Investigation launched after 6-member Kerala family departs Dubai to Yemen

Kasaragod: National investigation agencies are looking into Padanna in Kerala's Kasaragod district after hearing that a six-person family and two youngsters from the village have relocated to Yemen. In the Kasaragod district, Chandera police recently reported a missing person. The family from Udinoor of Padanna panchayat had moved from Dubai to the war-torn West Asian nation after residing in Dubai for the previous ten years, according to police officials.

Muhammed Shabbir, his wife Rizwana, and their four children, who range in age from one to eleven, have been identified as the six-member family, but the identity of the other two people is unknown. The case will shortly be turned over to the National Investigative Agency, said police officials at Chanderala station who spoke to TNM but who stated they couldn't provide any further details.

To explain the reason behind their decision to relocate to Yemen, Muhammed Shabbir posted a video online. “Everybody has role models. Like some of you may have role models such as Messi and Ronaldo, my role model is Habib Omar Thangal (Habib Umar bin Hafiz is a Yemeni Sunni and Sufi Islamic scholar). I have come here to learn from him. I have come here to study Sufism from him, I have no other intentions,” he said in the video. He also said that he was at Dar al-Mustafa, a Yemeni Islamic university at Tarim in Hadhramaut.

The charges were also refuted by Shabbir's Padanna relatives, who said that the family was in regular contact with them and had not reported Shabbir missing. “Ever since the news spread we have been under severe pressure. His mother fell sick, we had no complaints as they were not missing. They contacted us, they went there for spiritual studies, not for any other anti-national activities,” said a relative while speaking to TNM.

In 2015, the Indian government evacuated its citizens from the nation's capital Sana'a and moved its embassy to the neighbouring nation of Djibouti because of severe conflict in the region. Indians cannot cross the border without specific authorization since that time. A Keralite team of 14 people, including families and young children, attempted to enter Yemen through Salalah in Oman in March 2022. However, they were refused entry and sent back. The group was taken back to India. They had admitted to the security personnel that they wanted to study religion.

According to reports, all 21 of the Keralites who went missing in 2016—including couples and young children—joined the Islamic state. 17 of them came from the Padanna neighbourhood of Kasaragod and the nearby village of Trikaripur. The majority of the group's men died, and their widows and kids are still in Afghanistan.