fine of three lakh rupees.
In early 2018, Polakanni, working abroad, left Saudi Arabia for Georgia to join ISIS. Like Kappan, Polakanni too is from Kozhikode. Polakanni intended to relocate to Turkey before entering Syria via the border. He was taken into custody and sent back to India by Georgian officials. On 18 September 2020, authorities apprehended the terrorist at the Delhi airport.
Polakanni, influenced by the Islamic State, joined a group that wanted to commit violent crimes across Bharat. They established the terrorist organization “Ansar-ul Khilafah-KL” and shared information about the militant actions of ISIS on social media. They concentrated their efforts in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The accused plotted and met near Kanakamala in the Kannur district. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, they prepared plans for targeted killings of eminent judges, police personnel, and politicians. These terrorists also discovered easy prey in the form of outsiders, mainly Jews, and recced tourist spots.
Unfortunately for them, in 2016, the NIA busted the ISIS group from Kanakamala and arrested six. A terrorist named Siddiqul Aslam was later deported from Saudi Arabia with the aid of Interpol and was apprehended at the Delhi airport. He is from the Thiruvananthapuram neighborhood of Vembayam.
While another terrorist Shajeer was killed in Afghanistan, six accused were convicted by the Ernakulam NIA court in November 2019. While the prime accused, Mansidh Muhammad, was sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment, others received punishments between three and ten years.
Siddique Kappan & KUWJ
Siddique Kappan was implicated in a criminal offense and arrested in late 2020. He was on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh to ferment communal trouble and violence. A group of radical Islamists with a criminal past accompanied him. NIA later found and arrested other jihadis who provided the funds for the trip.
In late December 2022, the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Kappan in a money laundering case. He has several charges against his name. The terror suspect needs to find two persons to stand as sureties which no one in his right senses is ready to provide.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), which has been fighting for his release all this while, welcomed the order but said it was delayed. “KUWJ will keep fighting till Kappan’s innocence is proved,” R Kiran Babu, General Secretary of KUWJ, said in a statement. Why is KUWJ interested in baling out a terror suspect lodged in the Lucknow district jail?
At the time of his arrest, Kappan was not involved in print or visual media but was the Delhi Correspondent for Azhimukham online magazine. Analysts have long pointed out that anti-establishment/anti-national Azhimukham is nothing but Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s (JIH) mouthpiece. This was when the KUWJ made him the Delhi Press Club Secretary. Interestingly, Kappan won the KUWJ elections unopposed.
After his arrest, KUWJ moved a Habeas Corpus petition on Kappan’s behalf. Since when did KUWJ begin bailing out those implicated in criminal cases? Except for Kappan’s court case, the number of criminal cases that the KUWJ participates in is zero.
Contrary to several court directives, KUWJ representatives openly claim that charges against Kappan are mere allegations. They arranged Kapil Sibal, who charges no less than rupees thirty lakhs per sitting. KUWJ also got involved in the anti-national Mediaone channel case. They were represented by Mukul Rohatgi, whose sitting charges are rupees forty lakhs plus expenses.
Suspiciously, another court case regarding Wage Board recommendations is fought by local advocate Thampan Thomas in the Kerala High Court. These remuneration proposals affect every journalist in Kerala. KUWJ also refuses to help reporters who were illegally dismissed from service. They will not take up the cause of such co-workers with media management. It shows where their priorities lie and that dark forces are working behind the scene.
What is the source of income to pay these high-profile advocates who try to protect terrorist suspects? Why are journalists who question this discrimination immediately dumped from the KUWJ? What are such dealings shrouded in secrecy? Membership of those reporters who challenge such illegalities is not renewed. This is why everyone suspects that the KUWJ is an anti-national mafia organization.
Another case is pending in Kerala High Court against KUWJ for swindling rupees twenty-five lakhs of public funds in the name of the Delhi Press Club. The Accountant General found that KUWJ laundered rupees two and a half crores. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan is using those accounts to frighten and coerce these leading Kerala journalists.
A KUWJ march arranged to oppose the Kerala Governor in Delhi garnered just 16 so-called journalists. Many leading reporters from Kerala were conspicuous by their absence. All this confirms what political observers have long opined; that KUWJ journalists are nothing but Jamaat-e-Islami spokespersons masquerading as Marxists, liberals, and human rights activists.
References
- https://youtu.be/FZvLyncE5HY
- https://youtu.be/-HVWzoHH17E
- https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2020/nov/03/nia-nabs-founder-member-of-ansar-ul-khilafah-kerala-2218599.html
- https://malayalam.news18.com/news/kerala/seven-years-imprisonment-for-accused-in-kanakamala-is-recruitment-case-jk-gh-576480.html
- https://www.janmabhumi.in/news/india/kappen-isis-syria
- https://www.siasat.com/justice-delayed-but-happy-siddique-kappans-wife-on-grant-of-bail-to-him-2486992/
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